On October 25, the Japanese government announced five recipients of the Order of Culture and 15 recipients of the Person of Cultural Merit for the fiscal year 2013. In relation to art, calligrapher TAKAGI Seikaku was awarded the Order of Culture, and UEMURA Atsushi, nihonga artist who also protect cultural properties, and architect MAKI Fumihiko were awarded the Person of Cultural Merit. (Japanese)
On October 30, the Calligraphy section at the Nitten, which invites the public to send in entries for a Nitten exhibition, had been rigged to allocate the winners to the leading groups, according to a source close to the matter. In 2009, the head of the jury allegedly showed a jury member in charge of the seal-cutting division an allocation list where the specific number of entries and winners from the leading groups were written and instructed the jury member to decide the number of winners according to the instruction. It resulted in the organizer of the Nitten to cancel their selection of the Prime Minister’s Prize and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize, the two highest prizes for the 45th Nitten exhibition, which began on November 1. The Agency for Cultural Affairs withdrew its support, and FURUTANI Sōin, a leading figure in the calligraphy world and a Nitten advisor, resigned from his role. On November 7, an investigation committee was launched and submitted its report on December 5, confirming the facts of the fraud. (Japanese)
On November 9, the exhibition titled ‘Hi-Red Center: The Track of “Direct Action”’ opened at the Nagoya City Art Museum (until December 23). It featured the works of TAKAMATSU Jirō, AKASEGAWA Genpei and NAKANISHI Natsuyuki, who, during the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s, went far beyond the conventional framework of art to shake up everyday life, displaying mainly documentary materials and photographs of the time. It travelled to the Shoto Museum of Art (February 11 – March 23, 2014). (Japanese)
On November 15, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on the following places to be designated as Places of Scenic Beauty or Historic Sites to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes two places such as scenic spots on the ‘Oku no hosomichi’, the route travelled by the haiku master MATSUO Bashō through Mutsu and Hokuriku regions, to be designated as Places of Scenic Beauty; nine places such as Miyawaki temple ruins (Date City, Fukushima Prefecture), where the connection between the Muromachi shogunate and the Date clan is indicated, to be designated as Historic Sites; four places such as the Former Nanbu Family Villa Gardens (Morioka City) to be registered as Registered Monuments; and five places such as the Miyazu Amanohashidate Cultural Landscape (Miyazu City, Kyoto Prefecture) to be selected as Important Cultural Landscapes. (Japanese)
On November 15, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on 220 buildings to be registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Mitaka City, Tokyo), which is an outstanding modern building from the Taishō and early Shōwa periods. (Japanese)
The Ringa Art Encouragement Prize (organized by the Ringa Art Encouragement Fund), which publicly honors outstanding individuals for their exceptional achievements in the field of art criticism and art history research, announced the winners of the 25th Ringa Art Encouragement Prize. In the Art History Research Division, three people shared the award; KUWAHARA Noriko (Associate Professor, Seitoku University) for her monograph titled ‘Onchi Kōshirō kenkyū: hanga no modanizumu’ (Serika shobō); and TERAGUCHI Junji (Deputy Director, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art) and INOUE Yoshiko (Curator, Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama) for their curated exhibition titled ‘Tanaka Kyoichi: a Retrospective’ and the contribution of their essays to its exhibition catalog. No winners in the Art Criticism Division were announced. (Japanese)
On December 5, the Agency for Cultural Affairs announced the winning works for the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards that are given to excellent media artworks from inside and outside of Japan. The Grand Prizes were given to a media installation titled ‘crt mgn’ by Carsten Nicolai (Germany) in the Art Division; ‘Sound of Honda / Ayrton Senna 1989’ by SUGANO Kaoru, YASUMOCHI Sōtarō, ŌRAI Yū, Nadya Kirillova, YONEZAWA Kyōko, SEKINE Kōsai, SAWAI Taeji and MANABE Daito (Japan / Russia) in the Entertainment Division; an animated memoir film titled ‘Approved For Adoption’ by Jung / Laurent Boileau (Belgium / France) in the Animation Division; and a manga titled ‘JOJOLION – Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 8 –’ by ARAKI Hirohiko in the Manga Division. (Japanese)
On December 16, the winners of the VOCA Prize, which encourages young artists who create two-dimensional artworks, were announced. The Grand Prize of the VOCA was given to TANAKA Nozomi (‘Mono okuri’). OHKOJIMA Maki and KIM Mitsuo jointly received the VOCA Encouragement Prize. ŌSAKA Chika and SOMEYA Yūko jointly received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize. The Ohara Museum of Art Prize was given to SATŌ Kana. The VOCA exhibition 2014, where the winners’ works were exhibited, was held at the Uemo Royal Museum in Tokyo from March 15 to March 30 in 2014. (Japanese)
On July 19, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on 173 structures to be designated as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the main building of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Meguro Ward, Tokyo), which became a symbol of reconstruction after the Great Kantō Earthquake, and the main building of the Wakayama Prefectural Government Office with its Western-style design. (Japanese)
On September 17, the laureates of the 25th Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu (organized by the Japan Art Association), which publicly honors individual world artists, were announced. In relation to art, the laureates are Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy) in the Painting category, Antony Gormley (United Kingdom) in the Sculpture category and David Chipperfield (United Kingdom) in the Architecture category. (Japanese)
On September 28, the Akita Museum of Art opened in Area Nakaichi, a redevelopment area in the center of Akita City. It was relocated from the former Akita Prefectural Museum of Art (opened in 1967), which housed the collection of HIRANO Masakichi, a wealthy Akita collector, located in Chiaki Park in the city. The new building, designed by ANDŌ Tadao, has three floors above ground and one below ground, with a total floor space of 3,746.66m2. Although it had been open provisionally since 2012, it was officially opened after the relocation of the mural painting, titled ‘Events in Akita (Akita no gyōji)’ by FOUJITA Tsuguharu. The exhibition, titled ‘Hekiga “Akita no gyōji” kara no messēji – Fujita Tsuguharu no 1930 nendai’ (September 28 – November 10), was held to celebrate its opening. (Japanese)
On October 4, the Okada Museum of Art (Director: KOBAYASHI Tadashi) opened in Kowakudani, Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, presenting a wide range of Japanese and East Asian art from ancient to modern times. The museum houses about 700 works of art collected by OKADA Kazuo, a businessman who developed his business in the manufacture of amusement machines. With five basement floors that create an exhibition area of 5,000 m2, it is the largest private museum of its kind in Japan. The exhibition, titled ‘Heritage of Beauty: Japanese, Chinese and Korean Art’ (October 4 – December 30), was held to celebrate its opening. (Japanese)
The winners of the 25th Kokka Prize, an award for remarkable research on Japanese and East Asian art, were announced. The Kokka Prize was given to an article titled ‘Kusha mandara to tenpyō fukko’ (in ‘Bukkyō bijutsu ronbunshū I: Yōshiki hen’, Chikurinsha, 2012) by TANIGUCHI Kōsei (Nara National Museum). The Kokka Special Prize was given to a monograph titled ‘Chūgoku sekkutsu bijutsu no kenkyū’ (Chūō kōron bijutsu shuppan, 2012) by HAMADA Tamami (Waseda University). (Japanese)
On October 18, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on six buildings to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the Nasu Shrine (Ōtawara City, Tochigi Prefecture), whose structure combines medieval forms with early modern decorative design, and the former Kōyaguchi school building, which is considered to be the culmination of pre-war wooden school buildings. In addition to the list, two districts, one of which was the Masuda district in Yokote City, Akita Prefeture, where one of few merchant houses that were purposely built to cope with heavy snowfall in the Tōhoku region remains, were also suggested to be the Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings. (Japanese)
Regarding the Buddhist statue stolen from Tsushima City in Nagasaki Prefecture and found in South Korea, the Daejeon District Court in central South Korea issued a provisional injunction against the South Korean government returning the statue to Japan. Among the cultural properties stolen by Korean thieves from temples and shrines on Tsushima Island in October 2012 was a seated statue of Kanzeon Bodhisattva, designated as a Nagasaki Prefectural Tangible Cultural Property, owned by Kannonji temple. Buseoksa temple located in Seosan, central South Korea, claimed that the statue was produced at the temple in the 14th century but was looted by wakō (lit. Japanese pirates), and applied for a provisional injunction to prohibit the return of the statue until it could be determined how it had originally been brought to Japan. In response, the mayor of Tsushima City requested the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration to return the statue in June. (Japanese)
On May 18, the selection process of the Teijiro Nakahara Prize (sponsored by Asahikawa City, Hokkaido and its City Board of Education), which was established to contribute to the development of the Japanese sculpture world, took place. UEMATSU Keiji’s ‘Cutting – Axis・Latitude・Longitude’ was selected as the 38th prize winner. (Japanese)
On February 26, the Denchū Hirakushi Award (sponsored by Ibara City, Okayama Prefecture), established to commemorate HIRAKUSHI Denchū’s achievements along with the promotion of wood carvings in Japan, announced that the 26th winner was ŌHIRA Minoru. He was awarded for his sculptural forms that represent his broad perspectives and his experienced work to date. (Japanese)
On June 1, the opening ceremony and awards ceremony of la Biennale di Venezia, the world’s largest biennial international contemporary art exhibition, were held in Venice, Italy, with the Japan Pavilion receiving a Special Mention in a category of the national participations where 88 nations participated. The Japan Pavilion, curated by KURAYA Mika, Chief Curator of the Department of Fine Arts at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, presented TANAKA Kōki’s solo exhibition titled ‘abstract speaking-sharing uncertainty and collective acts’, which mainly consisted of video works inspired by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. (Japanese)
On Februay 27, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on three assets to be designated as National Treasures and 50 assets to be Important Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The three assets to be designated as National Treasures are Standing Fudō Myōō with Two Attendants, wooden sculptures made by Unkei, a sculptor of Buddhist statues in the Kamakura period (Ganjōjuin temple, Shizuoka Prefecture); Monju Bosatsu and Four Attendants by Kaikei (Monjuin temple, Nara Prefecture); and ‘Collection of Documents and Buddhist Sutras at Daigoji Temple’, historical records dating from the Heian to Meiji periods (Daigoij temple, Kyoto Prefecture). The list for Important Cultural Properties includes ‘Pine Trees of the Four Seasons’ by Edo-period painter KANŌ Tanyū (Daitokuji temple, Kyoto Prefecture). (Japanese)
On June 9, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, bid successfully on a Japanese chest for 7.3 million euros (approximately 950 million yen) at an auction. This lacquer chest, made in Japan in the early Edo period, was originally purchased by French cardinal Jules Mazarin in 1658 and was found in a private house in France. One of the four Japanese chests owned by the Mazarin family, this is one of the finest pieces of Japanese export lacquerware, made entirely of black-lacquered wood lavishly decorated with gold maki-e and raden (shell inlay) decoration. It came into the possession of Sir Trevor Lawrence, a British collector of Japanese art, in 1882, but went missing since 1941. (Japanese)