Haru Ishii Tiles – From the Shadows of Kyoto to the Light of Lisbon

Until December 31^st, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo hosts the exhibition “Haru Ishii Tiles – From the Shadows of Kyoto to the Light of Lisbon”.

The exhibition is divided into two rooms. The first one is where the artist claims its Japanese origins and where the environment part is displayed, materializing its roots in shadows - the sea, the rain that feeds the green forests, the fish-based diet, and the culture, such as the ceremony of tea.

In the second space you will find a more vibrant and luminous room, where Ishii recalls the Portuguese-Japanese ties so well portrayed in the namban screens, recovering the voyage of Portuguese ships between continents, sailing seas, surpassing winds and tides, to bring to the West the most exotic and exquisite that Japan has to offer.

Haru Ishii is a Japanese artist who first came across azulejos (tiles) in 1995, when she came to Portugal and spent a month working in a traditional Portuguese workshop, in Palmela.

From then until now she has dedicated all her creativity to this art, uncovering the most hidden secrets of this traditional Portuguese art to recreate and reinvent it in the Japanese style, taking advantage of her cultural roots.

With public works on display in several Japanese cities, from Tokyo to Kyoto, from Shimane to Hiroshima, from Kochi to Okayama, just to name a few, and in addition to a number of collections, at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo in Lisboa, Ishii displays a show that is a synthesis of 474 years of Portuguese-Japanese understanding.