Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga expressed his intention to strengthen efforts to lend items from the collection of the Sannomaru Shozokan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections) to local museums and art galleries, and to use it as a way to "ignite regional tourism," in a speech at the Yomiuri International Economic Society on Tuesday.
The Tsumugu Project, organized by the Cultural Affairs Agency, the Imperial Household Agency and The Yomiuri Shimbun, has been holding exhibitions of the museum's collections since 2019.
The museum houses about 9,800 items that have been handed down from generation to generation in the Imperial family, including paintings by Ito Jakuchu, a painter in the Edo period.
"Our country has wonderful contents [resources] that are not known to domestic and foreign tourists. The most notable of those are cultural assets and artworks," the prime minister said. "We plan to hold at least four exhibitions each year in various parts of the country for the next four years."
In 2021, a Tsumugu Project exhibition will be held at the Kyoto National Museum, and other exhibitions will be held in Miyagi, Wakayama and Miyazaki prefectures.
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