Who are the Kyūshū Art Bloggers

Hello again dear readers and welcome to this section of the blog! By now you probably know how passionate we are about the island of Kyūshū and its vibrant art scene, but we thought it was only appropriate for us to tell you who the people behind the blog are and what our intentions for it entail.

We encourage you to read our first post on the site which offers a brief introduction into Kyūshū art and gives a couple of recommendations for tourist attractions you can visit, so you can better understand the history of art on the beautiful island of Kyūshū.

Our Story

Let us start by telling you that neither one of us is Japanese. We are merely appreciators of good Japanese art, and in particular, Kyūshū art.

We would be lying if we told you that we knew anything about Kyūshū before we found ourselves here. It all started with a wedding invitation; our college friend from Japan was getting married to his girlfriend who’s from Kagoshima and invited us to their special day.

After a long weekend of celebration, we had another week that we decided to spend exploring the island. Working in the creative arts ourselves, we wanted to learn more about Kyūshū art traditions and visit as many museums and galleries as possible.

We were not that familiar with Japanese art, besides knowing the works of a few famous artists and directors, so we were excited to learn from the source itself.

Our first stop was the National Museum of Kyūshū (we know, we’re basic) and imagine our surprise when we learnt that Kyūshū art was in fact developed as a result of foreign artistic influences. In school, we learnt about Japan finally opening to the world in the 19th century, yet the museum claimed otherwise and had the receipts to show for it.

Kyūshū locals indeed pride themselves on living in a vibrant East Asian cultural centre and they are happy to tell you how various art practices and traditions (including the famous Japanese tea ceremony) originated as consequence of the constant movement of people from different cultures.

Following our visit, we began to see the influence of Chinese, Korean, English and Portuguese art in Kyūshū. What’s more interesting is how Kyūshū artists interpreted foreign art practices and used it to create something wholly unique and beautiful.

The Kyūshū art scene itself is famed across Japan and it often hosts various events that bring artists and art appreciators together. We loved the atmosphere, and naturally the art, so we decided to tell the whole world about it in this blog.

Blog Content

Our blog will publish articles concerning Kyūshū art and Kyūshū artists. We want to create an online space as vibrant as Kyūshū itself, so we will try to cover many different topics that would hopefully show you what the island is all about.

We will discuss popular tourist attractions for art lovers, give you information about the latest exhibitions, talk about specific artists, and generally anything to do with art and Kyūshū.

If you live in Kyūshū or you have visited before, we would love to hear your opinion of our works and we would be open to receiving recommendations for future articles.

Thank You

This was our story of how we fell in love with Kyūshū and its fascinating art. We hope you enjoyed reading about our experiences and that you’re now interested in finding out more about Kyūshū art.