TFAM database uploaded to Japan-Search portal

On July 28, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, working with The Japanese Council of Art Museums, uploaded the proprietary database of its art collection to the beta version of Japan-Search, a digital imagery portal to serve as a “gateway to Japan” for users around the world. Until now, Japan-Search, which is set for official release on August 25, had only featured databases of national art museums. TFAM and the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art are the only non-public institutions to take part in the portal at this time.

On the occasion of our Japan-Search initiative, TFAM is pleased to report that it will formally waive intellectual property rights on the digital images of its collected works posted on the TFAM website at this time, making them part of the public domain. We made the decision in the hope of making our collection more accessible to a larger audience to appreciate.

“Four Centuries” exhibition opens

On July 22, the exhibition, “Four Centuries of Occidental Paintings from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection,” opened at the Oita Prefectural Art Museum (OPAM), with Oita Prefectural Governor Katsusada Hirose, TFAM Director Akira Gokita and other dignitaries attending the opening ceremony. Scheduled to run until September 6, the exhibition—which features 83 works produced from the 16th century Italian Renaissance to the 20th century—was held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of OPAM. Among the sponsors of the exhibition were the Oita Broadcasting System TV network and the daily Oita Godo News.

Special ode to flowers in the world of art opens

On July 3, “Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers: Exhibitions of Flowers in Art from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection” opened to the public with full pandemic protocols in place. Held at the New Wing, the exhibition features some 70 works representing Nature’s floral majesty—including paintings, crafted objects and photographs—and will conclude on August 23.

First showing of latest addition to TFAM’s paintings collection

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum will be premiering “Ukrainian Woman,” an oil painting by Ilya Repin (1844-1930), a realist painter who is described as one of the most famous artists of 19th-century Russia. Formerly owned by a Japanese painter, the work is only the second Repin painting in the possession of a museum in Japan after “Russian Boy” possessed by the Yokohama Museum of Art. The work is considered to be his study that depicts a Ukrainian woman who appears in his masterpiece “Evening Party” (The State Tretyakov Gallery). While measuring just 18.4 x 9.8 cm, “Ukrainian Woman” captures a young woman, eyes set and dressed in folk attire, in the middle of a dance step.

Notice to Visitors on the Opening of Our Museum

For those planning to visit the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum after its formal opening on July 3, the theater, library, lounge and children’s room will remain closed to the public until further notice. We will also be required to ask visitors to provide their contact information at the admission gate upon arrival. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and look forward to welcoming you to our museum after a long hiatus.

Museum to Open to the Public on July 3

Since its self-imposed closing on March 2 due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum will formally open to the public on July 3. The opening exhibition will be “Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers: Exhibition of Flowers in Art from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection,” which was originally slated to premiere on May 2, and it features the finest representations of Nature’s floral majesty, including paintings, crafted objects and photographs, in our collection.

The official social distancing protocols will remain in effect for the protection of visitors.

“Great Masters of Japanese Painting” exhibition opens to public in Shimane

The Shimane Art Museum will be hosting “Great Masters of Japanese Painting from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection,” an exhibition held in cooperation with the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. The exhibition features the works of some three centuries of master Japanese artists, from early modern paintings to ukiyo-e prints, with the showing in Shimane running from June 1 on to July 5.

“Splendor of French Paintings” exhibition opens to public in Osaka

The Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts will be hosting “Through the Eyes of René Huyghe: The Splendor of French Paintings—Formation and Transformation of the ‘Grande Manière,’” an exhibition organized by the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. The Osaka venue runs from May 26 and is scheduled to close on August 16. Among its backers are the nationally circulated Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and its affiliated national Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation network.

Divided into three segments, “The Splendor of French Paintings” exhibition consists of some 80 oil paintings and drawings, works capturing three of the most iconic periods in Western art, beginning with the rise of classicism in the 17th century to the Rococo in the 18th and neo-classicism in the 19th up until the eve of the Impressionism.

Highlighted works from delayed “Flowers” exhibition

The showing of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum exhibition “Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers: Exhibition of Flowers in Art from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection” was originally slated to premiere on May 2 but regrettably has been postponed due to the pandemic. The exhibition introduces the finest representations of Nature’s floral majesty, including paintings, crafted objects and photographs, in our collection. The following are but a few of such examples:

• “Anemone,” a watercolor and gouache work by the multitalented French artist Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)
• “Cherry Blossoms in the Shin-Yoshiwara Courtesan’s District,” a color woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825)
• “White Tubular Cup with Design of Flowers” and “White Dish with Design of Flowers,” two 17th-century ceramic pieces created in Iznik, Turkey
• “Yugashima, Izu,” a color woodblock print by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)

Video on Uemura Shoen and her artistic heirs produced

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has uploaded a new video on its “tfamfilm” YouTube channel, produced as a tribute to “The Exhibition of Three Generations—Uemura Shoen, Shoko and Atsushi,” which regrettably had to be cancelled after only two days of showing from February 29 in the wake of the pandemic and subsequent self-enforced closure. We hope you will enjoy the video, which runs for some 14 minutes, over the lockdown, by clicking on this link: https://youtube.be/sKqlCr4-vQM.

Uemura Shoen (1875-1949) gained popularity for her Japanese-style paintings of so-called “beautiful women,” or bijin-ga, going on to become the first female recipient of the Order of Culture award and official artist of the Imperial Household. Shoko was her son and Atsushi, her grandson, both of whom were to emerge as prominent artists in their own right. While portraying the artistic legacy inherited by her progeny, the Japanese-language video follows the talent and success of Shoen and imparts the incisive lessons of life that she won: