Minami Kunzo gallery, Yasuura near Hiroshima

The reason no posts here of late is because I was out of the country. While overseas I visited Hiroshima. In fact Hiroshima Day is today at least in Sydney, it might be the same elsewhere I haven't checked. 

Probably no elaboration is needed but one thing I hadn't thought about is the extent of the blast. About 4km to be exact. If you take a train from the north side of Hiroshima Station (where the bullet trains arrive) you pass along a coastal track to Kure where the Japanese Navy made its ships early last century. Kure is about 25km from the blast zone so the old 19th C buildings it had then are still there today.

I got a cab from Kure and went to Yasuura.

The gallery is a large rambling wooden home and it has a number of display cabinets.

One cabinet even has a fan of golf clubs.

You take off your shoes to walk on the beautiful wooden floors in slippers. The real treasures are out the back. Minami was a very talented Impressionist painter but I had never heard his name before. Some of the drawing is a bit raw but overall the evidence is that he was a master of oil. There were also watercolours of a high quality.

I didn't stay long, walked down the road and had Chinese for lunch then headed further on to the train station (see below).

My sense is that you would conventionally call Yasuura "sleepy". 

Tiny, fuel-efficent cars parked in lots attached to unassuming apartment blocks. Green hills rise up behind. Actually it didn't seem to rain much while I was there in Japan despite the fact that it was the rainy season. Yasuura felt like the sort of place where nothing much happens, even though once upon a time there was a painter living there whose works would suit any European gallery.