Exhibitions
Best of Museum Collection Part 2 “Extravagance and simplicity of Momoyama Edo”
2019.09.27(Fri) - 2019.10.28(Mon)
Celebrating museum renewal anniversary
Overview
The Momoyama period saw luxurious culture flourish with many elaborate paintings and folding screens produced in numbers, but there was also another extreme that was quietly established, seen in chanoyu, and wabi-cha in particular. It was elevated to an established style of tea ceremony by Sen-no-Rikyū, and its practitioners adored highly aesthetic bowls and other utensils originated in China or Korea, admitting beauty in the materials and imperfection in forms.
Come the end of the warring states, people began having fun as they could afford to in their lives. Paintings from this period depicted customs and recreations popular among common people. Favorite motifs of ukiyo-e in the 18th century included famous kabuki actors and beautiful courtesans of the Yoshiwara red-light district.
This exhibition showcases an excellent mixture of exuberant and rustic beauty that characterizes the arts from the Momoyama and Edo periods from the museum collection. It includes genre paintings and ukiyo-e of the early modern period, notably the celebrated Women of a Public Bathhouse* and Katsukawa Shunshō’s Three Beauties Representing Snow, the Moon and Cherry Blossoms,* as well as refined chanoyu utensils, such as Ayame, a tea bowl inspired by Sen-no-Rikyū and created by Chojiro. (*Important Cultural Property)
Important Cultural Property
WOMEN IN SEASONS OF SNOW, MOON AND FLOWER
Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–92) Edo period, 18th c.
Important Cultural Property
WOMEN AND EVENTS OF THE 12 MONTHS
Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–92) Edo period, 18th c.
Important Cultural Property
TWO BEAUTIES
Katsushika Hokusai ( 1760 - 1849 ) Edo period, early 19th c.
SUMO WRESTLER DAIDOZAN IN THE RING
Toshusai Sharaku ca. 1794 - 95, Edo period
READING A LETTER Ten classes of female physiognomy
Kitagawa Utamaro ( 1753 - 1806 ) ca. 1791 - 92, Edo period
TEA BOWL Name: Ayame Raku ware
Chōjirō
Momoyama period, 16th c.
TEA BOWL Name: Waraya Mino ware, Black Seto type
Momoyama period, 16th c.
SQUARE TRAYS
Momoyama period, 16th c.