At Miyazu · 宮津にて

In 2026 Osamu Okuda and Dominique Uldry travelled to Miyazu as artists in residence, in the footsteps of Karl Walser, who was there in 1908. The journey has taken place; the places have been found and photographed. This book records what was seen and brings the project to its close. Your contribution helps to complete it.

In April 1908 Karl Walser and Bernhard Kellermann arrived by steamer in Miyazu, on Japan’s west coast. Walser drew, Kellermann wrote. The drawings survived, and so did the places — but the drawings gave no indication of where they were made. Noriko Matsuda has found the places again, Dominique Uldry has photographed them, the architect Madoka Hatano shows how Miyazu’s old houses are being renewed today, and Osamu Okuda, co-editor of the book, contributes the foreword. The book sets the drawings of 1908 beside the photographs of today, fully in English and Japanese. Its supporters make it possible.

Karl Walser in Japan, 2026

In 2026 two museums devoted a major retrospective to Karl Walser: first the Tokyo Station Gallery (18 April to 21 June), then the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka (4 July to 27 September). Its title was “スイス絵画の異才 カール・ヴァルザー”, roughly “An exceptional talent of Swiss painting: Karl Walser”. Some 150 works were shown, all of them for the first time in Japan. According to the organisers, 72,728 people visited and 5,477 catalogues were sold. The exhibition was accompanied by the catalogue “Karl Walser. Retrospektive in Japan”, 360 pages in English and Japanese, with a foreword by Akira Tomita, director of the Tokyo Station Gallery; according to the Robert Walser-Zentrum it is already in its second printing. On 9 August 2026 the Nakanoshima Museum devoted a symposium to Walser, attended by some 200 people according to the Robert Walser-Zentrum. For a painter who was barely known in Japan before, this is a remarkable success. The interest is there, and 2027 brings his 150th birthday. Now is the moment for this book.

Echo

Crowdfunding

This anniversary book will be published because many people are funding it together. Your contribution goes towards the production of the book — printing, paper, binding and translation — and is not the price of a copy. As a thank-you you receive a copy of the first edition, signed by the editors, and your name in the list of supporters; from CHF 500 also a cliché print after Dominique Uldry, signed and numbered by hand by the photographer: the garden of the Mikami House that Karl Walser drew in 1908. Five tiers, each limited in number.

Tier 1

The book, signed, with ex libris

CHF 120 · €130

1×

Plus your name in the book’s list of supporters. With signature and ex libris by Osamu Okuda.

Limited to 300 places

Contribute · CHF 120

Tier 2

Book and mug

CHF 250 · €270

1×

1×

Plus your name in the list. Porcelain mug with Walser’s kokyu player.

Limited to 200 places

Contribute · CHF 250

Tier 3 · Recommended

Book, mug and print

CHF 500 · €530

1×

1×

1×

Plus your name in the list. The print is signed and numbered by hand by Dominique Uldry; subject: the garden of the Mikami House.

Edition of 60 prints

Contribute · CHF 500

Tier 4 · Patron

Two copies, one large print

CHF 1200 · €1280

2×

1×

1×

1×

Plus your name in the list. Large print, signed and numbered by hand by the photographer; subject: the garden of the Mikami House.

Limited to 25 places

Contribute · CHF 1200

Tier 5 · Benefactor

Named as a benefactor

CHF 3500 · €3700

3×

1×

1×

2×

Named as a benefactor in the book. Two large prints of the Mikami Garden, signed and numbered by hand by the photographer.

Limited to 10 places

Contribute · CHF 3500

Shipping included · Withdraw at any time until the book goes to press · Pay in Swiss francs or euros, by credit card, in Switzerland also by TWINT · Contribute by 31 October 2026 for the low numbers.

What each tier includes

Bernhard Kellermann and Karl Walser: Ein Spaziergang in Japan (1912) and Sassa yo Yassa (1920), Paul Cassirer, Berlin

The original volumes. In 1908 the Berlin art dealer Paul Cassirer paid for his protégé Karl Walser to travel to Japan; the writer Bernhard Kellermann went with him, and on 24 April the two reached Miyazu. The journey produced two books, published by Cassirer and designed and illustrated by Walser: Kellermann’s travel account “Ein Spaziergang in Japan” (A Walk in Japan, first edition 1910) and “Sassa yo Yassa. Japanische Tänze” (Japanese Dances, first edition 1911), with collotypes and etchings after Walser’s studies. “Imagination and objectivity are firmly joined in Walser’s artistic physiognomy,” Hans Trog wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1909. The first contribution at benefactor level receives one copy of each: “Ein Spaziergang in Japan”, 1912 edition, 272 pages, half leather with gilt top edge, ownership stamp on the title page; “Sassa yo Yassa”, third edition 1920, with a colour frontispiece and eleven plates, three of them in colour.

The subject of the cliché print

Dominique Uldry has chosen one photograph for the supporters: the garden of the Mikami House — the same garden Karl Walser drew in 1908. It is printed in landscape format on fine-art paper with a white margin; the photographer signs and numbers every print by hand and sends it himself.

Garden of the Mikami House, Miyazu 2026. The same garden Walser drew in 1908.

The book will later also be available in bookshops. Your contribution goes towards the production costs and is not the price of the book; the signed supporters’ edition is available only here. You contribute directly to the publisher, not through a platform. You then receive access to the supporters’ page with an advance selection of images, a workshop report and the schedule. Payment is in Swiss francs or euros — the currency depends on the country of delivery — by credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), in Switzerland also by TWINT. Shipping is included. The book is dispatched after publication in spring 2027; mugs, T-shirts and prints are sent beforehand. The full amount is due with your contribution. Contributions are not used until the book is passed for press: until it goes to press, you may withdraw at any time and reclaim the full amount. After that, the amount is committed to printing and the book is delivered after publication. Should the book not appear, your contribution will be refunded in full. Within fourteen days of contributing you may withdraw without giving reasons. The cliché print transfers ownership of the object, not reproduction rights. Further questions are answered on the FAQ page.

The journey of 1908

Foreword — Osamu Okuda

The foreword is by Osamu Okuda, art historian and co-editor of the book. He initiated the project, brought the contributors together and obtained archival material from Walser’s circle for the book. In his foreword he considers what the Japanese months meant for Walser’s work.

Okuda has worked in Switzerland since the early 1980s and knows both sides — the research in Bern and the places in Japan.

Karl Walser, Onnagata as Akoya, 1908. Watercolour and pencil, 32.6 × 24.7 cm. Kunstmuseum Bern.

Walser’s Miyazu, found again — Noriko Matsuda

The main essay is by Noriko Matsuda, Associate Professor of architectural and urban history at Kyoto Prefectural University. Through fieldwork and historical photographs she established where Walser stood and matched the drawings to real places in Miyazu. She presented her findings at the Miyazu symposium on 30 August 2026; for the book she adds newly researched archival material.

Her essay shows each identification as a pair: the drawing on the left, today’s photograph on the right. Both are shown with margins, because at this point both are evidence — not atmosphere, but proof. Where an identification is well founded but cannot be proven, the caption says so.

Noriko Matsuda. Photo: private.

Karl Walser, “House with Garden and Pond”, 1908. Pencil, ink and watercolour, 15.3 × 19.2 cm. Kunstmuseum Bern, Verein der Freunde.

Dominique Uldry, Garden of the Mikami House, Miyazu 2026. Veranda, pond and stepping stones stand in the same relation as in the drawing. The same photograph as above, here paired as it appears in the book.

Karl Walser, “Niō, guardian deity of Buddhist temples”, 1908. Pastel, 20.3 × 15.8 cm. Kunstmuseum Bern, Verein der Freunde. This sheet, too, could be matched to a place in Miyazu.

From the teahouse drawings to Akoya

In the upper rooms of Miyazu’s teahouses Walser drew geishas again and again. These sheets cannot be tied to a place and therefore do not belong in the comparative section — in the book they form a group of their own alongside the drawings tied to places.

It is also the best-known group: the later paintings and the plates of “Sassa yo Yassa” grew out of it. In the book the sheets are shown with margins and visible paper edges, in a quiet sequence, with no text on the same page; the captions give technique, dimensions and owner, as far as these have been established.

Karl Walser, Kabuki theatre scene (Akoya), 1908. Oil on wood, 69.3 × 93.5 cm. Gottfried Keller Foundation / Neues Museum Biel.

Karl Walser, Geisha in a kimono with shishi pattern, 1908. Pencil and watercolour, signed and dated lower right.

Seeing where another has seen — Dominique Uldry

Karl Walser, “Japanese Village Street”. Illustration in Bernhard Kellermann, “Sassa yo Yassa. Japanische Tänze”, 1911. According to Noriko Matsuda, the sheet shows the row of houses on the Kyō-kaidō in Miyazu.

Kyō-kaidō, Miyazu 2026. Photograph by Dominique Uldry. The street where Walser stood in 1908 — today.

Houses brought back to life — Madoka Hatano

The photographs are followed by a picture essay by the architect Madoka Hatano. She has lived and built in Miyazu since 1998; with her network she restores the town’s old merchant houses, the machiya, and houses that had stood empty, and brings them back into use.

Among them is the “Chishiya”, the former residence of a kimono merchant, now a meeting place for local residents and visitors. Madoka Hatano is also involved in planning and running the artist-in-residence programme that began in Miyazu in spring 2026.

Madoka Hatano. Architect in Miyazu. Photo: MITEMI.

From all contributions, one book — Digiboo Verlag

The contributors

Bern, 9 September 2026. Dominique Uldry (left) and Osamu Okuda going through the material for the book. Photo: Digiboo Verlag.

What is needed. Foundations, bookshop sales and the publisher’s own contribution cover part of the cost of production, translation and distribution; the crowdfunding, through the contributions of its supporters, covers the rest. There are five tiers, from CHF 120 to CHF 3500; each tier shows how many places remain when you order. Contributions are open until 31 January 2027, after which the book goes to press. Those who contribute by 31 October 2026 come first in the list of supporters and receive the low edition numbers of the cliché prints. Not yet decided? Sign up below and we will let you know when the selection of images is settled.

The book

Karl Walser’s work has been in the public domain since 2014. For the reproductions on this page, originals and permissions are being obtained from the owning institutions. The thank-you gifts use Walser’s kokyū plate from “Sassa yo Yassa” (1920), his drawing of a geisha in a kimono with shishi pattern (1908) and Dominique Uldry’s photograph of the garden of the Mikami House in Miyazu.

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