17

EnglishEditionMar.27 Fri. 2020 No.17

Special Exhibition

The Pioneers — Masters of Edo Painting
Saturday, April 25, to Sunday, June 21
Special Exhibition Gallery, 1F*Displays will be changed during the exhibition.

Highlights, 3
Change your view of Edo-period painting !
This exhibition is packed with works we rarely have an opportunity to see in Tokyo: the recently
discovered Roosters and Hens folding screens by Jakuchū, the Feminine Wave ceiling painting for theKanmachi festival float by Hokusai, the Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden sliding door
painting by Kanō Eigaku, and the Kinzan-ji folding screen and West Lake by Kōda Tōken ofYamaguchi prefecture, to name a few. This exhibition offers new encounters with a rich variety ofworks by these pioneering masters, artists who sought their own paths and opened up new terrain. It
may well change your view of Edo-period painting.
Feminine Wave,ceiling painting for theKanmachi festival float
Katsushika Hokusai(Kanmachi, Obusemachi,neighborhood association;
on deposit with the HokusaiMuseum)In histories of Edo painting, schools are given priority. Artists whose styles do not conform tospecific schools’ styles tend to be regarded as heretical figures.
In the late 1960s, a movement emerged to reconsider artists who had broken out of existing
frameworks and worked freely, employing fresh ideas, as a “lineage of eccentrics.” A number ofexhibitions and books about artists who were thought unorthodox or unusual have appeared. Since
the 1970s, when new museums were being opened throughout Japan, unconventional artists whohad been lost in obscurity in their home towns have been rediscovered. That process of rediscoveryand reassessment continues.
If eccentric artists are defined as artists who break out of conventional frameworks, however, thenwe must also include in that lineage artists who have been treated as part of the mainstream of art
history: Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Ogata Kōrin, who brought decorative qualities to the world ofpainting, and Maruyama Ōkyo, who experimented with new directions in painting from life, forexample.
In this exhibition, the first of its type in Japan, we adopt that point of view, revisiting artists, someconventionally famous, some unknown, to introduce a bevy of eccentric pioneers. The exhibition
brings together thirty-five convention-breaking geniuses not only from Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo but
also from Matsumae in the far north and Nagasaki in the south. This exhibition will shatter theconventions of Edo-period art history and inspire its rewriting.

Highlights, 1Sōtatsu, Kōrin, Ōkyo, Taiga, Buson—all pioneers!
Lately, Itō Jakuchū, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Soga Syōhaku, Utagawa Kuniyoshi—artists whose workradiates an intense individuality—have been attracting enormous attention internationally. But they
are not alone. Artists who have been positioned as in the mainstream of Edo art history also pursued
innovative, individual styles of painting. We introduce selected work by Tawaraya Sōtatsu andOgata Kōrin, Maruyama Ōkyo, and others who are regarded as archetypical Edo-period painters that
demonstrate why they are well worthy of being called pioneers as well as masters of Edo painting.

Highlights, 2
A huge group of pioneering
artists from throughout Japan—
the first such gathering!
Artists in search of new styles were notconfined to the major cities—Kyoto, Osaka,and Edo. As this exhibition demonstrates,
they were active throughout Japan. Theseartists include Kakizaki Hakyō fromMatsumae (Hokkaido), Sugai Baikan from
Sendai, Ekin, also known as Kinzō, from Kōchi,on the island of Shikoku, and Katayama
Yōkoku, who was born in Nagasaki, onsouthern Kyushu, and worked in Tottori, on
the Japan Sea side of Honshu. Enjoy thisgathering of work by pioneer masters still
beloved in the places throughout Japanwith which they were associated.

Meet thirty-five Edo period pioneers at this exhibition
For this exhibition, we bring together pioneering artists in the Edo period from throughout thecountry. Our theme is just right for the year of the Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics, with so muchattention focused on Tokyo.
(Eriguchi Yūko, curator)

Banshū Sarayashiki
Tetsuzan Shimoyashiki
Ekin(Akaoka-cho, Yokomachini-ku,Kōnan, Kochi Prefecture)
Display period: Tuesday,
May 26, to Sunday, June 21

Tigers and Bamboo
folding screen (detailof left-hand screen)
Katayama Yōkoku(Unryū-ji Temple, Tottori)
Display period: Tuesday,May 12 to Sunday, May 24

Information
Open: 9:30-17:30 (Saturdays until 19:30) *Last entry 30 minutes before closing
Closed: Mondays (except for May 4 and May 18)
Organized by: Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture The Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo
Museum, The Yomiuri Shimbun
Admission Fee

Standard adult
University/college students
Middle and high school students. Seniors 65+
Tokyo middle and elementary school students

Special exhibition only
¥1,400 (¥1,120)¥1,120 (¥890)¥700 (¥560)¥700 (¥560)

Special and permanent exhibition¥1,600 (¥1,280)¥1,280 (¥1,020 )¥800 (¥640)
None

Advance tickets for special exhibition only
¥1,200
¥920
¥500
¥500

The Ezo [Ainu] Ally IkotoiNotes• Fees in parentheses are for groups of twenty or more.
• Fees are waived in the following cases: Children below school age; individuals with a Certificate of the Physically Disabled,Intellectually Disabled, or Mentally Disabled, a Certificate of Rehabilitation, or an Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Certificate, and a person
accompanying each (up to two persons).
• Since all elementary school students and those middle school students living in or studying in Tokyo have free admission to thepermanent exhibition, there is no joint special and permanent exhibition ticket category for them.
• Silver Parties (May 20, June 17): Free admission to special exhibitions for those 65 and older. Proof of age required.
• Advance tickets will be on sale between Saturday, February 8 and Friday, April 24. Tickets purchased on or after Saturday, April 25
are at the regular price.

Kakizaki Hakyō
(Hakodate City Central Library)
Display period: Saturday, April 25, to Sunday, May 24

Ticket Sales
Edo-Tokyo Museum, major ticket agencies, convenience stores (fees may apply). (For tickets to both the special andpermanent exhibition, Edo-Tokyo Museum only.)From the Permanent Exhibition

Featured Exhibition

Gifts from the Citizens 2019
— A selection of new acquisitions from 2018
Open from Tuesday, March 10,
to Sunday, May 10
Permanent Collection Gallery 5F
Featured Exhibition Gallery*Items on display may change during the exhibition.

Our Museum collects materials that are related to the history and culture of Edo-Tokyo and stores and manages them in order to passthem on to the future generations. Furthermore, we conduct research on these materials and share the results through the exhibitions.
This exhibition is an opportunity to showcase our newly acquired materials. With our deepest gratitude to our donors, we havecarefully selected from our acquisitions for the fiscal year 2018-2019, during which we were able to add 1,807 objects, including
donations to our collection.
A highlight of this exhibition is a portrait of the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada, on display from March 10 to April 5. It issaid to be a copy of a portrait owned by Chion-in Temple in Kyoto, with which Hidetada was associated; the copy was made byReizei Tamechika, an artist active in the Yamato-e revival movement in the closing years of the Tokugawa shogunate. Since it
resembles a preliminary drawing of a portrait of Hidetada handed down in the main Tokugawa family, it is thought to be afaithful replica. Many portraits of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, exist, but portraits of Hidetada, the second shogun, are rare.
The museum’ s collection of modern and contemporary materials includes many concerning the Great Kanto Earthquake,
which struck on September 1, 1923. New acquisitions include documents distributed by government offices and otherinstitutions, newspaper reporting about the earthquake damage, as well as posters and flyers. This exhibition introduces thesevaluable materials, which span the period from the day of the earthquake to recovery.
The exhibition also includes a silver tea bowl with the hollyhock crest and chrysanthemum and leaf crest which belonged toKazunomiya, the consort of Iemochi, the fourteenth Tokugawa shogun. It is joined by a polychrome print by Suzuki Harunobu
portraying Kasamori O-Sen, famed as one of the three greatest beauties of the Meiwa era (1764-72). (This print will be on display
from April 7 to May 10.) Old photographs from the Meiji period capturing the Eidai Bridge, the Ginza, and other Tokyo
settings, plus aerial photographs of famous places in Tokyo taken from 1954 to 1957 are also on display.
We hope you enjoy our diverse and rich collection, which ranges from primary documents that unveil the history ofEdo-Tokyo to materials that were close to people’s everyday life.
(Awaya Tomoko, curator)Portrait of Tokugawa Hidetada
Reizei Tamechika, End of Edo period
Display period: Tuesday, Mar 10, to Sunday, April 5

Photograph: Eitaibashi Bridge
Early Meiji period

Poster: The Skills of Edokko(People Born in Edo) Are Demonstrated in
the Arena of the Restored Imperial CapitalEnd of Taishō period

Teacup and Teacup Stand with Aoimon and Yogikumon
Crests, and Design of Paulownia Flower ArabesqueEnd of edo period