Hidari Zingaro

On April 28, 2010 Takashi Murakami and his art management firm Kaikai Kiki opened the gallery Hidari Zingaro, located on the third floor of Nakano Broadway, just near the elevators. On display are pieces of furniture, artworks and bits and bobs selected by Murakami himself. Most of the items on display also happen to be for sale. The gallery’s namesake was genius sculptor from the Edo period; his last name, hidari, hints at his very pre-punk ideology, and his first name, zingoro, was the Edo period word referring to the Gypsies of Europe: the perfect name for an artist hell-bent on the pursuit of freedom. Murakami has hacked the name even further by using the Kanji for those ubiquitous creatures of the night, the moth (蛾, ga), and the wolf (狼, ro), in his choice of spelling for Zingaro.