Masterpieces from Japan's "three great collections of ukiyo-e" are on display together for the first time ever at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, in a special exhibition titled "Ukiyo-e 2020."
The three collections are held by the Ota Memorial Museum of Art and the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation, both in Tokyo, and the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum in Nagano Prefecture. All possess items that originally belonged to private collectors.
They selected about 60 notable ukiyo-e masters and are exhibiting a total of 455 pieces in two separate sections. The latter half of the event is now running through Sept. 22.
Various works from different periods are exhibited in chronological order: Monotone sumizuri-e by Hishikawa Moronobu, a leading early ukiyo-e artist in the latter half of the 17th century; colorful nishiki-e by Suzuki Harunobu in 1765; yakusha-e portraits of actors by Toshusai Sharaku; bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women by Kitagawa Utamaro; and landscape printings by Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige.
The exhibition also highlights the particular characteristics of each museum's collection. For example, the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation possesses many ukiyo-e artists' early works. The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum contains works that once belonged to an art dealer, and has Utagawa Kuniyoshi's "Ayu under bush cloves; Red carp under wisteria," in which two ukiyo-e motifs are printed on a single sheet of paper.
The Ota Memorial Museum of Art has a good selection of bijin-ga, yakusha-e and landscape printing.
"Ukiyo-e 2020" would have coincided with the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics if there had been no coronavirus pandemic. The Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation held an exhibition of ukiyo-e masterpieces in the Ginza district of Tokyo in 1964 to mark the Tokyo Olympics that year.
The foundation said the previous event exhibited rare works such as Torii Kiyonaga's "Ferryboat at Rokugo crossing," which is also on display in the current show.
"It's said that good ukiyo-e were all taken overseas in those days, and there were hardly any ukiyo-e exhibitions in Japan," said Mitsunobu Sato, the foundation's chairman. "But the number of ukiyo-e pieces has increased since around the time of the Osaka Expo."
The collections have enabled people in Japan to appreciate ukiyo-e on a daily basis.
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