Depicting Sacred Shinto Dances and Ceremonies
Mist, steam, incense smoke, snow falling thick enough to blur the world — these fleeting presences move through Hiroka Yamashita’s new paintings, drifting across scenes of sacred dances, figures gathered at festivals, snowy landscapes and serene moments by the water. The white vapors shift their shape and never quite let you see what lies behind them. “White Veils,” her second solo exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery, gathers 18 new paintings around these themes.
Yamashita’s work draws on Japanese mythology and animist traditions, often built from her own visits to local rites and festivals. Many of the new paintings center on kagura, the sacred Shinto dances and ceremonies she’s been studying since 2024. White has long been read as a sign of the divine in Japan, and it enters this body of work alongside deep red and black — colors at the heart of older Japanese painting.
Hiroka Yamashita, “Goshintai” (2026). © Hiroka Yamashita / Photo: Yuji Taneki
