While current living Gutai artists are part of a select few of Japanese artists who have enjoyed international recognition and success in recent years, other past and present Japanese practicing artists have gained nominal international recognition. Ironically for these artists, showing internationally is considered a high priority and is often a pre-requisite for respect and appreciation from its local viewing public. Again, Japanese artists often become established and well-known within Japan only after having exhibited abroad. "This trend started in the Edo period when ukiyo-e artworks interested the Europeans, around 1848~1880," states Kawasaki, "certain ukiyo-e artists enjoyed celebrity in Japan because of their influence on the west." This historic Japanese method of achieving notoriety continues to indicate Japan's interest in producing artworks for international audiences,. This model ironically exacerbates the paradox of Japanese artists clinging to traditional methods while striving for international contemporary recognition.

"The Japanese are very good at copying," muses Mr. Kawasaki. For example, Japanese oil painting, is 'western painting'. Artworks produced in the past were and continue to be influenced by the oil paintings of the French masters. "However," he continues with a smile, "Japanese copies of French painting are as awkward as a foreigner singing Japanese enka folk tunes at karaoke. It is unnatural. To enter the international art scene, we must form an identity that is specifically representative of Japan." Mr. Kawasaki comments that the success of the Gutai group arose because its members produced both vanguard artwork and were also keenly aware of Japanese identity. This awareness was heightened in the new socio-economic order and climate post-World War II in the 1950's. "Current artists perceive history (and art) with a cold detachment, and are only representing the 'Japan' that is defined by people like themselves."

Although Kawasaki states that Japan needs to establish a cultural identity, he realises Japanese identity itself is a complicated concept. To illustrate this concept further, in the essay Others in the Third Millenium, Makiko Hara discusses the notion of Japanese identity being created by external forces, namely the west. She writes:

The image of Japanese people held by non-Japanese is, to put it simply, a fictitious image. French philosopher Marc Guillaume remarks in Figures de l'Altérité that the image of Japanese Otherness is a 'compounded fiction,' and its prototypes are notions of 'apocalypse' and 'escape by technology'. (Hara, 237).

Since the collapse of Japanese economy in the mid-1990s, funding for galleries, museums, and related cultural institutions have been limited. To make things worse for Japanese art galleries, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced plans to privatize the Japanese mail service system in September 2004, ending the way to privatize other government-funded services with a strong possibility that prefectural and civic museums may be reduced due to budget cuts. Such an endeavour would mean employee downsizing and curatorial control being held by elect managers and thus, museum collections would become endangered and may ultimately become the property of the highest bidder. Although Mr. Kawasaki admits that current museum structure of one museum per prefecture and city may be too many, he believes cuts could go too far and sacrifice and learnings as has happened in the past. "The literature museums were closed, and the museum collections were moved to the library. To the dignitaries, all books are the same."

In learning about these factors, one can realise Japanese art may be restrained due in part to cultural and government politics driven by gallery attendance and market demand. The preference for the familiar and traditional in addition to artists and viewers lacking or wanting to create a national identity, plus internal administrative issues all compound the movement and development of Japanese art locally and internationally. According to Mr. Kawasaki, these factors will continue to impede the production of international Japanese artwork, leaving Japan in a potentially cyclical production of artworks for display solely in its own cultural institution. Though for Japanese art, its biggest challenge may be the threat of gallery privatization. Indeed for the medium to move forward, Japan must be willing to re-evaluate its own artistic development on an international scale and then learn to respond. While Japanese art will face many ahead, not even Curator Kawasaki can surmise what changes are possible in the near future. Mr. Kawasaki is certain, however, that the institution of Japanese art will inevitably face great changes in the next few years ahead, and that indeed this will be noted in the history books for all to learn from.

References:
Hara, Makiko. "Others in the Third Millennium." The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002.
Kawasaki, Koichi. Personal Interview. 22 Mar 2005.