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Masami Teraoka

From afar the works of Masami Takaoka look like Japanese woodblock prints, but move in closer and the view is startling. Octopi wear condoms, geisha have AIDS, samurai ogle blond beach bunnies, kimonoed matrons bite into hamburgers. Many of the canvases are huge, floor-to-ceiling in height, painted in watercolors or, more recently, oils; only a few are actual woodblocks.

Like traditional Japanese woodblock prints, Teraoka's paintings tell stories and comment on social conditions, fulfilling a self-proclaimed mission prompting people to think, understand and reflect on life. "I like to bring out the issues, but I am not keen to make judgmental presentations," says the 60-year-old artist, whose exhibit runs through January 2 at the Smithsonian's Sackler Museum of Art in Washington, DC. (All photgraphs shown on these pages are copyright Harrell/Sackler Gallery; they may not be reproduced without permission.)

Born in 1936 in Onomichi, a small town between Hiroshima and Osaka on the Sea of Japan, Teraoka moved to Los Angeles in 1961 to study art. His parents, who ran a kimono fabric store, encouraged the move. "I feel really lucky about that," Teraoka says today. "I felt much closer to American culture philosophically speaking. I think Japan is fine, but the rigid structure and rituals were not my style."

"Tattooed Woman and Flying Saucers";
Here the American woman slurping noodles and the Japanese woman drinking Coca-Cola show a clash of cultures. The flying saucers are diaphragms---an injection of Teraoka's not-so-subtle whimsy

As an art student, Teraoka was inspired by both American pop art and Japanese ukiyoe prints. Especially revered were the arts of the master woodbock artists Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) and Katsushika Hokusai (1759-1849). He mixes traditional motifs with Coke cans, condoms and computers. "Many people think my painting developed in Japan, but not at all. It developed in Los Angeles," he says. "I identify with ukiyo-e as a visual vehicle, but this is an American product."over the past decade---he's had several group shows in Tokyo, with one scheduled in 1997 at the Mitaka Gallery of Art and another being considered for Nagano to coincide with the 1998 Winter Olympics.

It was Teraoka's AIDS series, started in 1986, that marked a turning point in his art and heralded an emerging reputation. His first theme painting (left) was "American Kabuki/Oishiiwa" (literally "delicious" and "a scary female ghost"), a four-panel screen depicting a dying mother and child engulfed in a stormy sea. "Help us, Help us," the calligraphy says, but no one can hear them over the waves. This work, and the succession of others like it, followed Teraoka's discovery that a friend's baby had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. "For the first time I understood that AIDS was not someone else's problem," he said.

A detail from "American Kabuki/Oishiiwa"

Another turning point may be at hand. In his recent works, Teraoka has dropped his signature ukiyo-e style for a more painterly approach inspired by the Gothic and Renaissance masterpieces he saw during a trip to Europe in 1992. His themes remain provocative and solemn---AIDS, Bosnia, drive-by shootings, computers and dehumanization by modern technology.

"Geisha and AIDS Nightmare":
The bluish coloring of the geisha indicates she is ill as she tries to open a pack of condoms

"I'm not pleased with the way the whole world is going...wars, bombings, violence," he says. "I thought by the end of the 20th century we would have evolved enough to stop fighting. We haven't learned much since medieval times. I am disappointed with humans in general. I expected more."

Teraoka in front of "Tale of a Thousand Condoms/
Geisha and Skeleton." Visit his home page.

Carol Simons, who formerly served as publications director for the American Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo, is now a Washington-DC-based writer whose work has appeared in Smithsonian.

This article by Carol Simons is excerpted from Impact 21 magazine (11/96),
published (like this page) by PHP. For order information, click here.

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Updated September 7, 1997