1970 marked an important year for Japanese art as the
Expo ‘70 world's fair was held in Osaka to commemorate Japan's Post-World War II exponential economic recovery and rise to major global power status. Although the fair attracted a record-breaking attendance of 64 million people to witness the modern technological, artistic, and cultural marvels of 77 countries (including Japan), Nakahara's organization of the
10th Tokyo Biennale, Between Man and Matter, is perceived as a reaction against Expo ‘70. By applying his background in theoretical physics, Nakahara centered the exhibition around how objects and people interact with one another in a physical space. Since it was held at the
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Nakahara deemed it imperative for the museum itself to be an integral component in the display of the artworks. These site specific pieces purposefully engaged with the structural parameters of the museum's gallery spaces and encouraged audience interactions. For example, Takamatsu's
Thirty-six Oneness is a sculptural assemblage of cedar logs stacked atop one another in a columnar composition to signify the materiality of the wood. Due to the ephemerality of the predominantly site specific works, Nakahara commissioned photographer
Shigeo Anzai to document the entirety of the exhibition for the sake of photographic preservation. Following
Between Man and Matter, Nakahara was invited to oversee and manage the Japanese pavilions at multiple international art festivals throughout the 1970s. Of note, he led the Japanese pavilions at two
São Paulo (1973 and 1975) and two
Venice Biennales (1976 and 1978). Nakahara's interest in non-Japanese artists extended into mainland Asia, particularly
South Korea. In 1972, Nakahara and his colleagues
Yoshishige Saito and Jiro Takamatsu visited South Korea to discover novel approaches to art production that were unique from his previous engagements with Japanese, European, and American artists. He grew enamored with the indigenous movement
Dansaekhwa (also spelled as Tansaekhwa), which is a form of
monochromatic painting that sought to strip Korean art of any references to Western and Japanese painterly influences. Canvases are absent of any representational figures and they are predominantly occupied with swaths of colorfully abstract brushstrokes and wide planes of solid hues. Derived from traditional
Korean ink painting techniques, Dansaekhwa practitioners were interested in the themes of tactility, performance, and spirit as it relates to the physicality of the painted surface. Impressed by the works of
Wong Young-Woo,
Park Seo-bo,
Sun Seung-Won,
Hur Hwang, and
Lee Dong-Youb, Nakahara exhibited their paintings in
Five Korean Artists, Five Kinds of White at The Tokyo Gallery in May 1975.
Five Korean Artists was pivotal as the first exhibition of Korean art in Japan and for its focus on a unique form of monochromatic painting. Although Dansaekhwa was not a formally organized art movement but a stylistic trend, it exposed the art world to this once-obscure art style and revealed the creative advancements underway in the Korean Peninsula. Nakahara briefly served an administrative role as the President of
Kyoto Seika University from 1979 - 1981. From 1982 to 1995, Nakahara directed the curation of multiple exhibitions at the
Ginza-based
LIXIL Gallery whose prominent reputation is grounded in the display of innovative art and architectural designs that blend
Japanese craftsmanship with contemporary home aesthetics. Upon the opening of the contemporary museum
Art Tower Mito in 1990, Nakahara supervised the execution of a groundbreaking exhibition that foreshadowed a rising generation of Japanese artists that would further redefine the art of the 1990s,
The Game of Manners - Japanese Art in 1990. The artists in view included
Yo Akiyama,
Mika Yoshizawa, and
Shigeru Nishina. == Later career ==