Yanagi Gallery has operated on the upper floors of a building above Sukiyabashi since the 1970s, which makes it among the older continuously running contemporary galleries in Ginza's concentrated gallery district. The scale is intimate — three or four rooms that show a single artist's work in a focused, unhurried way — and the programme has remained committed to Japanese painters and sculptors whose work doesn't require explanation before entry. Ginza's gallery floors tend to operate without the social pressure of white-cube spaces in other cities: the expectation is that you will arrive, look, and leave without being managed toward a decision. Yanagi follows this register precisely. The elevator opens onto the gallery without announcement; you become aware of the work before you become aware of having arrived.
Ginza, Tokyo, Japan