Closed | Mondays, except September 16, 23, October 14, November 4, and closed on September 17, 24, October 15 |
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Hours | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.(last entry: 4:30 p.m.) |
General admission | Adult 1300 yen, Student 1000 yen |
Gallery | 1/2 |
Flowers, with their countless colors and shapes, and birds, with their gorgeous feathers, have been objects of appreciation throughout the world from time immemorial. In East Asia, and chiefly in China, bird-and-flower paintings became as important a genre as figure and landscape paintings. The Japanese term shasei, now used to mean sketching from life, was originally used in China, where bird-and-flower painting originated, to refer to the practice of observing the subject and depicting its form, ecology, and vital nature. Bird-and-flower painting, then, takes beautiful flora and fauna as its motif in capturing the brilliant radiance of life itself.
In this exhibition, we trace the history and stylistic evolution of bird-and-flower paintings in East Asia, particularly China and Japan, where their motifs sometimes call up images of alien lands or paradises, are garbed in auspicious implications, or are used in craft designs.
Note:
All the paintings will be replaced (or the sections of scrolls on display changed) between the 1st Period (Saturday, September 7, to Sunday, October 6) and the 2nd Period (Tuesday, October 8, to Monday, a holiday, November 4). Mirrors and ceramics will remain on display throughout the exhibition period.