[1] Alongside his artistic activity, he worked as a framer and became recognized when he framed masterpieces by Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh.
[2] Among the artists who commissioned Kaminagai's frames were Henri Matisse, Kees van Dongen,[3] Chaïm Soutine[4] and Marc Chagall.
In 1941, he set up a studio and framing workshop in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, on the first floor of a building where the painter Djanira da Motta e Silva had a boarding house.
[8] In 1945, the painter Tikashi Fukushima was living in São Paulo and working in a workshop when he was introduced to Kaminagai by his boss, who at the time was in need of an assistant in a frame shop in Rio de Janeiro.
Mabe tells that he spent hours next to the artist "admiring the wonderful colors with which he painted a macaw, on the veranda of Doctor Honda's house.
Cândido Portinari also praised Kaminagai's work, saying that he "carried out his true training as an authentic artist during 15 years of study in Paris.
[2] According to historian Aracy Amaral, the colors of the Brazilian landscape had a great impact on Kaminagai's work, who said: "I like to travel a lot because of my way of life.
According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Kaminagai is "one of the last representatives of the bohemian life that artists led in Paris", because he had no time to work and often spent all night to get a new color for the painting.
He exerted a profound influence not only on a group of young (now famous) Japanese artists, but also on some painters who assimilated his style at one point in their evolution".
As for his painting style, Azevedo wrote that "with strong tones, marked brushstrokes, and loose strokes, he creates a vigorous world.
From the French scenes to the house gate in Rio or the light-filled interiors, in everything a happy life shines and a brush stroke with emphasis and sensitivity asserts itself".
[20] One of them, held at MASP, received the comment of art critic Mário Pedrosa, who said that Kaminagai's work "is made of milestones of spontaneous realizations that appear and evaporate soon after.
Among the artists from Japan she mentions Tadashi Kaminagai and Tikashi Fukushima, and adds that the Japanese had an extra difficulty due to the suspicion that they were spies in the service of the Axis.
[23] In the same exposition there was also a section of documents, with photographs of the artists in Brazil, newspapers of the time, caricatures and manuscripts, with highlight to the letter that Foujita wrote to Portinari presenting Kaminagai.
[13] In the 2010 book "Arte brasileira: cortes e recortes: leilão de maio de 2010" (English: Brazilian Art: Cuts and Clippings: May 2010 Auction) by Frederico Morais, the author describes the style and intensity of Kaminagai's work as follows: "The Fauve painter was a typical representative of the School of Paris, expressing his themes, above all, through color, which was always vibrant in him.
From then on, the presence of the landscape, along with another recurring theme, the flower, symbol of his attachment to life, friends, family, and, above all, to painting itself, a source of pleasure and joy.
He knew how to capture and transmit in his paintings the diversity of our landscape: the green and quietness of the Amazon, the bustle and brightness of Rio de Janeiro's beaches, the colorful architecture of Salvador and São Luís.