Shinoda Toko: Tranquil White
Information
- Number of items exhibited
- Number of works: 22
- Period
- July 3 (Fri.)–September 19 (Sat.), 2026
- Closed
- 2nd and 4th Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays
- Admission
- General ¥1,000 yen; groups (20 or more) ¥800 per person; high school students and younger free of charge
About the Exhibition
In the practice of her ink-painting art, Shinoda Toko often spoke of her inexhaustible fascination with the infinite shades or colors of black and with the tranquil and beautiful white of empty space. Creating works day after day with sumi and paper, she became extremely sensitive to the changing qualities of her materials. In one of her writings, she observed: “When I make a dot or a line in sumi, it seems to me that the white of the paper changes to a different white—that the white becomes even whiter than before.”
When a line or point of sumi appears on the white paper, the blank space is no longer simply empty; it acquires a fresh sense of space filled with the reverberations of black ink. There appears another white brought into being by the power of the black strokes. At the same time, Shinoda discovered within that changed whiteness the presence of a white with unshakable weight and depth.
Lines of sumi on white washi paper breathe new life into the white space around them. Likewise, white lines in gofun pigment traced through a surface of deep black shine rays of light into its depths. In Shinoda’s works, white is not a background intended to spotlight black; it is an indispensable color that shapes space, competing and resonating with black.
This exhibit focuses on Shinoda’s works of white together with black—the eternal white and black that fascinated her throughout her life. The works are chosen to allow us to observe the quiet contest yet rich resonances between the two.