Japanese Masterpieces 17th-21st Centuries

Our our summer exhibition Japanese Masterpieces 17th–21st Centuries, opens on Tuesday, July 21.

The exhibition spans four centuries of Japanese art, featuring an early 17th-century six-panel screen depicting scenes from life at the Chinese imperial court and a pair of screens from circa 1620 showing places along the Tokaido road. Later screens include a composition on gold-leaf of blooming cherry and maple from the early 1800s and screens by Sasaki Shunka and Fudo Ritsuzan from the 1930s.

At the heart of the show is a group of hanging scrolls by leading painters of the Taisho and early Showa eras, among them Yamamoto Shunkyo, Kikuchi Keigetsu, Ikeda Yoson, and Konoshima Okoku. This was a period in which artists working for the domestic market brought new naturalism and Western experimentation to traditional formats.

Alongside the paintings, the exhibition features ikebana bamboo baskets by masters including Tanabe Chikuunsai II and Hayakawa Shōkosai V, who was a Living National Treasure, as well as bronzes ranging from mid-century vessels by Hasuda Shūgorō and Yoneda Bisho to a 2025 work by contemporary artist Koji Hatakeyama.