青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

Gods, buddhas, spirits, demons, ghosts . . . why are they unseeable? Is it because we are, indeed, better off not seeing them? From early on in childhood, Kaneko Tomiyuki was sensitive to the unsettling presence of the supernatural within everyday life. Now an artist, he bases himself in an isolated village deep in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture, where he dwells as though in communion with the otherworld; he also ventures to mystical sites across Japan and Asia in order to channel the energy of each place and manifest the unseen in his paintings.

This mesmerizing, dimension-traversing collection opens with pages of sketches and notes documenting Kaneko’s imagination since his teens, followed by 200 self-selected artworks presented alongside all-new text by the artist.

Kaneko Tomiyuki, born in 1978 in Saitama Prefecture, earned a doctorate from the Tohoku University of Art and Design. Attuned to the supernatural from a young age, he lives today in Yamagata Prefecture in a remote mountain setting that allows him to feel in close proximity to the otherworld. His travels to mystical places across Asia provide the inspiration for his paintings, which have been shown in venues ranging from temples and shrines to contemporary art fairs. He is represented by Mizuma Art Gallery. In Praise of Embodying the Illusions is his first book.