Tokyo Art Museum to Exhibit Japanese Works from British Museum

Tokyo, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)–The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum will exhibit next year some 200 masterpieces of Japanese art mainly from the British Museum, including “ukiyo-e” traditional woodblock prints and “fusuma-e” paintings on sliding door panels. Titled “Edo in Focus: Japanese Treasures from the British Museum,” the exhibition will be held from July 25 to Oct. 18 at the museum in the Ueno district of the capital’s Taito Ward. Along with ukiyo-e works by famous artists, including Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro, a highlight will be a group of fusuma-e paintings long dispersed across Japan, Britain and the United States, which will be reunited for the first time in about 150 years. The fusuma-e paintings, each on a set of four panels, are: “Shunkei Kacho” (flowers and birds in the spring) and “Meisho Fuzoku” (famous sites and people around there) from the Miyakoshi family in Nakadomai, Aomori Prefecture, “Shuto Kacho” (flowers and birds in the autumn and winter) from the British Museum and “Kinkishoga” (four Chinese scholars playing the zither and go, as well as practicing calligraphy and appreciating a painting) from the Seattle Art Museum. The works by Kano school painters from the late 16th to early 17th century in Japan are believed to have originally adorned the same building at Tanzan Shrine in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. “We will be able to witness a reunion, like bringing together siblings long separated in London, Seattle and Aomori,” Yoshiya Yamashita, former researcher at the Kyoto National Museum, said. Following the Tokyo event, the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in the city of Osaka will hold the exhibition from Oct. 31, 2026, to Jan. 31, 2027. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]