Matazo Kayama (1927–2004) was a Japanese-style painter born in Kyoto. He studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and is known as an artist who brought a fresh sensibility to post-war Japanese painting. He tackled a wide range of subjects, including animals, birds and flowers, nudes and landscapes, drawing on the Rimpa school and Japanese decorative aesthetics whilst also incorporating elements of Western painting and a contemporary sense of form. Through his delicate lines, bold compositions and sumptuous canvases that make effective use of gold and silver, he built a unique world that bridged tradition and modernity, and was awarded the Order of Culture in 2003.

Matazo Kayama’s works combine meticulously rendered beauty with a boldness that captures the entire composition. In his works depicting animals and flowers in particular, he does not merely reproduce reality; rather, by refining form and colour, he transforms them into a world that is somehow fantastical and elegant. It is in this reconfiguration of the beauty of classical Japanese art through a contemporary sensibility—and in the way he has reborn tradition into new forms of expression—that one senses the unique charm of Matazo Kayama.