Page 33 - Studio International - November 1965

Taro Okamoto

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books and a number of essays by Taro which were
published from 1954 onwards. The books include (I
give English translations of the Japanese titles): The
Art of Today (1954), Art and Youth and The Traditions
of Japan (1956), The Rediscovery of Japan (1958),
The Forgotten Japan-concerning the culture of
Okinawa (1961 ), and My Contemporary Art (1963).
From 1952, the scope of Taro's artistic activities began
to expand remarkably. His mosaic mural, Creation, for a
Tokyo Subway station, was the first in a long series of
mosaic and ceramic relief murals, including large-scale
works for several theatres, factories, department stores,
railway stations and other public buildings. He created
twelve complete walls in ceramic relief for the new
Tokyo Town Hall (1956), and a three-sided mosaic
mural for one of the stations of the Tokyo National
Railways (1959).
In 1959, too, Taro first began to create sculpture: his
16 ft. high stone figure Animal was commissioned for a

recreation park in Tokura, northern Japan, that same
year. He also entered the field of stage design during
this year, being responsible for the decor of the opera
Lohengrin presented in the open air at the Tokyo
National Stadium, and two years later, for the Kabuki
drama Totobuki Futari Sambaso at the Toho Theatre.
Just before leaving on a long voyage in 1963 which
took him through France, Italy, the United States and
Mexico, Taro completed two separate projects. He
created a soaring, tenderly poetic sculptural monument
to his mother, Kanoko, which was set up in November
1962 on a hill overlooking the river Tamajawa in the
region where she had been born. And, in a more
frivolous spirit, he designed a 100 ft. high aluminium
monolith which was erected at Christmas time (a
festival celebrated by Japanese Shintoists and Budd­
hists with great glee) in the huge square fronting
Tokyo's lkebukoro Station-a glorious, gleaming
Merry Pole (as he named it) cunningly illuminated
from within, a marvellous, magical apparition at night.
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