Kushino Terrace

Sometimes, it’s the simple stories that stay with us the longest. Like that of Itsuo Kobayashi, a former Japanese soba chef born in 1962 who has recorded his meals in painstakingly detailed, hand-drawn food diaries of sorts for the past 32 years. In addition to recollections about taste, Kobayashi’s pen has accounted for every last spring onion and grain of rice, for the sheer pleasure of tasting life twice…

Kushino Terrace

Kushino Terrace

Kushino Terrace

Itsuo Kobayashi, Untitled (Pop-up Paintings) (2018-19), ink on paper, each piece 9 x 13 x 5 inches. ©Kushino Terrace

We love our Art Brüt here at Messy Nessy, from the spellbinding, secret works of Chicago janitor Henry Darger, to Lee Godie, a “bag lady” to most, until she became Chicago’s most collected artist. But when we attended New York’s Outsider Art Fair this winter, Kobayashi’s work really stood out (literally) in a sea of fresh talent.

©Kushino Terrace

His representation is a gallery called “Kushino Terrace” in Fukuyama, Japan, and they kindly explained a bit more about his life…

It turns out, Kobayashi has been writing about his meals since he was a teen in his bedroom, and it wasn’t until his twenties that he started the first of his now thousand-something drawings. “[He] worked as a chef and at a supply center for school meals in Saitama, northwest Tokyo until he was 46 years old,” they explained, until “[he] began having difficulty walking due to alcoholic neuritis.” Due to the difficulties of his condition, he usually orders take-out or receives meals from his mother – but rather than hinder his imagination, Kobayashi decided to use his time indoors as a means to further stretch his imagination, and cultivate his creative style. “In the blank spaces,” says the gallery, “he adds positive descriptive words about his subjects.”

Itsuo Kobayashi’s artwork at the New York’s 2020 Outsider Art Fair

Kushino Terrace

“In his bedroom at home, in addition to his drawing materials, his bed is surrounded by seashells and crab legs from the seafood he has eaten, as well as by disposable chopsticks, unused condiments that come with packaged meals, and other items.” What we wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall there.

We can’t wait to see what Kobayashi cooks up next. In the meantime, anyone else suddenly craving sesame noodles? Follow us into Tokyo’s Red Light district…