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 November 18, the exhibition titled ‘Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde’ opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (until February 25, 2013). The exhibition introduced the avant-garde experimentation that took place in Tokyo, mainly in 1960s, through works in a variety of media. It was a full-scale exhibition in the context of recent upsurge in interest and research in Japanese post-war art history, particularly in the United States. (Japanese)
Amid the deterioration in the relations between Japan and China following the nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in September, an exchange exhibition between Tokyo University of the Arts and Central Academy of Fine Arts, titled ‘Tōkyo Pekin Gendai āto zhi fei zhi（紙非紙）2012’, which had scheduled to open in October, was cancelled due to difficulties in transporting artworks from China and the visit of participating artists to Japan. Another exchange exhibition of artists from Japan and China, titled ‘Nicchū bijutsu ten’, which had been scheduled to open at the National Museum of China in Beijing on October 23, was also cancelled. (Japanese)
The recipients of the Asahi Prize for the fiscal year 2011 (sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun Foundation) were announced. In relation to art, artist YOKOO Tadanori received the prize for ‘creating innovative graphic designs and paintings that always resonate with the times.’ (Japanese)
On September 12, the laureates of the 24th 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 were Cai Guo-Qiang (China) in the Painting category, Cecco Bonanotte (Italy) in the Sculpture category, and Henning Larsen (Denmark) in the Architecture category. (Japanese)
On October 1, the Tokyo Station Gallery, which had been closed since 2006 due to restoration of the Marunouchi Station Building of Tokyo Station, reopened to coincide with the reopening of the station building. Moved to a location almost directly connected to the Marunouchi Station North Exit, the gallery consists of a third-floor exhibition rooms with white walls and a second-floor exhibition room with brick walls. The inaugural exhibition titled ‘Waiting for the First Train’, was held to commemorate its reopening (October 1 – February 24, 2013). (Japanese)
On October 8, the special exhibition titled ‘Ishin no yōgaka Kawamura Kiyoo’ opened at the Edo-Tokyo Museum (until December 2). It examined achievements of KAWAMURA Kiyoo, who produced Japanese-style yōga paintings rooted in Edo culture while studying authentic oil painting techniques abroad. The exhibition consisted of a vast amount of materials donated to the museum by his bereaved family, and also included his works from outside of Japan, such as a painting titled ‘Kenkoku (Founding of the Nation)’ in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, France. The exhibition travelled to the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (February 9 – March 27, 2013). (Japanese)
The winners of the 24th Kokka Prize, the award for remarkable research on Japanese and East Asian art, were announced. The Kokka Prize was given to a monograph titled ‘Shotō bukkyō bijutsu no kenkyū’ (Chūō kōron bijutsu shuppan, 2011) by HIDA Romi (Professor, Waseda University) and an article titled ‘Kōtei no bunbutsu to hokusō shoki no kaifū’ (in ‘Bijutsu kenkyū’ vols 404 and 406, Aug. 2011 and Mar. 2012) by TSUKAMOTO Maromitsu (Assistant Curator, Tokyo National Museum). (Japanese)
The dismantling and repair of the East Pagoda (National Treasure) of Yakushiji temple in Nara City was underway for the first time in approximately 110 years. On June 4, the work began in earnest with a memorial service that was held in order to remove hōju (a sacred gem) in the upper section of sōrin (literally, pagoda finial). After dismantling all the roof tiles, wooden parts and platforms, and conducting an underground excavation survey, the damaged parts would be repaired and reassembled. The repair had been scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2019. (Japanese)
On May 18, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on two assets and nine assets to be designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties to SHIMOMURA Hakubun, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The two assets to be designated as National Treasures are two old shibi, known as ‘Tenpyō no iraka (Roof Tiles of the Tenpyō period)’, which was a type of decoration placed at both ends of the tiled roof of the Golden Hall of Tōshōdaiji temple (Nara City); and Kaigiin Shōdendō (Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture), characterized by ornate decoration. The list for Important Cultural Properties includes the Ushibuse River Main Channel (Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture), a 141-meter-long stair-stepped waterway. In addition to the list, Kauemon-chō in Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture, which developed along the road to Nikkō Tōshōgū shrine was also suggested to be the Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings. (Japanese)
On April 1, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, which had been entirely closed for major renovations since spring 2010, reopened. The building, designed by MAEKAWA Kunio in 1975, was extensively renovated due to its age. It was added more elevators and escalators, and the exhibition spaces were improved by, for example, raising ceiling height of the main galleries. The renovation was also an opportunity to strengthen the art communication function, and to launch the ‘Tobira Project’, a joint project with Tokyo University of the Arts, in which members of staff from the university will conduct viewing programs and workshops. (Japanese)
On April 14, the exhibition ‘Matsumoto Shunsuke’ opened at the Iwate Museum of Art to commemorate the centenary of his birth (until May 27). Although a number of retrospectives of yōga artist MATSUMOTO Shunsuke, whose poetic works had attracted many people, had been held in the past, this exhibition focused more on introducing materials than previous exhibitions and provided more concrete information on the background to his work. The exhibition travelled to the Museum of Modern Art, Hayama (June 9 – July 22), the Miyagi Museum of Art (August 4 – September 17), the Shimane Art Museum (September 29 – November 11) and the Setagaya Art Museum (November 23 – January 14, 2013). (Japanese)
On March 13, 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 2011. The recipients of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize were photographer HAYAKEYAMA Naoya (for his exhibition ‘Natural Stories’) and architect BAN Shigeru (for his work ‘Paper Architecture’, which was used in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake) in the Fine Arts category; art historian SUZUKI Tokiko (for her monograph titled ‘The Body in Representations of the French Revolution’) in the Criticism category; and SATŌ Masahiko, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (for his TV programs ‘0655’ and ‘2355’) in the Media Art category. The recipients of the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists for the fiscal year 2011 were artist as well as sculptor ODANI Motohiko (for his exhibition ‘Phantom Limb’) in the Fine Art category; KAI Kenji, Artistic Director at Sendai Mediatheque (for his Great East Japan Earthquake recovery activities for ‘the Center for remembering 3.11’) in the Development of the Arts category; and visual culture researcher SATŌ Morihiro (for his monograph ‘Topography and Japanese Modernity’) in the Criticism category; and animation director NAGAI Tatsuyuki (for his animation ‘Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day’) in the Media Arts category. (Japanese)
On February 11, the exhibition titled ‘Murayama Tomoyoshi: Get All of Me Seething’ opened at the Museum of Modern Art, Hayama (until March 25). It was the first large-scale solo exhibition to introduce the versality of MURAYAMA Tomoyoshi. Known as ‘da Vinci of Japan’, he was involved in plastic arts, dance performances, stage sets, architectural planning and design, as well as writing plays, novels and critiques from the late Taishō to the early Shōwa periods. The exhibition travelled to the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (April 7 – May 13), the Takamatsu Art Museum (May 26 – July 1) and the Setagaya Art Museum (July 14 – September 2). (Japanese)
On February 8, Chou Kung-shin, Director of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, conferred with SHIMATANI Hiroyuki, Deputy Director of the Tokyo National Museum, and reached basic agreement that an exhibition of artworks from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, would be held at the Tokyo National Museum in 2014. As the majority of the museum’s artworks were originally located in Beijing, there was a possibility that the Chinese government would seize them if an exhibition of artworks from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was held in Japan. However, following the enforcement of the Act on Facilitation for Exhibiting Overseas Works of Art, etc. to the Public in Japan in September 2011, which prohibits third parties from seizing artworks on loan from overseas, the plan was launched in earnest. In May, it was also agreed in principle that the exhibition would tour to the Kyushu National Museum after it was held at the Tokyo National Museum. (Japanese)
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 SUZUKI Seia, who created ‘E ga miru sekai 11_03’. KUWAKUBO Tōru and TAKESUE Kōichirō jointly received the VOCA Encouragement Prize. OHNARI Tets and KASHIHARA Yuka jointly received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize. KASHIHARA Yuka also received the Ohara Museum Art Prize. The VOCA exhibition 2012, where the winners’ works were exhibited, was held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo from March 15 to March 30 in 2012. (Japanese)
The winners of the 53rd 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, the award was given to architect BAN Shigeru for his exploration of new architecture on paper and its use in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake; painter KIKUHATA Mokuma for his exhibition titled ‘KIKUHATA Mokuma Postwar/Paintings’, held at the Fukuoka Art Museum and Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum; and calligrapher ISHITOBI Hakkō for his exhibition titled ‘ISHITOBI Hakkō sho ten 2011’. (Japanese)
On January 2, the special exhibition titled ‘Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing’ opened at the Tokyo National Museum to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China (until February 19). The exhibition displayed 200 masterpieces from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. It included a handscroll ‘Life along the Bian River at the Qingming Festival’ by Zhang Zeduan from the Northern Song Dynasty, which attracted much attention since it was the first time it had been shown outside China. (Japanese)
On March 20, the exhibition titled ‘Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’ opened at the Tokyo National Museum (until June 10). It displayed Japanese artworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The two major illustrated handscrolls in foreign collections, ‘Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China’ and ‘Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace, from the Illustrated Scrolls of the Events of the Heiji Era’, which were shown in their entirety, while SOGA Shōhaku’s ‘Dragon and Clouds’, restored to its original sliding door appearance for the exhibition, was exhibited in Japan for the first time. The exhibition travelled to the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts (June 23 – December 9), the Kyushu National Museum (January 1, 2013 – March 17) and the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts (April 2, 2013 – June 16). (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 31st winner was TAKANASHI Yutaka. The award was given for his photobook titled ‘IN’’(Shinjuku shobō), in recognition of his attitude of deep integration into the subject of his photographs and his sensitivity in intuitively capturing the city from its mundane everyday life through the scenes of a moment in time. (Japanese)
On March 30, the exhibition titled ‘Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800)’ opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. for the centennial commemoration of the donation of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the US capital (until April 29). It was the first time that ITŌ Jakuchū’s representative works, all thirty hanging scrolls of ‘Colorful Realm of Living Beings’ (The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shōzōkan) and his triptych of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Shōkokuji) were exhibited together outside Japan. At the same time, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery also exhibited KANŌ Kazunobu’s paintings ‘Masters of Mercy: Budhha’s Amazing Disciples’ (Zōjōji) and KATSUSHIKA Hokusai’s ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’. (Japanese)
