Upcoming Exhibitions

• Art of Oda Urakusai, Samurai Tea Master

  January 31 to March 24, 2024

  Oda Urakusai (given name Nagamasu; 1547-1621), a younger brother of Oda Nobunaga, served the three great hegemons, Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and managed to survive in a war-torn world while developing a profound love of the tea ceremony. Urakusai’s aesthetic sense is embodied in the Jo-an teahouse (a National Treasure) he built in the precincts of the Shoden-in, part of Kennin-ji Temple in Kyoto. It also lives on in today’s world of tea, where the Urakusai aesthetic is regarded as a paradigm. This exhibition, held at the four hundredth anniversary of Oda Urakusai’s death, introduces treasures from the Shoden Eigen-in, a temple closely associated with Urakusai, together with famous tea utensils, letters, and other artifacts, to explore the character of this extraordinary man.

  

  Oido-type tea bowl, named Uraku-ido(Important Art Object), Joseon (KoreanPeninsula), 16th century, Tokyo National Museum　Image: TNM Image Archives

• Masterpieces from the Suntory Museum of Art Collection (TBD)

  April 17 to June 16, 2024

  The Suntory Museum of Art has continued, over many decades, to implement its mission under its fundamental principle, “Art in Life.” Our endeavors have born fruit in the wide variety of special exhibitions we have held thus far. In addition, our ongoing collecting efforts have built a unique collection. This exhibition introduces, through the many works that make this connection distinctive, the quintessence of Japanese art, filled with the heart and soul of our forefathers.

  

  Box with Fusenryō Design in Mother-of-Pearl Inlay and Maki-e (National Treasure), Kamakura period, 13th century, Suntory Museum of Art

• The Tokugawa Art Museum Collection:
  Treasures of the Owari Tokugawa Family

  July 31 to September 1, 2024

  The Owari Tokugawa family was the most prominent of the three branch families that produced the Tokugawa shoguns. The many treasures that they amassed and handed down are now in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum. Most notably, they include the Sunpu owakemono, items inherited from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun. Objects beloved by family heads and their spouses over the generations, including swords, tea utensils, utensils for incense appreciation, and Noh costumes: these precious artifacts relate the history of the Tokugawa and their lavish and elegant daimyo culture. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to appreciate the museum’s most sublime masterpieces, on special display, including National Treasure The Tale of Genji Illustrated Scrolls and National Treasure the Hatsune Trousseau, which were the wedding furnishings for Chiyo-hime (Princess Chiyo), eldest daughter of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu.

  

  The Tale of Genji Illustrated Scrolls (Kashiwagi 3) (National Treasure), Heian period, 12th century, Tokugawa Art Museum

• Hanabusa Itchō: Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of His Death (TBD)

  September 18 to November 10, 2024

  Hanabusa Itchō (1652-1724) was a painter active mainly in Edo around the Genroku era (1688-1704). He originally studied with Kanō Yasunobu, a younger brother of Kanō Tan’yū, but, inspired by the work of Hishikawa Moronobu and
  Iwasa Matabei, moved away from the Kanō style to create distinctive genre paintings, vividly depicting the people of the city. In 1698, at the age of forty-seven, he was exiled to Miyakejima Island. The works he painted while in
  exile are called “Island Itchō” and particularly highly regarded. This exhibition, which commemorates the three hundredth anniversary of Itchō’s death, will explore, through his signature works, the artistic activities and fascinating personality of this remarkable artist.

  

  The Scarf Dance (Important Cultural Property), Hanabusa Itchō, Hanging scroll, Edo period, 17th-18th century, Tōyama Memorial Museum
  Yoshiwara Licensed Quarter (detail), Hanabusa Itchō, Handscroll, Edo period, ca.1703, Suntory Museum of Art

• Japanese Art and Confucianism (TBD)

  November 27,2024 to January 26, 2025

  Confucianism is a social ethic taught by Confucius (Ch: Kongzi) and his disciples in China in the sixth century BC that developed into a worldview, political ideology, philosophy, and scholarly tradition. Transmitted to Japan in the sixth century AD, it was initially received mainly at the imperial court and Buddhist temples, but from the Edo period on spread throughout society at large. With its broad penetration from the ruling class to the common people, Confucianism had a far-reaching impact on the arts as well, from teikan paintings, didactic paintings of Chinese emperors, to the mitate-e, parody pictures, in ukiyo-e. This exhibition focuses on Japanese art rooted in Confucianism, introducing an abundant body of works by artists who had studied and adopted Confucianism.

  

  Paulownia and Phoenixes, Kanō Tan’yū, Pair of six-panel folding screens, Edo period, 17th century, Suntory Museum of Art