The Kyoto Series
The “Kyoto Series” emerged from Wendy Maruyama’s six-month residency in Japan in 1995 through a fellowship awarded by the Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission. The series represents the culmination of Maruyama’s initial responses to encountering Japan for the first time—feelings of awe, reverence, familiarity, and nostalgia shaped by both cultural discovery and inherited memory as a Japanese American.
While living in Japan, Maruyama studied lacquerwork at Tokyo University of the Arts, focusing on the traditional practice of urushi. The deep reds, blacks, golds, and layered surfaces associated with lacquerware strongly influenced the palette and material sensibility of the work. These visual references, combined with the architectural forms and contemplative qualities present throughout the series, reflect Maruyama’s growing engagement with Japanese aesthetics and cultural history.
Rather than functioning as literal depictions of Japan, the works in the “Kyoto Series” explore an emotional and psychological response to place—balancing admiration and romanticism with questions of identity, memory, and cultural connection.
