Highlights
Shokoku-ji Jotenkaku Museum 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Legacy of Zen Temples: Shokoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto
Over the centuries, Zen Buddhism and its institutions have served as a catalyst for the creation and preservation of Japanese art. Zen monasteries have built up extraordinary collections of artworks and transmitted them from generation to generation. This is especially the case for one of the most prominent monasteries in Japanese history, Kyoto’s Shōkoku-ji.
Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theatre in Japanese Prints
The exhibition ‘Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints’ is currently on view in Washington, DC, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA; 23 March–6 October 2024). The origin of the exhibition dates back more than fifteen years but was buoyed into reality by two major acquisitions.
‘東海道 Tōkaidō: Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige’ at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Hiroshige exhibition is a rare treat for enthusiasts of Asian art in Canada. Unlike our American neighbours , who frequently host Asian art exhibitions, Canadian institutions seldom showcase such focused displays.
Fascinating Characters: The Art of Writing and Text Cultures in East Asia
The significance and relevance of the art of writing compellingly lends this subject to the opening presentation in this gallery. Calligraphy is omnipresent in East Asia, where writing systems are crucial.
A Lonely Odyssey: The Life and Legacy of Alma M. Karlin
Karlin was by no means the first woman to travel around the world alone, but she was one of the first women to travel on her own for such an extended period.
The Abstract Prints of Hagiwara Hideo
In 1954, the Japanese oil painter Hagiwara Hideo (1913–2007) turned to woodblock printmaking after falling ill with tuberculosis. Right from the start his prints were abstract in style, which made his reputation abroad as well as in Japan.
An Interview with Japanese Painting Collectors Robert and Betsy Feinberg
In this interview Yukio Lippit, co-curator of the exhibition ‘Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection’ (14 February–26 July 2020) at the Harvard Art Museums, talks to the Feinbergs about their almost half-century of collecting.
The Namazu-e Album at the Royal Ontario Museum and Its Online Exhibition
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada, owns an accordion-style album containing eighty-seven woodblock prints depicting and satirizing social situations after a large earthquake hit the city of Edo (today’s Tokyo) in 1855. An online exhibition of this album, Aftershocks: Japanese Earthquake Prints, which displays a selection of forty-two prints, was launched on the ROM website in November 2022 and will be available for several years.