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).
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 27th Ringa Art Encouragement Prize. In the Art History Research Division, MIZUNUMA Hirokazu (Chief Curator, Chiba City Museum of Art), IWAO Yoshinobu (Specialist, Oita Art Museum) and MATSUOKA Takeshi (Curator, Oita Art Museum) shared the award for their curated exhibition titled ‘“The Principles of Art” by Akasegawa Genpei: From 1960s to the Present’ and for the contribution of their essays to its exhibition catalog. In the Art Criticism Division, EJIRI Kiyoshi (Curator, Ashikaga Museum of Art) received the prize for his work which includes the curation of the exhibition titled ‘The Coming of Susanoo: The Life, Anger and Prayer’. (Japanese)
On April 9, the government budget for the fiscal year 2015 (Heisei 27) was passed. The budget for the Agency for Cultural Affairs became ¥103.792 billion, increasing by 0.2%, which is ¥200 million increase compared to the previous year. The budget is divided into four principal projects as follows: 1. Creation and utilization of rich culture and arts and cultivation of human resources; 2. Preservation, utilization and succession of Japan’s precious cultural properties; 3. Dissemination of Japan’s outstanding culture and arts / promotion of international cultural exchange; and 4. improvement / enhancement of the foundation for the promotion of culture. Major categories whose budget increased in each project are as follows: in Project 1, ¥933 million for ‘Cultural Program for 2020’; in Project 2, ¥567 million for ‘Establishing the Strategic Plan for Integrated Use of Cultural Properties and Promotion of Tourism’; in Project 3, ¥637 million for ‘Implementation of the promotion/exchange of Japanese culture’; and in Project 4, ¥560 million for ‘Enhancement of the functions of national cultural facilities’. (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 34th winner was SHIMOSE Nobuo. The award-winning work was his photography book ‘Kekkai’. The work was highly praised for being photo documents that delve into fields and mountains, recreating in great detail the untouched forms of nature. (Japanese)
On April 24, the Agency for Cultural Affairs recognized 18 items of tangible and intangible cultural properties from all over the country for the first time as ‘Japanese Heritage’ sites, categorized by region and theme. The purpose of this is to revitalize the region by synthetically developing and utilizing a group of tangible and intangible cultural properties under the initiative of the region and communicating them tactically within Japan as well as abroad. The Former Kōdōkan (Ibaraki Prefecture), Ashikaga Gakkō (Tochigi Prefecture), Former Shizutani School (Okayama Prefecture) and Kaigien Academy Ruins (Ōita Prefecture) were recognized as ‘Educational Heritage from Early-Modern Japan (1568-1868): The Origins of Academics and Decorum’. (Japanese)
On April 24, the Oita Prefectural Museum (Director: NIIMI Takashi) opened in the central part of Ōita City, Ōita Prefecture. Designed by BAN Shigeru, it has one basement and three (partly four) floors above ground. The core of the collection consists of approximately 5,000 works by artists associated with Ōita Prefecture, such as TANOMURA Chikuden, ASAKURA Fumio, FUKUDA Heihachirō and TAKAYAMA Tatsuo, which were inherited from the Ōita kenritsu geijutsu kaikan, which closed in March. The exhibitions titled ‘Modern: Blossoming Garden – Oita World Museum – Oita & World 200 Masterpieces’ (April 24 – July 20) and ‘Dawn of Gods – Encounter of Venus, and Spiritual Landscape, East and West’ (October 31, 2015 – January 24, 2016) were held to commemorate the opening of the museum. (Japanese)
IWATA Sōhei’s ‘Setsugekka no toki mottomo kimi o omou – hana dorobō’ was selected as the 6th Higashiyama Kaii Memorial Nikkei Nihonga Award, which was established to honor the achievements of nihonga artist, HIGASHIYAMA Kaii, and to recognize the next generation of nihonga artists. The Special Committee Award was shared by TANIHO Reina’s ‘Kurikaesareru kokyū’ and MATSUDA Junichi’s ‘Koku’. The exhibition featuring these works along with other selected paintings was held at the Ueno Royal Museum from May 28 to June 7. (Japanese)
The winners of the 8th Yomiuri Aoniyoshi Prize (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 Prize was given to YAMAMOTO Kiyokazu (Nara Prefecture), Selected Conservation Techniques Holder with roofing with roof tiles (hon-kawara), who has restored a number of ancient roof tiles. TSUJ Shōgaku (Saga Prefecture), who manufactures Japanese paints for ceramics such as Arita ware, received the Encouragement Prize, and Nanto Gakuso (Nara Prefecture), which works to promote and popularize Gagaku, was selected for the Special Prize. (Japanese)
On May 15, the Council for Cultural Affairs (Commissioner: MIYATA Ryōhei) submitted a report on nine buildings to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes Matsue Castle (Matsue City) to be designated as a National Treasure; and the Former Residence of Prince Asaka (Minato Ward, Tokyo) to be designated as an Important Cultural Property. In addition to the list, a mountain village and sericulture community in Enzan-Shimodawara-Kamijō, Kōshū City, was also suggested to be one of the Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings. (Japanese)
On May 16, the selection process for 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. TOYA Shigeo’s ‘Kanshiteki’ was selected as the 39th prize winner. (Japanese)
The winners of the 10th Western Art Foundation Prize, which publicly honor individuals and organizations 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 ARAKI Natsumi, Curator of Mori Art Museum (for the exhibition ‘Go Betweens’), FURUTANI Yoshiyuki, Director of Curatorial Division at the Hiroshima Museum of Art (for the exhibitions ‘The Hague School – Intermediators from Barbizon and Van Gogh’ and ‘Normandy: Estuary of the Seine’), and TSUTATANI Noriko, Chief Curator at the Shimane Art Museum (for the exhibition ‘L’Arcadie au bord de l’eau – Le monde mythique de Puvis de Chavannes’), while the Cultural Promotion Prize for institutions was awarded to the Kyoto Costume Institute. (Japanese)
On May 4, 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 the ‘Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining’ (eight prefectures including Fukuoka Prefecture, twenty-three sites), which had been nominated by the Japanese government as illustrating the process by which Western technology merged with Japanese culture to rapidly form an industrial nation, on the World Heritage List. In response, on July 5, the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, held in Bonn, Germany, decided to inscribe the sites on the World Heritage List as Cultural Heritage Sites. (Japanese)
To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II, a series of exhibitions were held across the country to reconsider the relationship between artists and the war such as, ‘1940s – rediscovery of 20th Century Japanese Art IV’ held at the Mie Prefectural Art Museum (July 11 – September 24); ‘War and Postwar: The Prism of the Times’ held at the Izu Photo Museum (July 18 – January 31, 2016); ‘Japanese Painters under the World War II: How Did They Survive War?’ held at the Nagoya City Art Museum (July 18 – September 23); ‘Hiroshima Trilogy: 70th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing, Part 1 Life=Work’ held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (July 18 – September 27); ‘War and Peace’ held at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (July 25 – September 13); ‘Sengo nihon bijutsu no shuppatsu 1945-1955: Gakatachi wa dō “jiyū” o hyōgen shitaka’ held at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma (September 19 – November 3); and ‘70th Anniversary of the End of WWII: Alternative Stories in 1940’s Art – From the Tragic War to Reconstruction and Rebirth, What did Japanese Artists’ Works During that Period Represent?’ held at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts (October 31 – December 23). (Japanese)
On July 15, the South Korean Prosecutors’ Office announced that they will return a bronze standing statue of Buddha, nationally designated as an Important Cultural Property, one of the two Buddhist statues that were stolen in 2012 from a shrine and temple in Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture, and brought into South Korea. The statue was handed over from South Korea to Japan on July 17 and were shown to the press at the Nagasaki Prefectural Tsushima Museum of History and Folklore on the following day. However, the decision on the other stolen statue, a seated Kanzeon Bodhisattva, designated as a Nagasaki Prefectural Tangible Cultural Property, was postponed because of a court injunction by Buseoksa temple in central South Korea preventing the return of the statue to Japan until it could be determined how it had originally been brought to Japan. (Japanese)
From February to April, a series of damages were reported at temples and shrines across the country, including the Great Buddha Hall of Tōdaiji temple and Asukadera temple in Nara, and Kiyomizudera and Tōji temples in Kyoto, where an oil-like liquid had been spilled on cultural properties. In response to this, on April 8, the Agency for Cultural Affairs issued a notice asking the Prefectural Boards of Education to strengthen their crime prevention system. (Japanese)
The recipients of the Asahi Prize for the fiscal year 2014 (sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun Foundation) were announced. In relation to art, architect BAN Shigeru received the prize ‘for design activities based on fresh ideas and support to areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami through architecture.’ (Japanese)
On January 1, the winners of the 56th Mainichi Art Award (sponsored by the Mainichi Newspapers Co.), the annual award given to outstanding individuals in art and culture, were announced. In relation to art, ceramic artist KAKUREZAKI Ryūichi won for his exhibition titled ‘Kakurezaki Ryūichi: Serving for Integrity’ held at the Musée Tomo. In Art Category III (Calligraphy), calligrapher FUNAMOTO Sōun was awarded for his calligraphy exhibition titled ‘Shimiiru kokyō: Funamoto Sōun’ held at the Sogo Museum of Art. (Japanese)
On the issue that fine arts designated as national important cultural properties had gone messing, on January 21, the Agency for Cultural Affairs announced that the results of the second investigation revealed that 72 more items of fine art had gone missing, including National Treasures of a sword, ‘meibutsu Inabagō’, and a long sword (tachi) signed by Yoshihira. The total number of missing items reached 180, of which three are National Treasures, including the items missing from the first investigation that took place in July 2014. (Japanese)
After the completion of the full restoration of the ‘Cypress Trees’ screen (National Treasure; Tokyo National Museum collection) that is believed to have been a work of KANŌ Eitoku, painter of the Kanō School, the work was displayed to the public at the Tokyo National Museum from February 17 to March 15. The restoration that took place for a year and half involved in an adjustment of unmatched design in the center part as well as remounting from a single eight-fold screen to a pair of four-fold screens in order to improve safety during storage. In addition, the screen had conventionally been presumed to have originally been decorated on sliding doors in the Hachijō no Miya residence that was constructed by TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi. The restoration this time revealed that kira-kiri-mon (paulownia crest with mica) on the back of the painted paper corresponds with karakami monyō (karakami patterns) of the family of Hachijō no Miya, which heightened the possibilities that it would have been a work created in 1590 (Tenshō 18) by Eitoku who suddenly died after the Hachijō no Miya residence was completed. (Japanese)
On March 4, Bijutsu Shuppan-sha Co., a publisher of art magazines and books such as the monthly magazine ‘Bijutsu techō’, applied to the Tokyo District Court for the bankruptcy protection under the Civil Rehabilitation Law. On top of their heavy financial debt, the publisher’s revenue dropped due to stagnant sales in the publishing industry as a whole. In May, Bijutsu shuppan-sha was able to continue its business under new administration, having Culture Entertainment, a Culture Convenience Club group company, as a new sponsor. (Japanese)
On March 10, 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 27th winner was KUROWARABI Sō. The artist capitalized on the charm of wood carvings and his works represented his earnest efforts to seek a relationship between humans and carvings, which were highly acclaimed. (Japanese)
