The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo boasts one of the most prominent collections of modern art in Japan, including eleven Important Cultural Properties (one of which is a deposited piece). The permanent exhibition at the collection galleries on the fourth to second floors of the main building aims to provide a historical overview on modern Japanese art from the beginning of the 20th century to today. It presents 170 to 220 pieces including overseas works and Important Cultural Properties selected from our museum's collection of 9,800 works, arranged into some chapters according to production dates. Many of the exhibits are changed four to five times a year. In addition, a small thematic show is given in each exhibition period to shed new light on the collection from various angles.

A flock of plovers rest on areef against which raging waves dash. The pigments are Limited to ultramarine, sumi ink, gold-dust paint, and gofun(shell white). The large movement of brush to express the undelating waves contrasts effectively with the presence of the immovable rock. The plovers provide the otherwise summarized image with an accent. While inheriting the traditional concept of the portrayal of waves, the artist also blends in a Rimpa-like decorativeness and realism. Thus, he manages to incorporate a contemporary formal sensibility.

Hirahuku Hyakusui Rough Coast 1926

Harada Naojiro, Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon, 1890
deposited in The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (coll. Gokokuji Temple)
Hishida Shunso, Bodhisattva Kenshu, 1907
Yorozu Tetsugoro, Nude Beauty, 1912
Kishida Ryusei, Road Cut Through a Hill, 1915
Murakami Kagaku, Kiyohime at the Hidaka River, 1919
Nakamura Tsune, Portrait of Vasilii Yaroshenko, 1920

Note: Some works may be changed without previous notice.

Art in the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho periods (1912-26)
Art of the prewar Showa period (1926-89)

Art of the prewar Showa period (1926-89)
Art during and after the War
Art in the 1950s and 1960s

Kon Michiko

I-1 Around the Launch of the Bunten

When we take a general view of modern Japanese art by means of our museum’s collection, we first come across with works shown at the annual Bunten or Ministry of Education Exhibition which was launched in 1907. Established as a part of the Meiji Government’s educational policy, the government-sponsored painting and sculpture competition had a great influence on subsequent developments in the Japanese art world. Western-style paintings shown at the Bunten, followed the academism already established by Kuroda Seiki and his comrades, characterized by plain representation of outdoor figures and scenes. Japanese-style paintings broke from the conventionalities in various aspects including shading, perspective, and color composition, establishing itself as a genre of arts to be publicly exhibited. In the 1910s, active introduction of European Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Symbolism inspired many Western- and Japanese-style painters to pursue innovative expressions.

I-2　Humanism in the Taisho Period (1912–26)

In 1910, Takamura Kotaro’s essay Midori-iro no taiyo (lit. “Green sun”) declared absolute freedom for artists’ self expression. The ensuing Taisho Period(1912-26) saw the prevalence of humanistic thoughts and advocacy of the artist’s individuality.　Young artists including Kishida Ryusei and Yorozu Tetsugoro produced distinctive works showing their departure from the Bunten’s formalism. In particular, Kishida Ryusei placed his ideals in “internal beauty” and pursued realistic expression with minute representations. Together with his research into Chinese art of the Sung and Yüan dynasties, the painter’s originality had a great influence on many artists including some Japanese-style painters. The works symbolic of this period included those of Tetsugoro Yorozu who created pieces rooted in the climate of his home while adopting avant-garde trends in the West, and those of Murayama Kaita and Sekine Shoji who were driven by their impulse to express short but passionate life.

Ⅱ-1　Artists in the Modern city

The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake devastated and completely changed the city, leading to the subsequent rise of new middle-class citizens. Murayama Tomoyoshi applied European Trends in his own way to his avant-garde art that extracted conflicts and episodes from urban life. Prewar avant-garde art had two major trends: surrealist movement and abstract expression. In addition, proletarian art flourished in the prewar period. An increasing number of artists studied and lived abroad, including Fujita Tsuguharu, Saeki Yuzo in Paris, and Kuniyoshi Yasuo, Noda Hideo in New York. Their works displayed some characteristics free from restraint of national boundaries.

Ⅱ-2　Maturity of Japanese-style and Western-style Paintings

After the individualist trend in the Taisho period (1912–26) and the subsequent rise of modernism, some artists extended the trend and pursued avant-garde expression, but others negatively reacted and turned their eyes to Japanese traditions and classics, emphasizing Japanese and Oriental tradition as the starting point of creative activities. Many Japanese-style painters strongly inclined toward classicism, typified by Yasuda Yukihiko and Kobayashi Kokei who often tackled historical subjects using strictly controlled lines following ancient Chinese examples. Western-style painters such as Umehara Ryuzaburo and Yasui Sotaro gradually established lucid and decorative styles that might be called “Japanese oil painting.” In short, it can be said that modern Japanese painting reached its maturity around this period.

Soon after the 1929 Great Depression resulted in economic protectionism in many countries, the second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, leading to the enforcement of the National Mobilization Law next year. It was a difficult situation for “modern” artists who were thought to ground their activities on individuality. In addition to usual military painters, leading artists began producing war record paintings by commission from the military press section. On the other hand, younger painters such as Ai-Mitsu, Matsumoto Shunsuke, and Aso Saburo created realist works aiming at leaving evidence of humanity at a narrow margin of wartime statism—rare legacies handed down to postwar art. This section centers on realist paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, including those artists who began their careers after the war.

In 1952, the Treaty of Peace with Japan went into effect and the country regained its sovereignty. The 1950s saw strong economic revival, and the 1960s unprecedented level of economic growth. In the 1950s, some painters such as Higashiyama Kaii　 introduced profound color planes, leading the transformation of Japanese-style painting. Including abstract paintings and sculptures, Japanese art in this period in general had a strong tendency toward direct revelation of the origin of life, or the bosom of Nature or the universe. After rapid improvement of the social system and urban infrastructure began for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, modern thinking revived to highlight the relationship between forms or the framework of artistic expression. On the other hand, those artists who began their careers after the war produced new types of abstract paintings.

From the late 1960s when the mood for changes of the society and consciousness heightened, artists began incorporating extensively in their works letters, signs, photographic images, and natural objects such as stones, trees, and water. In the 1970s, it seemed that paintings and sculptures in traditional forms disappeared from the center stage of contemporary art. It was only in the late 1970s that, as artists reconsidered the meaning of the act of producing (or painting), paintings and sculptures were revitalized. Arts in and after the 1980s have shown even more diversity, where various functions of consciousness, such as memory, association, and language, have come to overlap with the act of looking at the work of art.