TFAM opens Pippi Longstocking™exhibition

“Pippi Longstocking and the World of Astrid Lindgren,” a special exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Japan formally opened on July 28.

Attending the opening ceremony were dignitaries as well as representatives from Sweden, Denmark and Estonia that had loaned their prized works to TFAM. In addition, students from the local Hachioji Kasumi Elementary and Junior High Schools were also invited.

Malin Billing, granddaughter of the Swedish author of the “Pippi Longstocking” series, Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002), delivered the keynote address at the ceremony, sharing her memories of her grandmother and expressed high hopes for the exhibition’s success.

Astrid Lindgren devoted a lifetime to writing children’s books that came to be adored by a worldwide readership. Her works have been translated into more than 100 languages to date, selling some 160 million copies.

This special exhibition features some 200 prized manuscripts, original drawings, personal memorabilia and other items pertaining to Lindgren’s most renowned works, including the Pippi Longstocking, Lotta and the Bullerby Children series.

The exhibition will be held until September 24.

TFAM signs partnership agreement with Russian museum

On November 16, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and the State Russian Museum signed a letter of understanding in which the two institutions agreed to collaborate on future cultural exchange initiatives together. The signing took place in St. Petersburg, with Director Vladimir Gusev representing the Russian museum and Director Akira Gokita representing TFAM.

The partnership was made possible under the auspices of the Russian government and will cover joint exhibitions and other projects to strengthen and augment bilateral cultural exchange.

The State Russian Museum was originally founded in 1895 and is home to the largest collection of Russian fine art in St. Petersburg. TFAM has worked with the Russian art museum in the past, hosting the “The Ninth Wave: The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum 20th Anniversary Special Exhibition” in Japan from 2003 to 2004 and the “Masterpieces of the State Russian Museum from the Late 18th Century to Early 20th Century” in 2008.

TFAM opens “Monumental Journey” exhibition

On September 19, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum held a ceremony commemorating the opening of the exhibition, “A Monumental Journey to the Far Side of the World: The Art of Renaissance Italy and the Boys of Tensho-Era Japan.” The exhibition is organized in part as an initiative to promote bilateral cultural exchange and celebrates the 150th anniversary of official diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan.

Numerous guests and dignitaries attended the opening ceremony, led by His Excellency Domenico Giorgio, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy to Japan and Commissioner Ryohei Miyata of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. Shigeo Hasegawa, executive senior advisor of TFAM, was also present.

In addition, Director Eike Schmidt of Italy’s Uffizi Gallery sent a message congratulating the exhibition’s opening.

“A Monumental Journey” features representative works of the Italian Renaissance at a time when four Japanese boys were dispatched to Italy and were granted an audience with Pope Gregory XIII some four centuries ago.

The exhibition will open for public viewing from September 21 to December 3.

Hiroshima museum opens TFAM’s Battle of Anghiari exhibition

On September 10, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum began showing the “Leonardo da Vinci and The Battle of Anghiari: The Mystery of the Tavola Doria” exhibition organized by the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Some 260 guests and dignitaries attended the opening ceremony.   The Hiroshima exhibition will also include ten new pieces, the most prominent of them being The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist on loan from the Los Angeles-based Hammer Museum. The exhibition concludes on October 22.

Aomori museum holds TFAM Renaissance exhibition

On July 27, the Aomori Museum of Art, a cultural institution operated by the Aomori prefectural government, held “A Monumental Journey to the Far Side of the World: The Art of Renaissance Italy and the Boys of Tensho-Era Japan,” an exhibition that traces Japan’s first official delegation to Europe by introducing various Italian artworks from the Renaissance era.

Among the dignitaries attending the exhibition’s opening ceremony were Director Eike Schmidt of Italy’s Uffizi Gallery and Corrado Molteni, Academic and Cultural Affairs Attache of the Italian Embassy in Japan.

The exhibition will be shown at the Aomori Museum of Art until September 10 and reopen at TFAM in Hachioji, Tokyo, on September 21.

Peter Rabbit exhibition opens at TFAM

On July 15, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum opened “The Peter Rabbit Exhibition Celebrating The Anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s Birth,” the largest of its kind ever to be held in Japan.

The exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Helen Beatrix Potter, the English author who developed a lifelong love for nature through her sketches of plants and animals. More than 200 of her illustrations and personal memorabilia are on display.

Children from the local Hachioji elementary and junior high schools took part in the opening ceremony, which was led by TFAM Director Akira Gokita.

TFAM goes 3D with VR viewing

One of the most popular attractions of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum exhibition, “Maki-e : A Kaleidoscope of the Japanese Aesthetic—Discovering by Monocle the Beauty Underlying the Beauty of Lacquer Art,” is the head-mounted virtual reality (VR) display—the first of its kind in Japan—of an antique ink case. And now, visitors can view the ink case in 3D, using a pilot VR unit developed with the technical support of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Lobby transformed into planetarium

As part of its annual Golden Week program, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum erected an inflatable “air dome” in its first-floor lobby. Six meters in diameter, the dome served as a planetarium to entertain visitors of all ages who had come to the museum to view “Maki-e : A Kaleidoscope of the Japanese Aesthetic—Discovering by Monocle the Beauty Underlying the Beauty of Lacquer Art” during the weeklong holidays.

TFAM holds press conference at Italian Embassy

On February 14, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum held a press conference at the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Tokyo to announce the opening of the exhibition, “A Monumental Journey to the Far Side of the World: The Art of Renaissance Italy and the Boys of Tensho-Era Japan.” In his opening remarks, His Excellency Domenico Giorgi, Ambassador of the Italian Republic to Japan, expressed his hopes for the exhibition’s success, noting that it revolved around a groundbreaking event in history—the first-ever delegation from Japan sent to Italy and Europe in the 16th century.

“A Monumental Journey” features some 80 representative works of the Italian Renaissance at a time when four Japanese boys were dispatched to Italy and were granted an audience with Pope Gregory XIII.

TFAM Director Akira Gokita also spoke at the event, along with Hidehiro Ikegami, professor of Tokyo Zokei University’s faculty of art and design.

Museum publishes work on collection of Japanese fine art

Selected Masterpieces of Japanese Fine Art from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection, a catalogue that features 657 of the most valuable works that the museum has collected over nearly four decades, was pub-lished. The catalogue includes text on the different genres of Japanese art and titles of works in Eng-lish.