For immediate release:
Cherry Blossom Party
Chikako Isshiki, Okamoto Mitsuhiro, Ryoko Kimura, Keiko Sakamoto, YoshikoShimada, Rika Nakashima and Takahiro Wada
2022.4.9-4.30
eitoeiko is pleased to announce the exhibition ‘Cherry Blossom Party’ which will
start from April 9. This exhibition will be the third edition of the series from 2019.
Originally the cherry blossom viewing party organized by the imperial family forinternational goodwill. It ended when it was exposed as a hotbed of corruption by thecabinet of Shinzo Abe, who pretended to enjoy the double-flowered cherry blossoms
in the Shinjuku Gyoen. I wonder if there was a successful Japanese painter or theCommissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs among the entertainers and sports
people who enjoyed the event. I don't know whether the invitees took the initiative to
rub elbows with the ruling party or whether they were just being used as a dupe, but
this exhibition will be the cultural sakura viewing party that started by voluntarily
taking care of the aftermath.
This series of the exhibition, in which a variety of artists have participated so far, hastaken a form that could be called a group exhibition, an Oogiri style, or a battle royal,
but the artists' approach to and interpretation of motifs, their contact anddevelopment, and their cooking methods and finishes are astonishing. The director
has set few restrictions other than size in order to show the potential of artists
without any limitation. I request that performances will be difficult to realize due tothe Corona Disaster, and I recommend that the artworks be material in nature. I aim
that the medium of expression will be in different directions as much as possible.
Since Art Tokyo has withdrawn, it would have been nice to have Koto Utsumi'sTreasure Pactry exhibition at the same time this year. However, I think it is the missionof art to connect the world that we cannot keep joking around in the midst of theinvasion of Ukraine. This exhibition is regarded as a fearless exhibition simply because
you see ‘Sakura,’ but I hope that you will avoid unnecessary trips to the outside world
and appreciate it with a spirit of fortitude.
Ei Kibukawa, eitoeiko
Chikako Isshiki
B.1945, Tokyo. BA from Tokyo Uinversity of Arts. Studied at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
Recent exhibitions include Chikako Isshiki and Goh Shigi, Soh Gallery, 2021, Goh Shigi
Chikako Isshiki, 50 years retrospective, Galleria Grafica Tokyo, 2019, and others.
Okamoto Mitsuhiro
B.1968, Kyoto. MAE from Shiga University. Recent exhibitions include CARt SAITAMA
2022, Beside Suizokukangekijou, eitoeiko, 2021, Okinawan Steak, solo exhibition,

eitoeiko, 2021, Unfreedom of expression in Kansai, 2021, and others.
Ryoko Kimura
B.1971, Kyoto. MA from Tokyo University of Arts. Recent exhibitions includeWhereabouts of Japanese Painting, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fie Arts, 2022,Feminisms, 21st century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, 2021, Handsome
Men They Are, Iwami Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art Saitama, 2021, and others.
Keiko Sakamoto
B.1968, Osaka. MA from Tama Art University. Recent exhibitions include 50th
anniversary of the program of overseas study by Japanese Cultural Agency,
Nihonbashi Takashimaya, 2017, YANGON, solo exhibition, Wada Fine Arts, 2015,
Gateway Japan, Torrance Art Museum, 2011, and others.
Yoshiko Shimada
B.1959, Tokyo. PhD from Kingston University, London. Recent exhibitions include
Flame, Ota Fine Arts, 2022, Unfreedom of expression in Kansai, 2021, organized an
online project, Radical Spiritualism, 2021, and others.
Rika Nakashima
B.1995, Aichi. BA from University of the Arts London, Chelsea Collage of Arts.
Currently in Tokyo University of Arts graduate school. Recent exhibitions include I
tower over my dead body, solo exhibition, TOH, 2021, Bodies On The Matter,
Tomotoshi Art Museum, 2021, A City Dreaming, Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Museum,2020, and others.
Takahiro WadaB.1963, Tokyo. Director of Light and Place Wet-plate Photo Studio. Recent exhibitions
include To Travel with Glasses, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Iwami Art
Museum, Aomori Museum of Art, 2018, Photographs in Meiji era, from Dry-plates byEmberson, Verkehr Museum, 2016, and others.
Keiko Sakamoto courtesy of Wada Fine Arts
Yoshiko Shimada courtesy of Ota Fine Arts

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