Events
24 result(s)
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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 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 timeThe Advent of Chinese Civilization Until 15 June 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 16 December 2024, 9:30AM - 15 June 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 4
This section of the gallery traces the development of Chinese civilization through ancient pottery, jade objects, texts, and bronzes. The collection includes Neolithic pottery from the Loess Plateau, a range of stone tools from Northern China, jade objects and oracle-bone inscriptions from the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–ca. 1100 BC), and roof tiles from each era.