Reopening Exhibition／2026 Taniuchi Rokuro Exhibition １
The Moon’s Glow, the Star’s Twinkle
Cover illustrations for Shukan Shincho and illustrations for Sky in a Bottle

TANIUCHI Rokuro produced the cover art for the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho from its launch in 1956 until his death in 1981, creating more than 1,300 paintings over a quarter of a century. We explore the world of Taniuchi’s cover art by choosing a theme for each exhibition period, selecting a group of paintings for it, to examine his creative world from different perspectives.

In addition, starting with this exhibition period, we will also display works donated in recent years by his heirs and added to the collection, works whose appeal that differs from that of his cover art.

With “The Moon’s Glow, the Stars’ Twinkle” as our current theme, we selected works from his signature Shukan Shincho covers in which he depicted the moon, stars, and night sky. The new additions to the collection introduced are the cover design and illustrations for Bin no Sora (Sky in a Bottle), a picture book for which Taniuchi wrote the text and created the illustrations.

As the sun sets, the stars and moon, not so conspicuous in the sky until then, begin gleaming brightly. Presented by the hand of Taniuchi, with his rich imagination, the moon turns into the electric lights on a Christmas tree or a pingpong ball on a blow pipe, and the stars turn into a projector’s light source or the bubbles inside a soda bottle. He also likens a space filled with the bright light of the moon to outer space or the bottom of the sea, expressing the tranquil, mysterious atmosphere of the night brilliantly. Through these works, we are made to realize that if we just set our imaginations even slightly in motion, the ordinary night sky we see each day can be filled with endless fascination.