Museum presents free passes for Hachioji students

On July 7, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Executive Director Akira Kaneko presented Hideshio Yasuma (left), Superintendent of Education for the Hachioji municipality, with free admissions tickets to be distributed to students in elementary and junior high schools of the city.

Angola ambassador visits museum

On July 1, His Excellency Rui Orlando Xavier (second from left), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Angola to Japan, and his wife, Mrs. Fátima Xavier, paid a courtesy call on the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Welcoming them was TFAM Director Akira Gokita, who led the ambassador and ambassadress on a tour of the “Moomin Comic Strips Exhibition” as well as the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” and “Vehicles in Photography: The Evolution of Transportation Modes” exhibitions.

Students from elementary school in Hachioji visit museum

On June 22, fourth-grade students from Utsukidai Elementary School in Hachioji toured the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum as part of its ongoing art appreciation outreach program for children. Divided into groups of five, the students viewed the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition and “Moomin Comic Strips Exhibition.”

World-famous comic character comes to museum

On June 18, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum opened the “Moomin Comic Strips Exhibition,” the comic book character created by Tove Jansson (1914-2001), one of Finland’s most renowned artists who was also a famous writer and cartoonist for both children and adults. First appearing on the UK daily Evening News in 1954, the Moomin comic strip ran for some 20 years. Ms. Jansson’s Moomin books have been translated into over 50 languages to date.

The “Moomin” exhibition features stories and comics never translated into Japanese, displaying a total of 280 or so works, including original drawings, sketches and episodes.

TFAM asks for the cooperation and patience of visitors as we continue to observe strict Covid safety protocols.
©︎Moomin Characters™️

Ever-evolving story of transportation caught on camera

From June 11, the exhibition, “Vehicles in Photography: The Evolution of Transportation Modes,” opened for public viewing at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum’s No. 7 Permanent Gallery. Drawn from some 20,000 prized photographs belonging to our museum’s collection, “Vehicles in Photography” follows the evolution of transportation captured through a camera’s viewfinder—from horses, camels and steam locomotives to automobiles, aircraft and spacecraft—and with it, the ever-expanding worldview of humanity itself. Among the exhibition’s highlights are pictures of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s nascent flights into the air by William Preston Mayfield and stills of the Space Shuttle Challenger provided by the US space agency NASA.

Bulgarian ambassador visits museum

On June 3, Her Excellency Marieta Arabadjieva (center), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to Japan, paid a courtesy call on the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. She was welcomed by TFAM Director Akira Gokita, who led the ambassador on a guided tour of the “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Yoshida, and Hasui: Landscape of Journey in Japanese Woodblock Prints” exhibition as well as the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition and “W. Eugene Smith: A World of the Photojournalist” being held at the museum’s Permanent Gallery.

Tokyu Department Store chief executive visits museum

On May 26, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Director Akira Gokita welcomed Tokyu Department Store Co., Ltd. President and Representative Director Tsugunori Oishi and Senior Executive Officer Hisaya Tsubaki. The two viewed the “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Yoshida, and Hasui: Landscape of Journey in Japanese Woodblock Prints” exhibition as well as the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition and “W. Eugene Smith: A World of the Photojournalist” being held at the museum’s Permanent Gallery.

Argentine ambassador visits museum

On May 18, His Excellency Guillermo Juan Hunt (center), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Argentine Republic to Japan, paid a courtesy call on the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and was welcomed by TFAM Director Akira Gokita. Ambassador Hunt viewed the “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Yoshida, and Hasui: Landscape of Journey in Japanese Woodblock Prints” exhibition as well as the “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” exhibition and “W. Eugene Smith: A World of the Photojournalist” being held at the museum’s Permanent Gallery.

Tree sapling from atomic bombing of Nagasaki planted on museum grounds

On May 14, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum held a special tree-planting ceremony on its grounds, an occasion made particularly meaningful as the persimmon kaki tree sapling came from a mother tree that survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945.

Held under the auspices of the nonprofit “Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project,” the ceremony was attended by Masayuki Ebinuma, the arborist who in 1994 treated the then-fragile bombed tree back to health and succeeded in producing seedlings; and artist Tatsuo Miyajima, who originally displayed its saplings in an art exhibition appealing for peace and was later instrumental in the project’s founding in 1996. In addition, students from the Toyo Elementary School in Hachioji City and other children from the museum’s neighborhood took part in the event. Later that day, Faculty of Fine Arts Dean Katsuhiko Hibino of the Tokyo University of the Arts joined Messrs. Ebinuma and Miyajima in a panel discussion.

Given its founding commitment to peace and the SDGs, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum asked to take part in the project, which has gone global with some 30,000 children planting the kaki tree saplings at more than 312 schools in both Japan and 26 other countries from 1996 to 2019.

Head of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. visits museum

On April 19, Makoto Takashima (second from left), CEO of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, visited the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. He was greeted by TFAM Director Akira Gokita and Executive Director Akira Kaneko and was led on a tour of the “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Yoshida and Hasui: Landscape of Journey in Japanese Woodblock Prints,” “From the Renaissance to the 20 Century—500 Years of Western Paintings” and “Memorial Exhibition for the Centennial of the Birth of Eugene Smith: From TFAM’s Permanent Photography Collection” exhibitions.