Shiseido Gallery will present From When Is Now? — Settai Komura and Takuro Tamayama from Tuesday, November 3, 2026, to Sunday, February 28, 2027. The exhibition brings together the work of Settai Komura (1887–1940), an artist active during the Taishō and early Shōwa periods, and Takuro Tamayama (b. 1990), a contemporary artist whose installations combining sculptural forms, light, video, and sound have attracted attention in Japan and abroad. At Shiseido Gallery, which has witnessed Ginza’s transformation since opening in 1919, the work of these two artists comes together across nearly a century, bringing Komura’s way of seeing into the present.
Settai Komura studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts) and became a leading figure in a wide range of fields during the Taishō and early Shōwa periods, from Nihonga, illustration, and book design to design and historical research for the stage and screen. His association with Shiseido began with his work in the company’s Design Department [1] (later the Advertising Department), where he was based from 1918 to 1923. Even after leaving the company, he continued to play a significant role in establishing the foundations of the Shiseido typeface and Japanese logotype, both of which remain in use today. His modern, delicate style, with its distinctive use of negative space, is said to have much in common with the Shiseido style that endures today.
“As I think of the Buddhas
I have visited and prayed before since this morning,
listening to the sound of insects,
I can no longer tell
whether the present is now or long ago.”
— Settai Komura, “Visiting Ancient Temples,” Modan Nihon, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1, 1937
The exhibition’s main title, From When Is Now?, is drawn from the line “I can no longer tell whether the present is now or long ago” in Komura’s late essay “Visiting Ancient Temples.”
Komura’s work is characterized by its distinctive use of negative space and the overlapping layers of time woven into it. The space of Shiseido Gallery is also rich with layers of time accumulated alongside Ginza—the district where Komura once worked, and which has continually created new forms of beauty and culture while retaining its distinctive elegance. With Tamayama’s new installation in this space, the boundary between present and past gradually begins to dissolve as viewers move through it and the work responds to their passage. When two sensibilities separated by nearly a century overlap, to what time do the countless imaginings that emerge between them belong? As viewers bring their own memories and perceptions into this encounter, another “now” begins to take shape.
The exhibition is curated by Jin Qiuyu, an emerging curator with an international practice. It features a new installation by Takuro Tamayama alongside three items by Settai Komura from the Shiseido collection.
[1] Shiseido’s Design Department
Founded in 1916 by Shiseido’s first president, Shinzo Fukuhara, the department brought together emerging young artists to create posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, packaging, and other designs. Its early members included Settai Komura, Sue Yabe, and Yutaka Misu. Later renamed the Advertising Department, it evolved into what is now the Creation Department within the Art & Creation Division.
