Inspired by a recent gift of over 126 artworks by noted collector Terry Welch, this exhibition explores the dynamic modern period (1860s–1930s) in Japanese art, when dramatic changes in society were reflected in the arts, resulting in works of stunning vision and technical accomplishment.

As Japan became part of a larger, modernized world, public education and national exhibitions placed the arts within a larger search for a new identity. Artists rediscovered the past, and upon its bedrock they built a road into the future. Painting, which was traditionally recognized as the highest form of expression, became the vehicle for the new national style of Nihonga, literally “Japanese painting.” Artists in other mediums responded in turn, and as painters collaborated with ceramics and lacquer workshops, a broad-based, neoteric aesthetic rich in innovation emerged.

HoMA’s special strengths in modern Japanese art, with an important collection and a ground-breaking exhibition history, make the museum uniquely situated to present an exhibition on this exciting subject. The exhibition features highlights from a recent major gift of 126 modern Japanese paintings, ceramics and lacquerwares donated by prominent collector Terry Welch. Paintings and objects by artists ranging from early leaders in the modernization of art education, to superstars of the national exhibitions, to independent eccentrics demonstrate the diversity of voices that reinvented the arts with a bold new vision toward the future at the turn of the 20th century.