18

EnglishEditionFrom the Permanent Exhibition

Featured Exhibition

Jul.24 Fri. 2020 No.18

Tuesday, August 25 to Monday, November 23
Permanent Collection Gallery 5F*Items on display may change during the exhibition.

Splendors of Great Tokyo:“Modern” Culture that Embellished the City

With redevelopment proceeding in many areas of Tokyo in recent years,
new commercial facilities and sightseeing spots are being born. The
cityscape is changing—but Tokyo has always been in the process oftransformation.
The first three decades of the twentieth century saw the flowering of
popular culture, with new places for amusement and recreation—
department stores, theaters, cafes—emerging in the city. Tokyo Station
opened and office building districts, with the Marunouchi Building as theirtrendsetter, formed. The city was gradually taking on a modern aspect when
the Great Kanto Earthquake struck in 1923, causing enormous damage inTokyo. The massive recovery project then put in place new buildings, parks,roads, and bridges. Tokyo, reborn, was nicknamed Great Tokyo.
The words “Great Tokyo” can be seen on many prints, picture postcards,and photo album titles from the late 1920s and 1930s. But what image didpeople have of Great Tokyo? What aspects of the city are captured in those“Great Tokyo” images? To explore those questions more deeply, thisexhibition uses materials from our collection to present the face of Tokyo

Twelve Views of the Great Tokyo/May/Night View ofGinza (Kyōbashi-ku)
FUJIMORI Shizuo
1933(On display Tuesday, August 25, to Sunday, September 27)

as it has evolved over time, in the Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-26),
and Showa (1926-89) eras.
Those waves of change affected more than the cityscape; the clothing
and lifestyles of the millions of people who gathered there also underwent
drastic changes. Particularly in the 1930s, women gloried in a morecolorful, more modern urban lifestyle, symbolized by the “modern girl”
who strutted through the Ginza area in Western dress. This exhibition thus
includes fashion items then in vogue, Art Deco style furnishings, and otherproducts that adorned people’s lives.
As you explore the faces of Tokyo in the past, in ferment as a new age
dawned, take a moment to consider the future of this great city, which isindeed changing before our eyes.
(Tsuda Hiroko, curator)

DressMade by MATSUYA
Showa 10’ s(1935–44)

Curator’s Choice

From the Edo-Tokyo Museum Collection

Woman’s palanquin in maki-e lacquerware withpine lozenge and plum blossom motifs andhollyhock-leaf crests on a nashiji background in gold relief;
owned by the Tokugawa family

Palanquins, quietly moving forward on the backs of several bearers:Those lavishly decorated in black lacquer and gold maki-e (adecorative technique in which metallic powders are sprinkled onto
damp lacquer to create designs) are frequently seen in dramas set inthe past. But while the palanquins are familiar, it is less well known
that use of them was restricted to women of high status.
Palanquins whose surfaces were covered in pear-skin lacquer (aground made by scattering flakes of gold or silver over the lacquersurface) were especially luxurious. In this example, the exterior haslarch, pine, plum blossom, and other motifs arranged
geometrically. The triple hollyhock leaf crest and the six hollyhockleaf crest scattered here and there are sufficient to tell us, because of
the hollyhock leaves, used the Tokugawa family crest, that thispalanquin must have been associated with the marriage of a womanof the Tokugawa clan. Its interior, moreover, is decorated withpaintings of scenes from The Tale of Genji. Interior and exterior
thus conform to the characteristics that were restricted topalanquins for use by women of the Tokugawa clan. Given thelavishness of its design, it must have been related to a marriage inthe shogun’s family. It is presently thought that this palanquin wasfor the use of Yae-hime, the adopted daughter of Tsunayoshi, thefifth Tokugawa shogun.
It appears to have been reused later, for a note in sumi ink on theunderside of the metal fittings states that is was repaired in 1851. Itwould appear that it was used by Itonomiya Takako, an adopted
daughter of Ieyoshi, the twelfth Tokugawa shogun.
This work, a masterpiece of the craft arts, remains radiantly
beautiful today.
(Saito Shin’ichi, curator)
Our curators introduce their choice selections from the Edo-Tokyo Museum collection.

The interior: a lavish space, like a tiny palace surroundedby golden folding screens.