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)
On March 2, the exhibition titled ‘Raffaello’ opened at the National Museum of Western Art (until June 2). This is Raphael Sanzio’s first ever exhibition in Japan, one of the representative painters of the Italian Renaissance, which displayed 23 pieces of Raphael’s works along with his masters and followers, including ‘Madonna del Graduca’ (Palatine Gallery, Florence). In addition to this exhibition, ‘Leonard da Vinci: Biblioteca Pinacoteca Ambrosiana’ exhibition (held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from April 23 to June 30) and ‘Michelangelo Buonarroti: The Making of a Genius and the 500th Anniversary of the Sistine Chapel’ exhibition (held at the Fukui Fine Art Museum from June 28 to August 25 and the National Museum of Western Art from September 6 to November 17), were held as part of ‘Italia in Giappone 2013’. (Japanese)
On June 13, the exhibition ‘Lacas Namban: Huellas de Japón en España’ opened at Museo Nacional de Artes decorativas, Madrid (until September 29). The exhibition was part of a series of events commemorating the 400th anniversary of Spanish-Japanese relations as well as marking the 400th anniversary of the departure of the Keichō mission to Spain, led by HASEKURA Tsunenaga. The exhibition brought together a collection of lacquerware from the Nanban chest in the collection of Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, as well as other pieces from around Spain. (Japanese)
On March 8, the exhibition titled ‘Francis Bacon’ opened at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (until May 26). This exhibition featured 33 works by London-based painter Francis Bacon, which are housed in national and international collections. It also displayed performance works influenced by Bacon and was notable for its focus on the physicality the artist saw important. The exhibition travelled to the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (June 8 – September 1). (Japanese)
On June 18, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided an international advisory committee meeting in Gwangju, South Korea to register ‘Materials Related to the Keichō Mission to Europe’ (Sendai City Museum Collection), which relates to HASEKURA Tsunenaga, a samurai of the Sendai domain, who was dispatched to Rome in the early Edo period, as well as ‘Midō Kanpakuki’ (Yōmei Bunko Collection, Kyoto City), a diary of FUJIWARA no Michinaga, a court nobleman of the mid-Heian period, as Memory of the World. (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 2012. In the Fine Arts category, artist KAWAMATA Tadashi (for his exhibition ‘Kawamata Tadashi: Expand BankART’ etc.) and artist NARA Yoshitomo (for his exhibition ‘NARA Yoshitomo: a bit like you and me…’) shared the prize. TAMAMUSHI Satoko, art historian as well as Professor at Musashino Art University, was awarded for her monograph titled ‘Tawaraya Sōtatsu: kingin no kazari no keifu’ in the Criticism category. KAWAGUCHI Yōichirō, computer graphic artist, was awarded for his exhibition titled ‘Kawaguchi Yōichirō tokubetsuten’ in the Media Arts category. The recipients of the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists for the fiscal year 2012 were photographer KAWAUCHI Rinko for her exhibition ‘Kawauchi Rinko: Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow’ in the Fine Arts category; SHIMIZU Emiko, scholar of comparative literature and art history, for her monograph titled ‘Okakura Tenshin no hikaku bunkashiteki kenkyū – Bosuton deno katsudō to geijutsu shisō’ in the Criticism category; and OKIURA Hiroyuki, animation director, for his animation work ‘A Letter to Momo’ in the Media Arts category. (Japanese)
On June 21, 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 the Hiunkaku Garden (Takamatsu City) to be appointed as Places of Scenic Beauty; 11 places such as the Makimuku Site (Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture), which is considered to be the most promising site for the theory that states that the Yamataikoku was located in the Kinai region, to be appointed as Historic Sites; 13 places such as four buildings of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Sites, including the Former Shiroyama National School Buildings, (Nagasaki City), to be registered as Registered Monuments; and three places such as the Sakatani Sakamoto Terraced Rice Fields and Rural Landscape (Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture) to be selected as Important Cultural Landscape. (Japanese)
On March 17, the Hyatt Foundation announced that ITO Toyo was chosen as a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the annual award to honor outstanding architects, which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. His works were praised for their spirituality and poetic scope as well as for his attempt to expand the possibilities of architecture through such projects as Sendai Mediatheque. (Japanese)
On April 30, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that conducts preliminary inspections to determine whether sites should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, recommended the inclusion of Mount Fuji (Yamanashi Prefecture, Shizuoka Prefecture), which has been an object of worship and art since the ancient time, on the World Heritage List. In response, on June 22, the 37th UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, decided to inscribe Mount Fuji on the World Heritage List as a Cultural Heritage Site. Miho no Matsubara, which had been recommended for exclusion by ICOMOS on the grounds that it could not be regarded as part of Mount Fuji, was also allowed to be inscribed as a constituent asset after a series of objections from member countries. The Japanese government withdrew its recommendation to the World Heritage Committee for Kamakura, which had been recommended for inscription as the ancient capital of the samurai government, after ICOMOS recommended that the site should not be inscribed. (Japanese)
On March 19, the Japan Art Academy (Director: MIURA Shumon) announced the recipients of the 69th Japan Art Academy Prize. In the Fine Arts category, MAKI Fumihiko (for his architecture of the Toyama Auditorium at Nagoya University) received the Imperial Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize. In the same category, NŌJIMA Kazuaki (for his nihonga painting titled ‘Kanemaki (Kurokawa noh), exhibited at a Nitten exhibition), SATŌ Tetsu (for his yōga painting titled ‘Natsu no owari ni’, exhibited at a Nitten exhibition) and TERAIKE Shizuto (for his kōgei artwork titled ‘Fukisō’, exhibited at a Nitten exhibition) received the Japan Art Academy Prize. (Japanese)
On July 8, as part of Phase 1, Project 2 of the Heisei Renovations (2013-2018), the restoration of the National Treasure, Yōmeimon Gate at Nikkō Tōshōgū began. The work involved repainting the sculptures, metal fittings and the exterior of the entire building. In July, the wooden panels, called hameita, on the east and west walls, which had been decorated with peony relief carvings, were removed to reveal tōyu makie on the wall beneath them. KANŌ Yūsei painted their sketches during the restoration in the Hōreki era. They were opened to the public in November. (Japanese)
The Domon Ken Award (sponsored by the Mainichi Newspapers Co.), the award for a photographer who has made excellent achievements in the previous year, announced that the 32nd winner was KAMEYAMA Ryō. The award was given for his photobook titled ‘AFRIKA WAR JOURNAL’ (Little More), which was highly acclaimed for its new direction in photo-documentary, focusing on the suffering of people at the bottom of the pyramid in conflict zones across Africa. (Japanese)
On July 12, the winners of the 8th Western Art Foundation Prize, 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 Prizes for individuals were awarded to HOSAKA Kenjirō, Curator at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (for the exhibition ‘Francis Bacon’) and JINGAOKA Megumi, Curator at the National Museum of Western Art (for the exhibition ‘Hubert Robert – Les jardins du Temps’). The Cultural Promotion Prize for Institutions was given to the Pola Art Foundation, which has supported a number of exhibitions by providing grants. (Japanese)
On March 26, the exhibition titled ‘Natume Soseki and Arts’ opened at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (until May 6). This exhibition featured works by artists who appeared in the literary works and art criticism of the great novelist NATSUME Sōseki, in an attempt to decipher the world of the art. It included works by the Pre-Raphaelites, modern Japanese art, bookbinding and illustrations by artists who associated with Sōseki, as well as literati paintings by Sōseki’s own hand. The exhibition travelled to the University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts (May 1 – July 7) and the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (July 13 – August 25). (Japanese)
On July 19, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on four people to be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties (Living National Treasures) to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes MAETA Akihiro, ceramic artist who creates white porcelain with a full of modern sensibility, and YAMASHITA Yoshito, lacquer artist who employs the technique of engraving patterns into the surface of lacquer work and filling them with colored urushi lacquer, called kinma. (Japanese)
On March 31, the special exhibition titled ‘Kano Sanraku and Sansetsu’ opened at the Kyoto National Museum (until May 12). This exhibition traced the life and work of Sanraku, the head of the Kyō-Kanō school line, and Sansetsu, the second head of the Kyō-Kanō school, through 83 works, including three from overseas. Based on painstaking research and study, the exhibition demonstrated how the two generations inherited KANŌ Eitoku’s splendid style of painting while they developed richer and more of their original styles. (Japanese)
On April 24, the exhibition titled ‘The Lady and the Unicorn from the Musée de Cluny, Paris, France’ opened at the National Art Center, Tokyo (until July 15). This exhibition featured six late medieval tapestries from the collection of the Musée de Culny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris, France, including ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’. This was the first time they were exhibited in Japan, having been loaned out of the museum to coincide with a complete renovation of the exhibition space. The exhibition toured to the National Museum of Art, Osaka (July 27 – October 20). (Japanese)