In the fall and winter of 2008, the nearly simultaneous opening of a number of commercial galleries in an area running east-west around Kyoto Station generated a considerable amount of attention. Commercial galleries differ from rental galleries in that they present special exhibitions organized by the owner. Among the galleries that have come to the area are Kodama Gallery, formerly based in Osaka; Voice Gallery pfs/w, which relocated from Kyoto’s Kawaramachi Imadegawa to Higashi Kujo, south of Kyoto Station; and the Tokyo-based Tomio Koyama Gallery and Taka Ishii Gallery, which opened a new joint space in Hanaya-cho, north of the station. It’s not unusual for new galleries to appear, but in Kyoto, most of them are concentrated in the Okazaki district near the National Musem of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, or in the bustling Kawaramachi area. To get a better sense of this trend in the city, I went to meet the owners of each of the new galleries.

Just after Kodama Kimiyoshi, the owner of Kodama Gallery, decided to move to Kyoto, he invited Koyama Tomio, of the Tomio Koyama Gallery, to join him. So in a way, the emergence of these new galleries was inspired by Kodama. He originally established his gallery, which specializes in contemporary art, in Osaka’s Hommachi district in 1999. In 2004, Kodama opened a second space on Kagurazaka in Tokyo which, in January 2008, moved to the Shirokane area of the city. Kodama apparently started to think about moving to Kyoto around that time, as he explains, “I’m committed to staying here [Kansai] for the long term. My parents live in Kyoto and a lot of artists do too. So it started to seem kind of meaningless to have a gallery in Osaka.” Moreover, Kodama says that he had decided that if he was going to do something in Kyoto if would have to be in the Kujo area, “At this point, I had absolutely no interest in moving into a machiya [traditional wooden townhouse] or a multi-tenant building. The only place for me was south of the station because I could be sure of finding a cheap, big space.”

The location, in Higashi Kujo, is a 20-minute walk from Kyoto Station and about seven minutes by car from the main shopping district, but according to Kodama, “It’s the perfect spot for an avant-garde art outlet.” He continues, “In Soho or Chelsea in New York, and also in London, the gallery districts are away from the center of the city in an area where land prices are cheaper, and it’s easier to find large spaces. And since it’s also easier to develop a closer link with the neighborhood, these places are more likely to become outlets for the latest art in the world. Also, they’re places that weren’t developed in the past. That’s another attraction. If I’m going to go to the trouble of doing something new, I want to be a pioneer in a new place.”

After finding this spot in May 2008, Kodama quickly began renovating the space and opened his new gallery on October 29. He created exhibition spaces on the first and second floors of the building, which was originally a foundry. Inside, there was a crane and other equipment that had been left behind, making it necessary for the artists to put a little more thought into planning and showing their works. In fact, the artist who was showing at the gallery when I interviewed Kodama decided to display some drawings in addition to his regular paintings in order to create a more all-inclusive space.

Kodama says he invited Koyama to come to Kyoto soon after he decided to make the move himself. Part of the plan was to create a ripple effect by having several galleries in the same area.

The Tomio Koyama Gallery maintains two spaces in Tokyo, and focuses on showing work in foreign art fairs. With a list of artists that includes such famous names as Nara Yoshitomo and Ninagawa Mika, the gallery is one of the top “companies” in the gallery industry. Koyama admits that he had never planned to open a branch in Kansai, but “when Kodama got in touch, I thought it sounded interesting and quickly changed my mind. Kyoto has historically been a center for culture and it seemed like it was also any area that would be open to new things. And there are also lots of artists and art schools here.”

This in turn inspired Koyama to invite Ishii Takayuki, of the Tokyo-based commercial gallery Taka Ishii Gallery, to share a building with him in Kyoto. On November 20, 2008, not long after Kodama opened, the two Tokyo galleries were launched in Hanaya-cho, north of Kyoto Station. On the first floor is Koyama’s TKG Editions Gallery Shop, and on the second are two large spaces, enabling the galleries to hold separate exhibitions at the same time or in turns. The building was originally a dyeing factory run by the Rokujo Mushi company, and like Kodama, the new tenants decided to use the building as it was (crane, corrugated roof, and all), and leave the plywood floor paneling exposed.

The neighborhood, home to the expansive Higashi Hongan-ji temple complex, has retained its old townscape. There are almost no galleries that handle contemporary art in the area. Koyama comments, “The transportation access is good in Kyoto. Of course, Osaka and Kobe are nearby, but Nagoya and Kanazawa aren’t that far away either. People always tell me that renting a place close to the station makes it easier for visitors to come from all over the place.”

On December 25, 2008, Voice Gallery pfs/w, which had been in Kamigyo Ward for many years, relocated to the Higashi Kujo area, about a five-minute walk from Kyoto Station. Established in 1986, the gallery has for the most part presented special exhibitions organized by its owner, Matsuo Megumi, who is well known for her close links to Dumb Type and other Kansai artists. Matsuo had apparently started looking for a new location about three years ago, and having heard that Kodama was coming to the area at just the time that an old acquaintance, the overseer of the current building, invited her to make the move. The new site was also a former factory. There is a large service entrance in the building, which was used for dyeing, and once again, a crane. After the move, Matsuo changed the gallery’s name to Matsuo Megumi+Voice Gallery pfs/w. The type of visitor who comes to the gallery has also apparently changed, but an increasing number of them buy works.

Matsuo says, “In this area, I thought it would be possible to open a space where I could something new. I guess I wanted to stir things up or develop something new based on a business sensibility that was different from galleries of the past in Kyoto, where things are so often limited to insiders and locals.”

I wanted to find out more about the relationship between Kyoto culture and the area. As I mentioned at the outset, Okazaki is well known as a cultural zone. Centering on Heian Shrine, built to commemorate the transfer of Japan’s capital to Kyoto, the area is home to the National Musem of Modern Art, Kyoto (opened in 1963), and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (opened in 1933) as well as many old and established galleries. But to cultivate the strength needed to produce new, avant-garde art, and as Matsuo suggests, increase artists’ ability to engage with society, it is clear that the time is right for a change.

The area south of Kyoto Station, along the west bank of the Kamo River between Shichijo and Kujo, is residential rather than being a busy shopping district like Shijo Kawaramachi, and hasn’t yet been developed in urban-planning projects. Here, there are warehouses and factories that are no longer in use, providing potential galleries with large, open spaces. Another cultural attraction is the Kamo River, which flows nearby.

Viewed in a historical context, the river has always been closely linked to culture. The Kamo is a literary river, which is mentioned in the ancient Manyoshu poetry anthology, and Tales of Ise. And in the Tale of Genji, there is a description of the Aoi Festival, which takes place at nearby Shimogamo Shrine, as seen from the riverbank. Kabuki, once a riverside show, also has its origins in the Minami-za Theatre in Shijo, and the Kamo plays a ritualistic role by providing purifying water for the portable shrines used in the Gion Festival. In Kyoto, traditional culture continues to exert an influence on the present, but unless new things are adopted and creative activities encouraged, nothing will develop. With this in mind, the Tale of Genji 1,000th Anniversary Committee declared November 1 the Koten no Hi (Day of the Classics). The group’s effort to “inspire new cultural creativity through the classics that resonates with the intelligence of the wider world” provides an instructive example. And from this it’s clear that the Kamo River is a symbol of cultural development and creativity.

As Kodama mentioned, the new surge of galleries is somewhat reminiscent of the situation in other countries. In the 1970s, land prices in New York’s Soho district, a haven for artists, rose, and many galleries relocated to the comparatively dead Chelsea area to create a base for new art. From there, acerbic expressions of contemporary art emerged that dealt with differences in places and lifestyles, and disparities between the rich and the poor. The neighborhood around Kyoto Station also seems to have the markings of a vital center for new art.

Following the completion of the current Kyoto Station complex, designed by the architect Hara Hiroshi, in 1997, department stores and retail shops increased. And although the station inspired business just as Rajomon Gate did in the Heian Period, in terms of culture, the area is still largely undeveloped. Not only does it take about one hour to walk from Tomio Koyama Gallery to Kodama Gallery, the atmosphere of the areas to the north and south of the station differ greatly, making it difficult to refer to the district as a unified whole. Still, in the sense that everything is around the station, it is an advantageous location. Though things are spread out, as the area grows stronger, it is likely to emerge as a base for new art and other interesting developments.

The gallery owners are also hopeful for the future. Koyama says, “I hope that information can be exchanged in a more organic way through links between the artists and galleries as well as other people and areas.” While Ishii comments, “If more galleries open in the area, I think it might turn into something like Bakuro-cho in Tokyo. Of course, it’s very important to continue what we’re doing. It’ll take at least five years before we’ll know what will happen.”

It had been well over a year since the galleries moved to the area when I visited, but it seemed as if the development was stimulating to all concerned – artists, gallery owners, and visitors. Kodama even mentioned that he’d recently talked to someone who was considering opening a new gallery south of the station. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

(English translation by Christopher Stephens)