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Masterworks of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Works from Across the Sea

  • Image of "Monkey, Attributed to Mao Song, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)"

    Monkey, Attributed to Mao Song, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)

    Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room T1
    October 19, 2010 (Tue) - December 12, 2010 (Sun)

    Manuscript scrolls brought from Tang China to Japan during the Heian period include works which had been once discarded and reused on their reverse sides. These include examples of ancient texts which no longer survive in China, some of which are now designated as National Treasures in recognition of their importance. Paintings of the Song and Yuan dynasties, meanwhile, were imported to Japan from the Kamakura period, together with Zen Buddhism. They were displayed to suit Japanese tastes in teahouses and shoin-style drawing rooms. Works such as those in albums were remounted into hanging scrolls to accommodate Japanese ways of viewing, and have been cherished thus until the present day. Many of the paintings of this kind have become rare and invaluable in China.

    From the early 20th century during the Meiji period, Japanese intellectuals who held the traditional aesthetics of the Chinese literati as ideal began to collect classical masterworks in China. Consequently, Japan at present is home to the richest collections of Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

 Major works in this exhibition

* Works listed below are in the TNM Collection unless otherwise indicated.
 Monkey, Attributed to Mao Song, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)
Cockerel and Bamboo, By Luo Chuang, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)
Siwan Landscapes, By Wen Boren, Ming dynasty, dated 1551 (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)
Landscape From the Chinese painting album, Hikkoen, Attributed to Xia Gui, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, on exhibit through November 14, 2010)
Shishuo Xinshu, vol. VI, Tang dynasty, 7th - 8th century (National Treasure)
Manuscript of Epitaphs for Wang Zhong and Shi Fu, By Huang Tingjian, Northern Song dynasty, 11th century
Inscription for Tablet of a Buddhist Temple, By Wuzhun Shifan, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century (Important Cultural Property, Gift of Mr. Umehara Ryuzaburo)
Colophons for the Baoningsi Temple, By Feng Zizhen, Colophons by Gulin Qingmao, Yuan dynasty, dated 1327 (Important Cultural Property)
Exhibitions