THE PARADOX OF becoming an artist is that the aspirant has to copy and learn from past and contemporary examples, while seeking an original creative voice. In Japan, there's an additional problem. In their quest to acquire a new vocabulary of expression, many young artists introduce foreign elements into their artwork rather than achieve true originality. Although it creates the required local sensation, such artwork, once introduced to a wider international audience, may end up looking derivative and uninspired.
Despite the technical skills and application that Japanese artists have always possessed in abundance, this has been a recurrent problem for the nation's modern art since its inception. It's also a problem that isn't going away, if the derivative mish-mash of art-college styles usually encountered at the annual shows held to introduce fresh art and artists to the public are anything to go by.
Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art's Annual 2006 showcase suggests there may be an antidote to derivativeness. This year, the curators have focused on young contemporary artists working within the framework of Nihonga, a self-consciously nationalistic style of art that arose at the turn of the 20th century as a reaction to the inroads of western art.
The exhibition's English subtitle, No Borders, is a sappy appeal to ex-pats; the Japanese title translates as 'From Nihonga to Nihonga', making the curators' intent clearer.
Last year's theme was gender; the year before, it was identity, says curator Hiroko Kato. 'We decided to give it a Nihonga theme this time because we thought the works should serve as a new picture of Japan.'
Unlike the terms gender and identity, which open up in many directions, Nihonga has a concrete artistic meaning, referring to specific materials, methods, styles and subject matter. This provides consistency and also acts as a kind of screen or filter protecting the artists from being overly derivative.