140th Birth Anniversary: Textile Artist Yamaga Seika

Preview: written before the show opened

Stand close to the 1958 wall hanging Constellations, Moon, Rocket and you can see how it was made. The rocket and its exhaust are woven densely in the weft, while the stars around it are picked out lightly with the warp, on a piece over three metres tall. Yamaga Seika (1885-1981) did every step alone, from design and thread to the loom, and called the method "hand-woven brocade".

This is Yamaga's first retrospective in 40 years, arriving from the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, with major works beside weaving cartoons and archive material. The subjects range from celestial maidens and cloud dragons to locomotives, rockets and Tokyo Tower, and the commissions from temple banners and festival hangings to theatre curtains and passenger-ship interiors.

Tickets are 1,600 yen, 1,100 yen for students, free for middle school and under. The gallery is by Tokyo Station's Marunouchi North gates, open until 20:00 on Fridays, closed Mondays except 22 March and 5 April.