Okamoto Taro is one of Japan's most famous post-war artists. Returning from the artistic and social ferment of 1930s Paris followed by four years spent on the China front, Okamoto was astounded by an encounter with the hitherto virtually unknown artefacts of the Jomon period (ca 8000-300 BC) at the Tokyo National Museum. He went straight home and started work on An Essay on Jomon Art which he published the following year.

The exhibition running until the end of January at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, in the words of the English language handout, "introduces from diverse perspectives the art of Taro Okamoto, the discoverer of the magic and beauty of Jomon earthenware and clay figurines". As well as sculpture and paintings by Okamoto that "pursued the roots of art and Japan", there are real examples of Jomon "art" on display, worth the price of admission by themselves.

Patterns like waves surging high and low, following wildly, rising and falling and circling. Persistently repeated tension. And purely permeated sensitivity. The art is so striking that even I, who continually insist that supernatural power is the nature of art, want to cry out.

One might compare the revelatory quality of Okamoto's fascination with his own country's stone-age art with the influence of African art on Cubist art at the beginning of the century and its expression in such works as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. After all, during his time in Paris Okamoto was an associate of not only such luminaries as Mondrian, Miro and Arp, but Picasso himself. However, whereas the Cubists had virtually no anthropological interest in the carvings they used for inspiration, Okamoto's nascent interest in Jomon earthenware served as a point of departure.

Having studied under the great French scholar Marcel Mauss, Okamoto was in a perfect position to conduct an anthropological study of his own native culture. A large part of Okamoto's fame rests on a series of books he published from the late 50s on with titles such as Japan's Legends, and Forgotten Japan, a study of the culture of Okinawa. In doing so he caught the wave of resurgent passion for the past that swept Japan after the post-war interlude of out-ward-ness. It is tempting to put his fame down to his domestic social role in introducing Japanese, as it were, to themselves, and difficult to avoid speculating as to where the majority of viewers locate the appeal of his artworks.

Included in the ticket price is entry to the permanent collection which until March 24th has a "Profile of Masters" exhibition: works by Henry Moore, Andy Warhol, Ikeda Masuo, Frank Stella, and Okamoto Taro himself, including stool-sculptures which viewers are invited to try out.

The exhibition Taro Okamoto, The Discoverer of Jomon Art continues until Jan 31. Click here for more details