Events
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Limited timeNetsuke: The Prince Takamado Collection Until 11 May 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 11 May 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) The Prince Takamado Collection Room
This exhibition displays contemporary netsuke, which was collected by the late Prince Takamado with her Imperial Highness Princess.
20 result(s)
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Limited time
Netsuke: The Prince Takamado Collection Until 11 May 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 11 May 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) The Prince Takamado Collection Room
This exhibition displays contemporary netsuke, which was collected by the late Prince Takamado with her Imperial Highness Princess.
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Limited timeAncient Art | Ca. 11,000 BC–7th century AD Until 29 June 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 29 June 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 1
Japan has some of the earliest pottery in the world, dating back about 13,000 years. It was created by the people of the Jōmon period (ca. 11,000–400 BC). These people built permanent settlements and relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering.
At the height of their culture, they made pottery with richly sculpted forms and figurines with distinctive shapes.
In the Yayoi period (ca. 4th century BC–first half of 3rd century AD), people from Northeast Asia (now China and Korea) immigrated to Japan. They brought knowledge of how to farm rice and make objects with bronze and iron. More food became available and people started making tools, weapons, and ritual objects with metal.
In the Kofun period (ca. second half of 3rd–7th century), regional rulers seized power and resources. They formed an early state and the imperial line became its central authority. These rulers had giant tomb mounds built for themselves, with clay sculptures placed outside and valuable objects buried inside to express the rulers’ authority even after death.
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Limited timeKuroda Memorial Room Until 6 April 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 6 April 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Kuroda Memorial Hall Kuroda Memorial Room
Created to honor Kuroda’s artistic career and exhibit his works, this room was opened to visitors when the hall was founded. The inscription in Chinese characters on the panel above the doors reads: “Memorial Room of Viscount Kuroda,” which is said to be the handwriting of the painter Nakamura Fusetsu. This room allows visitors to view Kuroda’s works from the collection, which mainly consists of those donated by his family, and gain glimpses of the character of Kuroda, who contributed greatly to modernizing Western-style painting in Japan and improving the status of art in general in Japanese society.
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Limited timeThe Rise and Fall of Kings in Korea Until 18 May 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 18 May 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 10
This gallery presents artifacts from Korea’s Three Kingdoms period (57 BC–668 AD), an era when powerful rulers vied for control of the Korean Peninsula. The three kingdoms were comprised of Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the southwest, and Silla in the southeast. A fourth state, known as the Gaya confederacy, also existed in the south before being annexed by Silla.
Each region made full use of the materials of the time–namely, gold, silver, bronze, iron, glass, and jade–to create distinct ornaments and other objects including, armor, horse tack, clay tiles, and pottery.
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Limited timeSculptures from India and Gandhara Until 29 June 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 29 June 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 3
This gallery introduces Buddhist and Hindu sculptures from India and Gandhara. Buddhist art flourished in northern India during the Kushan dynasty (1st–3rd century). The production of Buddhist statues began in Gandhara (northwestern Pakistan) and Mathura (northern and central India) around the 1st century, with a particular emphasis on sculptures depicting the life of Gautama Buddha in Gandhara.
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Limited timeArt of the Modern Era | Late 19th–first half of 20th century Until 20 April 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 20 April 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 18
Drastic changes in the late 19th century created new challenges for artists. The samurai government that had strictly regulated contact with the outside world collapsed in a civil war. Japan's new leaders announced the start of the Meiji era (1868–1912), engaging with the world and reforming their nation to be more like “the West” (mainly Europe and the United States).
These leaders soon realized that works produced in Japan were not seen as “fine art” in the West. Artisans often mounted paintings on sliding doors and folding screens, but this practice made them look like furniture to Europeans and Americans. Japan's ceramics, lacquerware, metalwork, and textiles were also labeled as “decorative art” rather than “fine art.”
In response, artistic traditions were changed to meet Western standards. Japan's leaders established schools of fine art, organized national exhibitions, and urged artists to participate in world fairs. They intended to show the world that Japan was a “modern” nation with sophisticated arts and culture. The works on display reflect how Japanese artists met these challenges.
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Limited timeThe Beginning of Tool Making in the Paleolithic Era Until 31 August 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 31 August 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
People first settled in Japan about 40,000 years ago, marking the beginning of the Paleolithic era, which continued until pottery was first created approximately 13,000 years ago. This era coincided with an ice age during which Japan was still connected to the Asian continent via land bridges and inhabited by large mammals such as mammoths. People led nomadic lives and made tools from stone and animal bone, using them to hunt and forage.
This section explores how Paleolithic tools changed over time through common examples: trapezoids with cutting edges, knives, spearheads, and miniature blades for making composite tools such as harpoons. Generally, Paleolithic tools were made by chipping stone into the desired shapes, while polished stone tools first appeared in the following Neolithic era. Japan’s Paleolithic era, however, is characterized by the use of stone axe heads with partially-polished blades.
The most common material for tools was obsidian, a type of volcanic glass found in abundance across most of Japan. The sedimentary rock siliceous shale was used in northeastern Japan, where obsidian was scarce, while the volcanic rock sanukite was used in the Kinki region and around the Seto Inland Sea. All of these materials were suitable for making tools because they were relatively hard and fine-grained, allowing sharp edges to be formed by chipping.
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Limited timeDogū: Objects of Prayer in the Jomon Period Until 31 August 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 31 August 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
The most prominent objects of prayer from the Jomon period (ca. 11,000 BC–ca. 5th century BC) are dogu clay figurines. Even the earliest examples of these figurines have breasts, which suggests that they represent women, and their protruding bellies probably symbolize pregnancy. Therefore, it is believed that dogu figurines were created to pray for easy delivery of children, the birth of many children, and fertility.
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Limited timeArms and Armor of the Samurai | 12th–19th century Until 25 May 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 5 March 2025, 9:30AM - 25 May 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Rooms 5 & 6
The samurai ruled Japan for nearly 700 years, from the late 12th to the 19th century. They emulated the imperial court, which was the home of high culture, but also borrowed from the practices of common people. Wishing for divine protection in this life and salvation in the next, they worshipped both Shinto and Buddhist deities. The culture of the samurai was complex and ever–changing, but always reflected their authority as the warrior class of Japan.
This gallery focuses on the most prominent symbols of samurai authority: swords, armor, and other military equipment. These had many purposes. Through diverse colors and materials, they showed the tastes of their owners. Differences in shape and construction reflected differences in rank and social standing. Many samurai passed down this equipment as heirlooms, while high–ranking samurai exchanged it as diplomatic gifts. Swords and armor were also donated to Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in prayer for victory in battle.
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Limited timeThe Yamato Kingdom and the Production of Symbols of Authority Until 6 May 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 16 December 2024, 9:30AM - 6 May 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
From the 4th century, Chinese-style bronze mirrors were created in Japan and placed in burial mounds. These large mirrors were finely-crafted with unique designs, and, as this burial practice suggests, held special meaning in the Yamato Kingdom. Jasper, bronze, and stone copies of various ornaments were also buried in these mounds. They included distinctive hoe-shaped stone objects modeled after shell bracelets that were valued in the preceding Yayoi period. The Yamato government began creating such objects to show its political and religious authority. Moreover, certain objects, such as those made of jasper, were created with the aid of provincial clans.
Use of these objects and the construction of burial mounds for high-ranking rulers (these mounds featured stone chambers that were sealed from the top) spread from the Yamato Kingdom to the west. It is believed that provincial clans used these objects as evidence of their alliance with Yamato and as symbols of their own prestige.
The establishment and expansion of the Yamato Kingdom was also related to political developments in other East Asian countries. In China, the fall of the Western Jin dynasty ushered in the Sixteen Kingdoms period (316–420), while the three kingdoms of Korea – Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla– began to annex neighboring regions.
※ The above information was correct at the time of updating, but there may be changes to actual prices. Please confirm the current prices when visiting.
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