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The Rise and Fall of the Samurai

Tokyo National Museum loaned over 80 objects to a travelling exhibition devoted to the art of the samurai in 2009, which explored the art and aesthetics of samurai culture in Japan. The collection in focus dates primarily to the Edo period (1603-1868) with many pieces classified as Important Cultural Property and National Treasures and shows the accomplished level of society, education, and skills developed by the samurai from the 10th to 19th centuries…

Early Japanese Photography

Two exhibitions, one in the US and one in the Netherlands, explore how Japan was documented with photography in the 19th century. Looking for Japan at the Dayton Art Institute shows how photography recorded and shaped perceptions of Japan during the transformative Meiji period (1868-1912), a time of great political, social, and cultural change. As traditional institutions gave way to new political and social structures and many aspects of Japanese culture underwent modernisation…

Elements of Beauty

This exhibition brings together more than 40 of Kitagawa Utamaro’s (circa 1753-1806) most celebrated works, all drawn from the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection. While his subject, beautiful women, had been a mainstay in ukiyo-e from its beginning, Utamaro invested his subjects with a fresh vibrancy, experimenting with dramatic close-ups that hint at the women’s complex inner lives…