New Exhibitions Feature Rarely-Seen Masterpieces

December 2019

New exhibitions at three U.S. museums feature rarely-seen works of Japanese art, while a previously unknown work by a Japanese master artist will soon be exhibited in Kyoto. 

Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive presents the first-ever North American exhibition of work by Japanese painter Sakaki Hyakusen, a notable Edo-era artist and founder of the Nanga School. Hyakusen and his disciples drew influence from Chinese painting, literature and philosophy to create a distinctive visual aesthetic.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art's Freer Gallery of Art showcases notable works by Katsushika Hokusai, including six-panel folding screens, hanging scrolls, paintings and rare hanshita-e, drawings for woodblock prints that were usually destroyed during the carving process. These items - from the world's largest collection of Hokusai's work - have not been seen by the public in 13 years.

Meanwhile, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History's exhibition "Kachō-e: Impressions of Natural History in Japanese Art" displays rare nature-themed prints from 1749 through the late 1800s. Kachō-e is a style that employs ukiyo-e aesthetics and printing techniques to present vivid images of birds, flowers, insects, fish, and mammals.

And an early painting by famed Edo-era artist Ito Jakuchu has been discovered in a home in Japan's Kansai region. The painting - a hanging scroll that depicts a hen and rooster, as did many of Jakuchu's works - will soon be seen at the Fukuda Art Museum in Kyoto.