New growth buds on trees and plants. Flowers in a myriad of colors bloom. All hail the coming of spring. To celebrate this season when bright sunlight pours down, we have organized an exhibition that fills our museum with famous works depicting flowers.
Term: 9 Mar (Sat.) – 6 May (Mon.) 2024
Open: 10 am – 5 pm (Last admission at 4:30 pm)
Closed: Mondays [Open Mon 9 Apr (national holiday), Mon 6 May]
Yamatane Museum of Art official website: https://www.yamatane-museum.jp/
Exhibition Overview
Since antiquity, Japanese hearts have been drawn to—and adored—the flowers that bloom in each of the four seasons. To painters, flowers have been a compelling motif. Even now they appear in masterpieces that display their artists’ individuality.
The subject of Okumura Togyū’s Cherry Blossoms at Daigo-ji Temple is the Taikō Weeping Cherry at Daigo-ji in Kyoto. This tree is said to be 170 years old. The soft gradations of color created by using multiple layers of pigments evoke the warmth of spring.
Okumura Togyū, Cherry Blossoms at Daigo-ji Temple, 1972, Color on Paper, Yamatane Museum of Art
Fukuda Heihachirō’s Peonies captures with bewitching beauty the peony’s form, while using the technique of applying color from the back of the silk canvas.
Tanomura Chokunyū’s A Hundred Flowers is a picture scroll, in effect an encyclopedia in which we can enjoy a hundred varieties of seasonal blossoms.
Tanomura Chokunyū, A Hundred Flowers (one part) , 1869, Color on Silk, Yamatane Museum of Art
In addition to nihonga, this exhibition also includes two Western-style paintings, Umehara Ryūzaburō’s Roses and Oranges and Nakagawa Kazumasa’s Roses. Visitors are invited to savor the added variety in how flowers are rendered in Western-style paintings as well as in nihonga. Please enjoy this glorious world of flowers.
Umehara Ryūzaburō, Roses and Oranges, 1944, Oil on Paper, Yamatane Museum of Art
*All works are from the Yamatane Museum of Art collection unless otherwise noted.
*Eye – catching image Okumura Togyū, Cherry Blossoms at Daigo-ji Temple, 1972, Color on Paper, Yamatane Museum of Art
Term: 9 Mar (Sat.) – 6 May (Mon.) 2024
Open: 10 am – 5 pm (Last admission at 4:30 pm)
Closed: Mondays [Open Mon 9 Apr (national holiday), Mon 6 May]
Yamatane Museum of Art official website: https://www.yamatane-museum.jp/
