Peripheral sentiment Hirofumi Takemoto’s portraits depict female figures inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro’s ukiyo-e prints. However, Hirofumi Takemoto creates a new image by following these famous traditional models and applying a new technique, acrylic on canvas. Takemoto’s intention is to express the relationship between Japanese culture and the Western cultural world. The use of Western techniques to reproduce Japanese models shows the artistic and cultural syncretism present in his work. His reflection is based on the centre-periphery theory developed by Masao Yamaguchi.Hirofumi Takemoto’s artistic references, such as Edward Steichen and August Sander, show the relationship between geographically distant cultural expressions in the age of globalisation. Takemoto wishes to show how certain…