Aomori-born Shiko Munakata’s 1937 work “In Praise of Tohoku” is a visual prayer on the hardship of life in northern Honshu. The 10-meter-wide set of folding screens features a dense, chaotic wall of semi-abstraction with Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of limitless light and compassion, at its center. The piece shares a grim energy with Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” which was created the same year.
