Events
28 result(s)
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Limited timeExcavated Gold Coins from the Edo Period (1603–1868) Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 19 June 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
In 1956, a stash of gold coins from the Edo period including 208 koban and 60 ichibukin were excavated from the grounds of the Komatsu Store (now Ginza Komatsu) in the Ginza area of Tokyo. The grounds had been used by townspeople in the Edo period, but the reason why this stash of gold coins had been buried remains a mystery.
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Limited timeTomb Sculpture(Haniwa): Dressed-Up Woman, Found in Isesaki City, Gunma, Kofun period, 6th century, Important Cultural Property Until 28 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 19 June 2025, 9:30AM - 28 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
Terracotta statues known as haniwa were placed on large burial mounds that were created in great numbers during the Kofun period (ca. 3rd century–ca. 7th century). Most haniwa of women show them from the waist up, making this full-length depiction unusual. This woman appears to be wearing a sleeveless garment with wave-like patterns over a plain, long-sleeved one. Her legs are hidden by a skirt decorated with vertical lines. Women of the preceding Yayoi period (ca. 5th century BC–ca. 3rd century AD) wore clothes similar to one-piece dresses. In the Kofun period, however, garments separated into top and bottom sections as seen here were introduced from China and Korea.
Her outfit is also more elaborate than it first appears: Her hair is made up in a topknot unique to women of the time and is held in place with a comb. She also wears a headband and two large earrings with a cluster of beads above each one, as well as a beaded necklace and bracelets. A knife or something similar is at her hip. Judging from the lavish attire, this haniwa probably depicts a woman of a high social standing who is participating in some kind of elaborate ceremony such as a funerary procession or rite.
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Limited timeLife and Death in the Kamakura Period Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 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 Kamakura period (1192–1333), political power shifted from the aristocracy to the warrior class. Society and culture began to reflect the tastes and lifestyles of these new rulers, while towns were built around their castle compounds throughout Japan.
New sects of Buddhism also gained popularity in the Kamakura period. One of these was the Zen sect, which was accepted into warrior society. Tea drinking, which spread through Zen, was valued by the warrior class for providing a means for social interaction. Meanwhile, tea utensils became highly valued as symbols of prestige among the warriors. Chinese ceramics became especially prized, and local kilns such as the ones in Seto (present-day Aichi prefecture) began producing ceramics in imitation of them. These ceramics were also created for storing the remains of deceased individuals.
Itabi were stone tablets resembling gravestones, which were created to pray for the repose of deceased individuals. Beginning in the mid-Kamakura period, they were created throughout Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Kagoshima in the south, although most of them were concentrated in the Kanto region around present-day Tokyo. Many of these tablets are similar in form and are thought to have deep connections with warriors of the Kanto region.
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Limited timeSwords Until 31 August 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 2025, 9:30AM - 31 August 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 13
Room 13 features selected swords and sword–fittings from the Heian to Edo periods, including Blade for a Long Sword ("Tachi"), Named "Daihannya Nagamitsu", By Nagamitsu.
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Limited timeAncient Coins Until 7 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 2025, 9:30AM - 7 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
Coins known as wado kaichin, which were minted in 708 (Wado 1), represent the first serious effort in Japan to mint coins for circulation. Subsequently, twelve kinds of coins were minted in the Nara (710–794) and Heian (794–1192) periods. However, the minting of coins ceased by the latter half of the 10th century as the use of bronze coins imported from China became prevalent.
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Limited timeThe Advent of Chinese Civilization Until 3 November 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 2025, 9:30AM - 3 November 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.
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Limited timeThe Rise and Fall of Kings in Korea Until 21 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 2025, 9:30AM - 21 September 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 timeKhmer Sculpture Until 19 April 2026
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 18 June 2025, 9:30AM - 19 April 2026, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 11
Cambodia’s Angkor period (ca. 9th century–15th century) saw the development of a unique Khmer culture, as epitomized by Angkor Wat, a huge temple complex built from the end of the 11th century to the 12th century during the golden age of the Khmer Empire. This section introduces Khmer sculpture, with a focus on Buddhist and Hindu statues and reliefs from Angkor’s temples. These were acquired in 1944 through an exchange project with the French research institute the French School of the Far East.
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Limited timeDevelopment of Figural (Haniwa) Tomb Figurines Until 28 September 2025
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 8 May 2025, 9:30AM - 28 September 2025, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Japanese Archaeology and Special Exhibition (Heiseikan) Japanese Archaeology Gallery
Haniwa are terracotta figurines that were stood up on ancient burial mounds called kofun. Around the 3rd century at the end of the Yayoi period, pedestal-shaped terracotta objects that were placed on burial mounds began to change form. By the time keyhole-shaped burial mounds were first created in the latter half of the 3rd century, these objects had developed into cylindrical and pot-shaped haniwa.
The earliest representational haniwa, which depicted houses, were created in the mid-4th century, followed by those portraying armor, shields, quivers, and parasols, as well as ships and fowl. Despite increasing variety and changes in the way haniwa were positioned on burial mounds, house-shaped ones were always placed in the center, therefore playing a unique and important role. From the mid-5th century, new haniwa in the shapes of various people and animals were also created. These included shrine maidens, horses, warriors, boars, water fowl, and dogs. They were positioned around the perimeters of burial mounds as though depicting stories. These various representational haniwa, which evolved from simple cylindrical ones, are believed to have played important roles in funerary rituals.
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Limited timeChinese Buddhist Sculpture Until 19 April 2026
View Event Description & Conditions- Dates 8 May 2025, 9:30AM - 19 April 2026, 5:00PM
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Event Details
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 1
Buddhism began to spread in China around the turn of the first millennium, about 500 years after its founding in India. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the number of Chinese Buddhists rapidly increased and numerous temples were established. This gallery presents Buddhist statues created from the 5th to 9th century, a golden age in the history of Chinese sculpture.