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“Polar Summer Night” builds a cultural bridge between Finland and Japan at the Puijo Tower

By on December 23, 2020

Post-war Japanese artist Kaii Higashiyama (1908–1999), best known for his Nihonga style paintings, made a creatively fruitful trip to the Nordic countries in the spring and summer of 1962. While he was visiting Finland, the beautiful nature and exceptional midnight sun inspired him to depict the view that opened from the old Puijo Tower in Kuopio in Eastern Finland. Today, a high-quality digital print of the painting can be seen at the Puijo Tower Café in Eastern Finland.

The painting marks a century-long diplomatic relations between Finland and Japan. A similar high-quality reproduction of Polar Summer Night is housed at the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo. At the Puijo Tower, the work is displayed amid the same scenery that inspired the artist.

“The public can experience the spiritual landscape that deeply affected the artist and, through him, the Japanese. I know that some people even moved to Finland because of this painting,” says Heikki Mäenpää, a cross-media producer and musician who is an expert on Higashiyama.

The highly regarded Polar Summer Night original artwork is held as a national treasure at the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art (MOMAT). The artwork was painted in the traditional Japanese Nihonga style, which differs from oil painting in its use of natural materials and sharpness of detail. The details in the copy on display at the Puijo Tower are just as sharp as the original.

The painting builds a kind of cultural bridge between Japan and Finland. The other copy of the work at the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo opens a view to Finland and its nature. Visitors to the Embassy can be told Higashiyama’s story, and that the landscape depicted can still be seen today from the Puijo Tower, just as it is shown in the picture – now alongside the work itself.

“Higashiyama’s work symbolizes the strong century-old interaction between Finland and Japan wonderfully uniting both countries in art, story and design. We are proud to be able to admire the work and tell its story to our guests at the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo, and it is wonderful that this can now also be done at the Puijo Tower,” said Pekka Orpana, Finland ambassador to Japan, in his greeting to the City of Kuopio.

 

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