Events
21 result(s)
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Limited timeSculpture Until 6 July 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 10 April 2025, 9:30AM - 6 July 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 11
Japan has three main traditions of sculpture: Buddhist deities, Shinto deities, and portraits of people. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from the Korean Peninsula in the 6th century, together with sculptures of Buddhist deities. These sculptures were made primarily for worship. Making a sculpture was also an “act of spiritual merit” that would help one’s prayers to be answered.
In contrast, Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan. Since ancient times, people believed that Shinto deities dwell in natural features like mountains and rivers, and rarely depicted them as humanlike sculptures. Even when a Shinto shrine had a sculpture for worship, the priests usually kept it hidden from view out of respect.
Some portrait sculptures were also worshipped, as they showed deified monks or samurai. Others were made to remember the dead and pray for their salvation. This gallery features works mainly from the Heian (794–1192) and Kamakura (1192–1333) periods, when many of Japan’s most admired sculptures were created.
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Limited timeSacred Objects from Ancient Temples Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 10 April 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
Ancient temples were often constructed with a collection of sacred objects buried at their base. These sacred objects included mirrors, beads, coins, and metal vessels. They were meant to pacify unfriendly spirits and ensure the temple could be constructed safely.
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Limited timeDecorative Art of the Qing Dynasty Until 22 June 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 10 April 2025, 9:30AM - 22 June 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 9
This section of the gallery introduces decorative art from China’s Qing dynasty (1644–1912), including works of jade, cloisonné, glass, and bamboo. These works illustrate the fine craftsmanship and sophisticated design aesthetic of decorative art from this period.
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Limited timeMountain Worship and the Belief in the Decline of Buddhism Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 14 March 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
From the late Nara (710–794) to the Heian (794–1192) period, priests who worshipped in the mountains began to appear throughout Japan. Believing that Shinto and Buddhism are essentially the same faith, and that Shinto gods are in fact Buddhist deities, they climbed mountains in search of sacred sites where they could worship the mountain gods. Sites on the peaks of Mt. Omine in Nara prefecture and Mt. Nantai in Tochigi prefecture are well-known examples, with excavations revealing various objects that these priests had left as offerings. This form of mountain worship eventually developed into Shugendo, a folk religion unique to Japan.
In the mid-Heian period, the belief in Buddhism’s decline also permeated society. The age of decline was thought to begin in the year 1052, leading people to associate reoccurring natural disasters and disturbances in society with this new age. In response, aristocrats and others living in the capital began creating sutra mounds throughout Japan. Aristocrats also believed in a prophecy that the Buddhist deity Maitreya would reappear 5,670,000,000 years in the future to save all beings. Transcribing sutra scrolls and preserving them in sutra mounds was most likely a way of praying for peace in this world and the next during these troubled times. This section features excavated objects connected with mountain worship and the belief in Buddhism’s decline.
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Limited timeSutra Mounds: Time Capsules for 5,670,000,000 Years Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 14 March 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
Sutra mounds were created from the Heian (794–1192) to the Edo (1603–1868) period for the purpose of preserving Buddhist sutra scrolls. The oldest example is a mound from which a cylinder containing sutras was excavated on Mt. Kinpu in Nara prefecture. It is believed that the Heian-period aristocrat Fujiwara no Michinaga dedicated this cylinder in 1007. The shape of a mound as well as the sutras and other objects it contains vary with its location and the time it was created. Sutras for these mounds were inscribed not only on paper but also on ceramic tiles, bronze plates, stones, shells, and other materials.
The creation of sutra mounds was motivated by the idea, which became widespread in the mid-Heian period, that Buddhist Law will decline 2,000 years after the Buddha’s death. A series of natural disasters and disturbances in society occurred around 1052, the year that this decline was thought to begin, leading people to draw connections. It was also believed that the Buddhist deity Maitreya would reappear in this world 5,670,000,000 years in the future and that Buddhism would prosper again. Sutra mounds were essentially time capsules meant to preserve sutra scrolls until the arrival of this age.
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Limited timeObjects Unearthed from the Ueno Area Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 14 March 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
The Ueno area, where Tokyo National Museum and Kan’eiji Temple stand today, began to thrive after Kan’eiji Temple became the official family temple of the shogun during the Edo period (1603–1868). Temple halls and monks’ quarters were built, and the surrounding town flourished. This section of the gallery presents objects from the Edo period that were unearthed from the Museum grounds and their surroundings, including Ueno Park.
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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 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.