The winners of the 28th Kokka Prizes, the award for remarkable research on Japanese and East Asian art, were announced. The Kokka Exhibition Catalog Prize was given to an exhibition catalog titled ‘Soshū no miru yume: Min Shin jidai no toshi no kaiga’ (The Museum Yamato Bunkakan, 2015) by UEMATSU Mizuki; and an exhibition catalog titled ‘Kiwami: In Praise of Tea Ceremony Kettles’ (MIHO MUSEUM, 2016) by HARADA Kazutoshi et al. (Japanese)
On October 21, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on nine sites in total of 65 structures to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to MATSUNO Hirokazu, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the former Nara Prison, the oldest surviving prison built in the Meiji period, and Koiwai Farm (Shizuku City, Iwate Prefecture), a pioneer of Western-style farm. In addition to the list, two districts, monzen-machi of Togakushi Shrine (Nagano City), which retains its historical landscape, and the fishing village of Mugi Town in Tokushima Prefecture, which prospered from skipjack fishing, were also suggested to be the Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. (Japanese)
On October 28, the Japanese government announced six recipients of the Order of Culture and 15 recipients of the Person of Cultural Merit for the fiscal year 2016. In relation to art, painter as well as sculptor KUSAMA Yayoi was awarded the Order of Culture, and calligrapher OZAKI Yūhō and art critic TSUJI Nobuo were awarded the Person of Cultural Merit. (Japanese)
On November 10, the 38th Suntory Prize for Social Science and Humanities (sponsored by the Suntory Foundation) announced that, in relation to art, IKEGAMI Hiroko (Associate Professor, Kobe University) for her monograph ‘Ekkyō to haken (The Great Migrator)’ and KANAZAWA Momoe (Professor, Tokai University) for her monograph ‘Romanesuku bijutsu kakumei’ were awarded in the Literary and Art Criticism Category. (Japanese)
The Ringa Art Encouragement Award (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 28th Ringa Art Encouragement Prize. In the Art History Research Division, MASHIBUCHI Kyōko (Chief Curator, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Fukushima) and UEDA Sayoko (Curator, The Museum of Kyoto) shared the award for their curated exhibition titled ‘Ogawa Senyō – Jūōmujin ni ikiru’ and for the contribution of their essays to its exhibition catalog. In the Art Criticism Division, ARAI Kei (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Fine Arts Department of Conservation, Tokyo University of the Arts) received the prize for his monograph titled ‘Nihonga to zairyō: Kindai ni tsukurareta dentō’. (Japanese)
On November 18, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on the following places to be designated as Places of Scenic Beauty or Historic Sites to MATSUNO Hirokazu, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the former residence and garden of nihonga artist YOKOYAMA Taikan (Taitō Ward, Tokyo), to be designated as a Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty; ten places such as the moat around the Hashihaka Burial Mound (Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture), which is believed to have been the tomb of Queen Himiko of Yamataikoku, to be designated as Historic Sites; two places such as the Matsuya Hotel Garden (Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), which was created in the early Taishō period, to be selected as Registered Monumnets; and the terraced rice fields and rural landscape of Okuuchi (Matsuno Town, Ehime Prefecture), located in the mountainous Shikoku region, to be selected as an Important Cultural Landscape. The Council also suggested 177 structures to be designated as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, including the Tateishi Cape Lighthouse (Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture), a Western-style lighthouse built by Japanese engineers in 1881, and the Miyazaki Prefectural Government Office Main Building (Miyazaki City), built in 1932. (Japanese)
On November 19, the Kurume City Art Museum (Director: NARAHARA Toshinori) opened in Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, taking over the building and activities of the Ishibashi Cultural Center, which closed on August 28. The Ishibashi Foundation, which operated and managed the Ishibashi Cultural Center and housed the collection of ISHIBASHI Shōjirō, decided to centrally manage the collection in Tokyo, together with that of the Bridgestone Museum of Art, also operated by the Foundation. As a result, the Kurume City Art Museum would be operated by the Kurume Cultural Promotion Association. The exhibition titled ‘Western Painting in Kyushu’ (November 19, 2016 – January 22, 2017) was held to celebrate the opening of the museum. (Japanese)
On November 22, the Sumida Hokusai Museum (Director: KIKUTA Hiroshi) opened in Sumida Ward, Tokyo. As KATSUSHIKA Hokusai, ukiyo-e artist, spent most of his life in what is now Sumida Ward, the Ward build the museum as part of its regional development. It houses the collections of Peter Morse, the foremost collector of Hokusai’s work, and NARAZAKI Muneshige, ukiyo-e researcher. The building, designed by SEJIMA Kazuyo, consists of four stories above ground and one below, with a total floor area of 3,278.9m2. (Japanese)
On December 10, the winners of the ICOMOS Japan Prize 2016 were announced. The ICOMOS Japan Prize aims to encourage the preservation and conservation of structures, groups of historic buildings, cultural landscapes, monuments and historic ruins as well as historic sites. The winners were SAITŌ Kiyohide (Technical Advisor to Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture), who conducted excavation in Palmyra, Syria, for many years and promoted the conservation and restoration of cultural heritages threatened by civil war; and NPO Red Brick Club Maizuru, which had been conducting urban development utilizing brick warehouses in Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture, as well as Maizuru City. (Japanese)
On July 15, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on five people to be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties (Living National Treasures) to HASE Hiroshi, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes MURAKAMI Ryōko, tsumugi weaver whose works are characterized by the pellucid colors of plant dyes and the bold composition of colored surfaces achieved through her own unique techniques. (Japanese)
On December 13, 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 KŌDA Chie, who created ‘Futatsu no me o shugo ni shite’. UEDA Yaya, who created ‘Yottsu no obuje to hitotsu no shiten’, and SUZUKI Motomasa, who created ‘Ghost #4’, jointly received the VOCA Encouragement Prize. AOKI Emiko, who created ‘Mishiranu hate no‘ and ‘PRESENCE No40’ received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize as well as the Ohara Museum of Art Prize. MURAKAMI Hanako, who created ‘ANTICAMERA(OF THE EYE)#E1 ANTICAMERA(OF THE EYE)#P4’ received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize. The VOCA exhibition 2017, where the winners’ works were exhibited, was held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo from March 11 to March 30 in 2017. (Japanese)
On July 15, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on 204 structures to be designated as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties to HASE Hiroshi, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes Riverside Building (Kita Ward, Osaka), an office building designed by KISHIDA Hideto, and Tenjin Bridge, an arch bridge without piers over the Asano River in central Kanazawa. (Japanese)
The construction date of the East Pagoda (National Treasure) of Yakushiji temple in Nara City, which had been dismantled for restoration, was identified by dendrochronological dating. Yakushiji temple and the Nara National Institute for Cultural Properties announced on December 19 that the central pillar and five members of the East Pagoda were made of cypress wood cut in the first half of the eighth century (the first half of the Nara period). There had been two theories concerning the East Pagoda since the Meiji period: one was that it might have been moved from Fujiwarakyō during the Asuka period whereas the other was that it might have been newly built after the capital was relocated to Heiankyō. The discovery proved that the newly built theory became now definitive. (Japanese)
On May 17, 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 a site should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, recommended the inclusion of Le Corbusier’s architectural works, comprising seventeen properties in seven countries, including the National Museum of Western Art (Taitō Ward, Tokyo) on the World Heritage List. In response, on July 17, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, held in Istanbul, Turkey, decided to inscribe them on the World Heritage List as cultural heritage sites. (Japanese)
On September 5, the National Museum of Western Art, which houses part of the Matsukata Collection, announced that a list of artworks that were destroyed in a fire in London in 1939 had been discovered. The Matsukata Collection was consisted of over ten thousand artworks collected by a businessman, MATSUKATA Kōjiro. The list was identified in February in Tate Archive, located at Tate Britain, in which 953 artworks were listed, including paintings by Édouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh and plaster figures by Auguste Rodin. (Japanese)
On September 13, the laureates of the 28th 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 Cindy Sharman (USA) in the Painting category, Annette Messager (France) in the Sculpture category, and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Brazil) in the Architecture category. (Japanese)
On September 24, the Kitora Tumulus Mural Experiential Museum Shijin-no-yakata, a facility for preserving and exhibiting the mural paintings from the Kitora Tumulus (Special Historic Site) in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture, was opened. Adjacent to the tumulus, the building, consisting of one-story and one basement, has a total floor area of approximately 2,500m2. Located on the first floor, the Center for Preservation of Kitora Tumulus Mural Paintings was installed by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, which consists of a room for preservation of the mural paintings, a room for preservation of burial objects excavated from the chamber, and an exhibit room. The mural paintings are open to the public for a limited period of time and on a pre-registration basis. (Japanese)
In the restoration report ‘Chōjū giga Shūri kara mietekita sekai’ (Kyoto National Museum ed.), it reported that the reordering of the pictures in the Kō scroll of the National Treasure, Chōjū jinbutsu giga (so-called Chōjū giga), from Kōzanji temple in Kyoto City, had been identified by brush marks on the paper. The restoration, starting in 2009, discovered that the 23rd paper and the 11th paper would have been connected, which was identified by streaks made when the papers were stroked with a brush during the papermaking process. Furthermore, it had been believed that the Kō scroll might have been divided into two scrolls: the 1st to the 10th papers and the 11th to the 23rd papers, due to difference in style. However, it was confirmed that those two potential scrolls have different paper qualities, raising the possibility that the Kō scroll might have been formed by combining the two scrolls. (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 35th winner was YAMAUCHI Michio. The award was given for his photobook titled ‘DHAKA 2’. (Japanese)
On March 29, the government budget for the fiscal year 2016 (Heisei 28) was passed. The budget for the Agency for Cultural Affairs became ¥103.965 billion, increasing by 0.2%, which is ¥172 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, ¥821 million for ‘Promotion of cultural programs to realize Nation Based on Culture and the Arts’; and in Project 2, ¥1.259 billion for ‘Strengthening the Strategic Plan for Integrated Use of Cultural Properties’. (Japanese)