Founded in London, England in 1753, the British Museum is one of the world's great museums. Its collection of Japanese art is said to be one of the most comprehensive outside of Japan in quality as well as quantity. People’s enduring fascination with the culture of Japan, a foreign land far beyond the seas, has been the force driving the collection’s expansion since the late 19th century, when Japonisme became a craze. Connections built by collectors and curators that reached across borders and decades have been passed down to this day.
This exhibition will showcase selected masterpieces from the British Museum’s some 40,000-piece Japanese collection with a focus on Edo-period paintings on folding screens (byobu), hanging scrolls (kakejiku), and handscrolls (emaki), as well as prints by eight renowned ukiyo-e artists including Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai, and Hiroshige. By also shedding light on recent research findings and the collection’s history, the exhibition will trace the British Museum’s role at the forefront of the collection, research, and conservation of Japanese art. It will, in this way, present opportunities to look back on the history of international cultural exchange and, at the same time, open a new dialogue between we who live today and Japanese art masterpieces in the care of the British Museum.