Tokimono,Chikakimono](Guests from afar and nearby), by Suda Kokuta

Suda Kokuta (1906‐1990) was a western‐style painter from Saitama prefecture. After graduating from middle school, Suda taught himself oil painting. He received three Tokusen special awards and had his works accept for exhibition four times in the Nitten exhibition during the pre‐and post‐war periods. Around 1967 he espoused the theories of the abstract painter Hasegawa Saburo, and that encounter turned him towards abstract painting. He was drawn to fundamentally primitive things, those with a sense of Asian spirit. He was particularly taken with Dogen's treatise, Shobo genzo. His expressive powers were freely formed, exceeding the framework known as abstract expression.

This painting was created from the artist's impressions upon the opening of the Shumeikai's Villa Miho in 1986 (architect: Yoshimura Junzo, construction: Nakamura Sotoji office).