Ogawa Seiyo and the Art of Buddhist Statues

Ogawa Seiyo is a Japanese artist born in 1894 and died in 1960 known throughout the world for his photographs that mainly focused on the representation of Buddhist statues. A passion that led him to create a photography studio - Askaen - specialized in cultural heritage in 1922. Over the years Ogawa has dedicated much of his activities to the study and documentation of the historic city of Nara, a place that is home to eight temples, shrines and ruins, in particular Tōdai-ji, Saidai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, the Kasuga Shrine, Gangō-ji, Yakushi-ji, Tōshōdai-ji and the Heijō Palace which, together with the primeval forest of Kasugayama, form one of the most extraordinary cultural sites in Japan recognized in 1998 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This exhibition focuses on the photographic works of Ogawa Seiyo and his son Kozo and traces the activities of the Askaen Studio, which supported cultural heritage conservation initiatives while elevating the photography of Buddhist statues to the rank of art.