tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU in Harajuku will host Tide of Youth, a solo exhibition by illustrator and painter Yusuke Saitoh, running from November 21 (Friday) to December 7 (Sunday), 2025.
About the Exhibition
Chuck and the Girl is a lifework series that Saitoh has continued since 2020. The guitar's tone, the vibration of a skateboard, the scuffing sound of sneakers—a Siamese cat named Chuck and a young girl run together through fleeting moments that shimmer on the edge of youth.
The innocence of youth is sometimes precarious, yet dazzling. When the girl becomes an adult, those days will continue to glow softly in the depths of her memory—as proof of the time she endured through pain.
This is both a reflection on the past and a promise for the future.
Alongside the comic of the same name, this exhibition invites visitors to experience the landscape of a story that expands across different mediums.
Artist Profile
Yusuke Saitoh
Illustrator, Painter
Graduated from Vantan Design Institute's Illustration Department in 2003. Since then, he has worked as a freelance illustrator. His work has appeared on Music Magazine covers (April 2008 to March 2014 issues), the poster for Fuji TV drama "Zoku Saigo kara 2-banme no Koi," Mrs GREEN APPLE's "Soranji" jacket, and Nulbarich's "CLOSE A CHAPTER," among others. In 2017, he collaborated with YOHJI YAMAMOTO at Paris Fashion Week. His work spans advertising, book design, CD jackets, and more, both domestically and internationally. He is also the author of the comic series Chuck and the Girl.
Instagram: @saitoh_yusuke
X (Twitter): @saitoh_yusuke
Curator's Message
From Yasumasa Yonehara, Curator
When you look at Yusuke Saitoh's paintings, time stops.
Rather than stopping, the time we've left behind flows back toward us once more.
It is a light far too delicate, precarious, and sincere to be simply categorized as "youth."
That moment everyone has passed through—when we held feelings we couldn't quite put into words, emotions with nowhere to go.
He paints that pain not as longing or nostalgia, but as a "present" that is still breathing.
On the canvas, a girl and a cat run.
It's not a sprint toward the future, but a return to the "time that hasn't ended yet" deep in everyone's memory. The transparent air drifting in the paintings, the slightly dry sounds, the distant scenery beyond their gaze.
The greatness of Yusuke Saitoh as an artist lies in his "sense of distance."
While depicting youth as dazzling yet precarious, he himself never drowns in it. He looks back at that time calmly, yet gently. It is the mature gaze of someone who knows they can never return.
Tide of Youth.
It is the wave of youth, the wave of memory, and the "wave of emotion" that surges repeatedly throughout life.
This exhibition will be an experience of immersing oneself once more in that wave.
Time that has passed has not disappeared.
The breath of those days is quietly here.
Exhibition Details
Yusuke Saitoh Solo Exhibition: Tide of Youth
Venue: tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
Period: November 21 (Friday) to December 7 (Sunday), 2025
Closed: November 25, 26, December 1, 2
Hours: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Opening Reception
Date: November 21 (Friday)
Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
About tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
For curator Yasumasa Yonehara, tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU is operated with the hope that it will become a first step for artists in selling their work.
"Every day, I check social media and visit galleries. When I encounter talented artists, I always reach out to them. Follower count and exhibition history don't matter at all. What matters is whether I truly want to see that artist's exhibition. That is my only criterion."
He calls this place "a place where zero becomes one."
tHE GALLERY HARAJUKU
150-0001
Bellwood Harajuku 1F-C, 3-20-21 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
5-minute walk from Meijijingumae Station
Website: http://thegallery-harajuku.com
Instagram: @the_gallery_harajuku
Curator: Yasumasa Yonehara
Producers: Yasumasa Yonehara / Tomonori Kukuno (Kotetsu Kukuno)
