The collection exhibition Modern Japanese Art from the Museum Collection is held at the collection gallery with an area of about 2,600 square meters. Presenting about 200 pieces from the museum collection comprising about 10,800 works including paintings, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, prints and photographs, the show provides an overview on the history of modern Japanese art from the early 20th century to the present. One hour is enough to go through the entire show. Please enjoy some time meeting our collection.

♦Many of the exhibits are changed four or five times a year. Some exhibits, mainly Japanese-style and war paintings, are changed during some exhibition periods.

♦The Topical section on the fourth floor, and the Photograph and Print, Watercolor and Drawing sections on the third floor change their focus every period.

*Click the list of exhibits to check the exhibits.

An English Audio Guide to our collection exhibition Modern Japanese Art from the Museum Collection is available. Listening to the guide while touring the collection galleries will help you discover various aspects of the exhibits.

■ Please ask at Reception on the first floor.
■ Please borrow and return the Audio Guide at Reception.
■ Charge: 300 yen (tax included)

Bill Viola,The Quintet of Remembrance, 2000

A group of five people are seen standing close together as they undergo a wave of intense emotion that threatens to overwhelm them. The extreme slow motion makes visible the smallest of details and subtle nuances of expression. The Quintet of Remembrance will be on view for the first time since 2008. Don't let this opportunity pass you by."


BILL VIOLA
The Quintet of Remembrance, 2000
Color video rear projection on screen mounted on wall in dark room
Projected image size: 1.4 x 2.4 m
Performers: Weba Garretson, John Malpede, Mary Pat Gleason, Valerie Spencer, Dan Gerrity
Photo: Kira Perov

Most of the Japanese-style paintings will be changed between the first and second halves of the exhibition period. Repeaters will be able to discover fresh attractions each time.
Please check the list of exhibits for further information about the change.

The collection at the main building of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo now has thirteen pieces that are designated as Important Cultural Properties by the Japanese government, comprising eight Japanese-style paintings, four oil paintings and one sculpture.

The following Important Cultural Properties are shown in this period:

■Harada Naojiro, Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon, 1890 (Deposited work;coll. Gokokuji Temple)

◆Please visit the Important Cultural Property section Masterpieces for more information about the pieces.

♦Note: Some works may be changed without previous notice. Please check the Exhibit List for details.

■Harada Naojiro, Kannon Bodhisattva Riding the Dragon, 1890 (Deposited work;coll. Gokokuji Temple)

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
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.

*Meiji Period 1868-1912, Taisho Period 1912-1926

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.

*Prewar Showa Period 1926-1945

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.

*Prewar Showa Period 1926-1945

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.