Hi Kai!
I really like both of your designs, but if I have to be brutal, I'd say go with the 1st one. The 2nd one is leaning towards looking like a restaurant menu....but maybe that's just me

I really like the layout of your navigations and how it's so prominent in your design but doesn't take away from the artist. You have SOOOOOO many colors to work with (after looking at his work), so it'll be really fun to see how this design progresses. The only suggestion I have right now would be to have the cherry blossom branch in front of the photo as you did with the text box. Nice work Kai!