In the beginning, Womankind was the sun - Weren't we?

May 17 to June 14, 2025

KOTARO NUKAGA Three

KOTARO NUKAGA Three is pleased to announce ‘In the beginning, Womankind was the sun – Weren’t we?‘, an exhibition selected as the first-place winner of apexart’s 2024-25 International Open Call. apexart is a non-profit educational arts institution based in New York City. Curated by Layla Yamamoto and on view from May 17 to June 14, 2025, it is presented with the support of KOTARO NUKAGA Three as its hosting venue.

The exhibition features works by three contemporary Japanese women artists—Yoshiko Shimada, Layla Yamamoto, and Namae Myoji— challenging the patriarchal narratives through historical critique and speculative futures.

The title references pioneering Japanese feminist activist Raicho Hiratsuka’s 1911 article in Seito （Bluestocking）, in which she denounced women’s subjugation in modern Japan, likening the moon to women’s oppressed status and the sun to independence. More than a century later, Japan still ranks 118th out of 146 countries in the 2024 Gender Gap Index, highlighting persistent structural inequality despite constitutional protections. Recently, a Japanese politician sparked controversy by suggesting that women over 30 ought to be required to undergo hysterectomies to pressure younger women to have children, underscoring the continued normalization of state and societal control over women’s bodies. In response to these realities, the exhibition poses urgent questions: Have Japanese women ever truly been independent? And if not, how might they achieve liberation akin to the sun?

Through the works of Shimada, Yamamoto, and Myoji, ‘In the beginning, Womankind was the sun – Weren’t we?‘ challenges institutionalized control over women’s bodies and invites viewers to reimagine a society where women are no longer confined to the subordinate role of the moon.