EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Shigeru Komatsuzaki (1915-2001) was known in Japan as a “giant in science fiction illustrations” whose career arc began during the early-postwar years, its artistic and commercial pinnacle coinciding with Japan’s rise as an economic superpower. Komatsuzaki got his start illustrating novels serialized in newspapers and later moved on to paintings used in children’s magazines and other media. Among the principal motifs of his works were warrior tales, aircraft and warships, as well as superheroes, robots and other futuristic designs—all of which helped fire the imaginations of both children and adults alike, inspiring generations of Japanese with dreams of a better future. The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum’s exhibition, “Shigeru Komatsuzaki: Painter, Illustrator and Dreamweaver,” features some 100 of his works and memorabilia, including original paintings, illustrations and writings, “box art” printed on packages of plastic models, and early works as an artist-in-training of traditional Japanese paintings.