This database is a comprehensive collection of articles from Nihon bijutsu nenkan (Year Book of
Japanese Art), published by the Tokyo National Institute for Cultural Properties (Tobunken).
On April 16, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: NISHIHARA Suzuko) submitted a report on eight assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to KAWABATA Tatsuo, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the Sugimoto Residence, a large-scale of Kyō-machiya (Kyoto townhouse) in the center of Kyoto; and the Former Tamana Reclamation Facility (Tamana City, Kumamoto Prefecture), built on reclaimed land in the Ariake Sea. In addition to the list, Sakuragawa City Makabe Traditional Building Preservation District (Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture) was also suggested to be selected as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. (Japanese)
On January 1, the recipients of the Asahi Prize for the fiscal year 2009 (sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun Foundation) were announced. In relation to art, architect Toyo ITO received the prize for ‘achievements that expanded the possibilities of spatial expression in contemporary architecture.’ (Japanese)
On April 23, a commemorative ceremony was held to mark the completion of the Daiichiji Daigokuden Hall (former Imperial Audience Hall). A head of the 1300th anniversary of the capital’s relocation to Heijō in 2010, the building’s restoration had been underway since 2001. Based on the findings of extensive research, the project aimed to restore the hall’s original design, structure, and materials, by employing ancient traditional construction techniques wherever possible. The interior paintings, depicting the Four Directional Deities and the Twelve Zodiac Animals, were executed by nihonga artist UEMURA Atsushi. The Heijō Palace site, where the Daigokuden Hall had been restored, served as the main venue for the Heijō Relocation 1300 Year Festival from April 24 to November 7. (Japanese)
The recipients of the 51st Mainichi Art Award (sponsored by the Mainichi Newspapers Co.), an annual award given to outstanding individuals in art and culture, were announced. In relation to art, the award was given to architect KUMA Kengo for his architectural design of the Nezu Museum in Architecture Category; and SEKI Masato for his special display at the 9th Fusōinsha exhibition, held at the Tokyo Central Museum of Art and his publication of the collection of tenkoku seal-engraving. (Japanese)
On April 26, the Democratic Party of Japan’s HATOYAMA Yukio administration conducted budget screening exercise, targeting the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage and the National Museum of Art, both independent administrative institutions. While the budget screening concluded that ‘the scale of operations should be expanded’ regarding the collection of cultural properties and artworks, the institutions were required to make self-reliant efforts through private donations and cost reductions since the governmental financial support would not increase. In response, from September to December, both institutions, joined by the Japan Arts Council and the National Museum of Nature and Science, convened the Working Group on National Cultural Institutions (Chair: FUKUHARA Yoshiharu, Honorary Chairperson, Shisendo Co., Ltd), where the future direction and management following the transition to an independent administrative institution were discussed. (Japanese)
The winners of the VOCA Prize, which encourages young artists who create two-dimensional artworks, were announced. The 17th Grand Prize of the VOCA was awarded to MIYAKE Saori (‘a secret talk’ and ‘Bed’). SAKAMOTO Natsuko and NAKATANI Michiko jointly received the VOCA Encouragement Prize. KIYOKAWA Asami and SAITŌ Meo jointly received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize. SAITŌ Meo also received the Ohara Museum Art Prize. The VOCA 2010, where the winners’ works were exhibited, was held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo from March 14 to 30 in 2010. (Japanese)
On May 1, the Shizuoka City Museum of Art (Director: TANAKA Toyone) opened on the third floor of the newly constructed Aoi Tower building at the north exit of JR Shizuoka Station. It is managed by the Shizuoka City Cultural Promotion Foundation. It comprises three exhibition rooms with a total floor area of 1100 square meters. Having succeeded the Shizuoka Art Gallery, which was closed in March, the museum will not host permanent exhibitions since it houses no art collection. Instead, it will focus on special exhibitions that are not confined to specific genres as its core activities. Workshops and talk events were held until September. A series of the inaugural exhibitions commenced in October: (I) ‘Masterpieces from the Pola Museum of Art: Impressionists and Ecole de Paris’ (October 2 – November 28); (II) ‘Ieyasu and Yoshinobu: Tokugawa Family and Shizuoka’ (December 11 – January 30, 2011); and (III) ‘Munakata Shikō: Inori to tabi (Munakata Shikō: Prayer and Journey) (February 11 – March 27, 2011)’. (Japanese)
On February 14, Professor NAKAI Izumi, Tokyo University of Science, proposed the possibility of gold leaf being used for the background of the folding screens ‘Red and White Plum Blossoms’ at a symposium held at the MOA Museum which houses the work. This observation was based on Professor NAKAI’s measurement of the crystal structure using techniques such as X-ray diffraction, commissioned by the museum, which detected crystal planes identical to those found in gold leaf. It drew attention as research outcomes differing from the use of gold paste, kindei, which had been announced by the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, in 2004 based on scientific research, which had sparked debate. (Japanese)
The recipients of the 4th Yomiuri Aoniyoshi Award (sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun with special support from the Japan Society for the Conservation of Cultural Property), which publicly honors individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements in the fields of conservation science and restoration, were announced. The Aoniyoshi Award was given to YAMARYŌ Mari, who has long been involved in restoration of modern paintings such as oil and watercolors. The Encouragement Award went to KITANO Kazunari, who manufactures susa (plant fibers for plaster reinforcement). The Special Award was given to the Gangoji Institute for Research of Cultural Property, which has long been engaged in developing excellent conservation and treatment methods for excavated wooden artefacts. (Japanese)
On February 23, the exhibition ‘HASEGAWA TOHAKU: 400th Memorial Retrospective’ opened at the Tokyo National Museum to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the passing of HASEGAWA Tōhaku (1539 – 1610), a master painter of the Momoyama period (until March 22). Featuring approximately 80 works including National Treasures such as ‘Maple Tree’ (Chishakuin temple) and ‘Pine Trees’ (Tokyo National Museum), the exhibition traced the artistic career of HASEGAWA Tōhaku from his early years painting Buddhist art in Noto through his rise in Kyoto where, backed by TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi and SEN no Rikyū, he produced numerous large-scale golden paintings, called konpekiga, while simultaneously deepening his mastery of ink painting, suibokuga. It consisted of seven chapters: Chapter 1 ‘Hasegawa Nobuharu: Buddhist Painter of Noto Peninsula’; Chapter 2 ‘The Turning Point: The Move to Kyoto and the Emergence of Tohaku’; Chapter 3 ‘Portraiture: Tohaku’s Contemporaries’; Chapter 4 ‘Momoyama Masterpieces: The World of Colorful Screens on Gold Ground’; Chapter 5 ‘A Testament to Faith: Tohaku and Honpoji Temple’; Chapter 6 ‘Master of Ink: The Devotion to Ink Paintings’; and Chapter 7 ‘The Realm of Pine Trees’. The exhibition subsequently toured to the Kyoto National Museum (April 10 – May 9). (Japanese)
On May 21, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: NISHIHARA Suzuko) submitted a report on one place to be designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty, eight places to be designated as Historic Sites, and two places to be designated as Places of Scenic Beauty to KAWABATA Tatsuo, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the Garden at the Eastern Palace of Heijō Palace (Nara City), which was discovered and restored in the southeastern part of the Heijō Palace site to be designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty; the ruins of the Chōshū Domain Shimonoseki Maeda Battery Sites (Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), the scene of the Shimonoseki bombardment in 1864 during the Bakumatsu period, to be designated as a Historic Site; Wakanoura Bay, celebrated in the Manyōshū, to be designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty; two places such as Ogawa’s Garden Kansuien (Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture) to be registered as Registered Monuments; and two places such as the waterfront of Harie and Shimofuri (Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture) to be registered as Important Cultural Landscapes. (Japanese)
On March 8, the winner of the 35th Kimura Ihei Award (sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun Publications), the award given to exceptional new photographers in honor to photographer KIMURA Ihei’s achievements, was announced. The award was given to TAKAGI Cozue for her photobooks titled ‘MID’ and ‘GROUND’. (Japanese)
On May 26, the exhibition ‘Post-Impressionism: 115 Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay’ opened at the National Art Center, Tokyo (until August 16). It featured French art from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, following the Impressionists, through 115 works of art from the collection of Musée d’Orsay, renowned for its collection of modern French art. This large-scale exhibition chronologically traced works from the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to those by the Nabis in the 1920s. It consisted of ten chapters: Chapter 1 ‘Les impressionnistes autour de 1886’; Chapter 2 ‘Seurat et le Néo-Impressionnisme’; Chapter 3 ‘Cézanne et “cézannité”’; Chapter 4 ‘Toulouse-Lautrec’; Chapter 5 ‘Van Gogh et Gauguin’; Chapter 6 ‘L’Ecole de Pont-Aven’; Chapter 7 ‘Les Nabis’; Chapter 8 ‘Sonorités intérieures’; Chapter 9 ‘Le “douanier Rousseau”’; and Chapter 10 ‘Triomphe du décor’. The exhibition was made possible by the loan of 115 artworks from the Musée d’Orsay’s collection as a single package, in conjunction with the museum’s major refurbishment in 2010. (Japanese)
On March 9, the Agency for Cultural Affairs decided not to permit the display of the statue of Miroku Bosatsu (National Treasure) from Chūgūji temple and fourteen Important Cultural Properties at the exhibition titled ‘Nara no koji to butsuzō (Old Temples and Buddhist Statues of Nara)’, which had been scheduled to open in April at the Niigata City Art Museum. The reason cited was that, following the occurrence of mold on exhibited works at the museum in July 2009, spiders and insects were detected in February 2010. Consequently, the museum’s director KITAGAWA Fram was replaced, and the exhibition ‘Nara no koji to butsuzō’ was relocated to the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. (Japanese)
On July 10, the exhibition titled ‘ROBOTS and the ARTS: Visual Images in the 20th Century Japan’ opened at the Aomori Museum of Art (until August 29). It traced the relationship between humanoid robots and art. The exhibition consisted of four chapters: Prologue ‘Robotto izen: ugoku “hitogata” no yume (Before Robots: Dreams of Moving “Human Forms”)’; Chapter 1 ‘Senzen: Robotto no tanjō to dōjidai bunka (Pre-War: The Birth of the Robots and Contemporary Culture)’; Chapter 2 ‘Sengo I: Taishū bunka no kōryū to sengo āto no dōkō (Post-War 1: The Rise of Popular Culture and Post-War Art Trends)’; and Chapter 3 ‘Sengo II: Robotto imēji no genzai – robothikkusu kara āto made (Post-War II: The Robot Image Today – From Robotics to Art)’. The prologue introduced documentary predating the birth of the word ‘robot’ and its concept, followed by three chapters that ambitiously presented actual robots alongside a display of robot imagery spanning paintings, manga, animation, and even toys. The exhibition subsequently toured to the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (September 18 – November 17) and the Iwami Art Museum, Shimane Prefecture (November 20 – January 10, 2011). (Japanese)
On March 12, the Agency for Cultural Affairs announced the recipients of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for the fiscal year 2009. The recipients of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize were sculptor NAGASAWA Hidetoshi (for his expiation titled ‘NAGASAWA – Dove tende aurora’) and nihonga artist YAMAMOTO Naoaki (for his exhibition titled ‘Yamamoto Naoaki ten: Kikan suru fūkei’) in the Fine Arts category; and FUJIHATA Masaki, Professor, Department of Inter Media Art, Tokyo University of the Arts, (for his work titled ‘Simultaneous Echoes 2009: “Field-work” in Londonderry’) in the Media Art category. The recipients of the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists were photographer TSUDA Nao (for his exhibition titled ‘Rera Faraway’) in the Fine Art Category; and IWAKIRI Shinichirō, Professor, Bunka Junior College, (for his monograph titled ‘Meiji hangashi’) in the Criticism category. (Japanese)
In July, the recipients of the 5th Western Art Foundation for Promotion Award, which publicly honor individuals and institutions involved in curating exhibitions that have contributed to the understanding of Western art and academic research in the field of Western art, were announced. The Academic Award for Individuals was awarded to KOHMOTO Shinji (for his curation of the exhibition titled ‘Wiliam Kentridge – What We See & What We Know: Thinking about History while Walking’, held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) and ARAYASHIKI Tōru (for his supervision of the exhibition titled ‘Renoir: Tradition and Innovation’, held at the National Art Center, Tokyo). The Cultural Promotion Award for Institutions was given to Bunkamura (for the exhibition titled ‘Tamara de Lempicka et son époque’, held at the Bunkamura The Museum) (Japanese)
On March 18, the Japan Art Academy (Director: MIURA Shumon) announced the recipients of the 66th Japan Art Academy Prize. The Imperial Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize were given to YAMAMOTO Fumihiko (for his yōga painting titled ‘Jusō’, exhibited at a Nikiten exhibition) in the Fine Arts category; and AWAZU Norio (for his longstanding contributions to various artistic fields, particularly in literately criticism, translation and literature) in the Literature category. In the Fine Arts category, the Japan Art Prize was given to TAKEGOSHI Toshiaki (for his kōgei work titled ‘Kohan, Saiyū kaki’, exhibited at a Nitten exhibition); TARUMOTO Juson (for his calligraphy titled ‘富陽妙庭観董雙成故宅發地得丹鼎’, exhibited at a Nitten exhibition); and KITAGAWARA Atsushi (for his architectural design of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection). (Japanese)
On July 16, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Chair: NISHIHARA Suzuko) submitted a report on five people to be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties (Living National Treasures) to KAWABATA Tatsuo, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The List includes KATŌ Kōzō for his setoguro; TSUCHIYA Yoshinori for his monsha; FUTATSUKA Osamu for his yūzen; NAKANO Kōichi for his makie; and TAMAGAWA Norio for his tankin. This marked the first designation for artists who create monsha. It thus brings the total number of Living National Treasures to 116 individuals, with 58 in each of the performing arts and traditional crafts (kōgei). (Japanese)
On March 19, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: NISHIHARA Suzuko) submitted a report on two assets to be designated as National Treasures and 38 assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to KAWABATA Tatsuo, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The two assets to be designated as National Treasures were 2,345 materials pertaining to INŌ Tadataka such as maps, documents and surveying instruments (Katori City, Chiba Prefecture); and ‘Map of Naruto Village of Imizu District in Etchū Province (hemp)’ (Nara National Museum), depiction of land reclamation in the Nara period. One of 38 assets to be designated as Important Cultural Properties was a painting ‘Yoritomo in a Cave’ by nihonga artist MAEDA Senson (Okura Museum of Art). The Council for Cultural Affairs also recommended 139 structures, including the Former Iwasaki Family Residence, a family house of IWASAKI Yatarō, as well as one kōgei artwork to be registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties. (Japanese)
