TFAM offers online viewing service during renovation

Because the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has been undergoing major renovation from August 29 and reopen some time in July 2023, artworks displayed in previous exhibitions and information relevant to those pieces can be viewed on the Japan Search website: https://jpsearch.go.jp/organization/fujibi. Viewers can access the following six TFAM exhibitions: “Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics” (2014); “From Hokusai to Hiroshige: Grand Masters of Ukiyo-e Art” (2015); “Katana—A Millennium of Swordsmith Mastery: Premiering the Latest Acquisitions of Japanese Swords” (2016); “Exotic, Exquisite Copperplate Works of Manet” (2019); “THIS IS JAPAN IN TOKYO (2020); “Western Prints: Its History and Allure” (2021); and “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Yoshida, and Hasui: Landscape of Journey in Japanese Woodblock Prints” (2022).

Modern Japanese painter of women opens

“The Exhibition of Three Generations: Uemura Shoen, Shoko and Atsushi” opened at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum on February 11. The exhibition, which is being held until March 13, was made possible by the Shouhaku Art Museum in Nara prefecture.

Uemura Shoen is a pseudonym used by Uemura Tsune (1875-1949), a renowned painter of bijin-ga, or traditional Japanese paintings of beautiful women, at a time when the social status of women in Japan was undergoing significant change. Shoen was the first female recipient of Japan’s prestigious Order of Culture Award and was hired as the Imperial Household’s official artist.

The exhibition also features works by Shoen’s two artistic progeny—her son, Shoko and grandson, Atsushi.

Exhibition of Sakubei Yamamoto’s celebrated works opens

On February 11, “A Tenth Anniversary Memory of the World Register in 2011: Exhibition of Sakubei Yamamoto Collection” opened in the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum’s Permanent Galleries 6-7 of its New Annex. On May 25, 2011, the historical coal mine paintings, diaries and other works by Yamamoto (1892-1984) was incorporated in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, which was established to protect documentary heritage of outstanding value for humanity. Yamamoto, who actually worked as a coal miner, was the first Japanese to be approved for the honor. This exhibition is a retrospective of his oeuvre featuring 114 original works, drawn largely from his early creations, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Memory of the World Register decision.

‘Ancient Egypt’ exhibition to be extended into 2022

The exhibition, “Ancient Egypt—The Creation of the World,” now showing at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum will remain open for public viewing until January 16, 2022. The decision to extend the exhibition’s running was made due to popular demand. Visitors should be aware that our museum will continue to observe covid safety protocols, including limiting admissions to ensure social distancing.

Museum announces shortened viewing hours for “Ancient Egypt” exhibition

Due to the Japanese government’s declaration of national emergency in response to the ongoing pandemic, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has temporarily altered viewing hours for the exhibition, “Ancient Egypt—The Creation of the World.” The exhibition will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with admission closing at 3:30 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and if a national holiday falls on a Monday, then the following day will be closed.

The “Ancient Egypt—The Creation of the World” exhibition features some 130 works selected with meticulous care from the superlative collection of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, which belongs to the famed Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island. By viewing these artifacts and aided by the use of short animated films, viewers are invited to delve into the many profound allegories embraced by one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

Notice of changes to museum operating hours

Due to the Japanese government extending its declaration of national emergency in response to the ongoing pandemic, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has temporarily altered its opening hours as follows:

Open: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. (Reception closes at 3:30 p.m.)
Closed: Mondays

Please note that the museum will be closed an hour earlier than the operating hours indicated on posters and flyers. The change of opening hours will be announced on our website, official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts as well as on our LINE account. Also, visitors may be asked to wait outside the venue in order to ensure social distancing and related pandemic safety protocols.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Notice of changes to museum operating hours

Due to the Japanese government extending its declaration of national emergency in response to the ongoing pandemic, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has temporarily altered its opening hours as follows:

Open: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. (Reception closes at 3:30 p.m.)
Closed: Mondays

Please note that the museum will be closed an hour earlier than the operating hours indicated on posters and flyers.
The change of opening hours will be announced on our website, official Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts as well as on our LINE account. Also, visitors may be asked to wait outside the venue in order to ensure social distancing and related pandemic safety protocols.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Museum releases new research work on Tavola Doria

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum announced the publishing of Ushinawareta daihekiga no kioku (tentative English translation: “Remembering the Lost Great Mural”), an academic study in Japanese focusing on the “Tavola Doria,” an oil painting believed by some to portray central portion of “The Battle of Anghiari,” the largest mural project that Leonardo da Vinci ever undertook. Both works are steeped in mystery and fascination and the source of some controversy.

TFAM donated the “Tavola Doria” to the Italian government in 2012 and the work is currently owned by the renowned Uffizi Gallery. Following its donation, the painting has been shown to large public audiences in Japan and Italy. Scientific research on the “Tavola Doria” has been ongoing, with findings by some of the foremost authorities in the field being published.

Ushinawareta daihekiga no kioku features reports from global experts on art restoration and conservation, as well as the most recent thought essays, dissertations and other relevant studies from Italy and Japan. The book is slated for release in Japanese on April 12 and available on Amazon Japan.

A TFAM work by Turner to be shown at Tate Gallery exhibition

“Helvoetsluys; the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea,” a painting by the celebrated Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) belonging to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection, will be on display at the Tate Gallery exhibition “Constable: A History of His Affections in England” held at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo from February 20.

Turner’s work was originally shown alongside “The Opening of Waterloo Bridge” by John Constable (1776-1837), renowned for his groundbreaking landscape paintings, at an exhibition organized by Britain’s Royal Academy of Arts in 1832. Turner and Constable were rivals in their genre and when the Royal Academy chose to exhibit their works next to each other, the artists were allowed to apply their final brushstrokes before the grand opening. At the last minute, Turner added a red buoy to his largely monochromatic “Going to Sea,” to which Constable later wrote, “He has been here and fired a gun.” This is the first time that the two pieces will be shown side by side in Japan.

The episode was recorded in Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, which was authored by fellow painter Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859), a work that also belongs to the TFAM Collection and be on display at the exhibition. “Constable: A History of His Affections in England” will run until May 30. For further information, click on the link: https://mimt.jp/constable/

“A Dress In A Picture, A Picture Of A Dress” opens at museum

On February 13, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum premiered at its Main Museum Exhibition Gallery “A Dress In A Picture, A Picture Of A Dress,” an exhibition organized in close collaboration with the Kobe Fashion Museum, the first national institution in Japan dedicated to the history and evolution of fashion. The exhibition features paintings and photographs of subjects in the 18th to 20th centuries dressed in various finery from the TFAM collection displayed alongside apparel and dress ornaments corresponding to that specific era provided by the Kobe Fashion Museum, enabling visitors to explore the world of fine art from a unique new prism.

Concurrently, the “Fashion in Photography: Evolving Faces, Evolving Places” exhibition will be held at TFAM’s New Wing Permanent Gallery 6 and 7. Drawing extensively on our extensive photography collection, the exhibition with a sweeping perspective of fashion, from its earliest daguerreotype roots to modern-day “mode” stills that first appeared in postwar Japan and remain popular to this day. Among the works on display are opulently dressed European gentility of the 19th century and the glitterati of the day, along with rare photos of Japanese clad in both traditional attire as well as Western wear as the country transitioned from a feudal to modern society.

The “A Dress In A Picture, A Picture Of A Dress” exhibition will run until May 9 while “Fashion in Photography: Evolving Faces, Evolving Places” will close on May 23.

Please note that TFAM has instituted strict coronavirus safety protocols and that our theater, library and Kids’ Room will therefore be closed to the public.