Guided Tours & Events

A Journey through Asian Art. This is the concept that informs the display of art, decorative objects, and archaeological artifacts from China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, the Western Regions, India, Egypt, and other regions in the Asian Gallery (Toyokan) of the Tokyo National Museum. Every autumn, the Asian Gallery holds a thematic exhibition entitled “Journey through Asia at the Tokyo National Museum” with different focuses each year to encourage new ways of appreciating the works on display.

This year marks the 12th iteration of this thematic exhibition. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, this year’s thematic exhibition is titled Shared Horizons: A Journey through Korean Culture, which features many objects related to Korea from the Tokyo National Museum’s collection. The exhibition revolves around three themes this year: “Time Traveling through Korea: Encountering People from Different Times,” “Culture of the Korean Peninsula in Japan” and “Calligraphy, Painting, and Cultural Exchange during the Joseon Dynasty.” Through these different lenses, this exhibition traces Korea’s history and culture and explores how they have interacted with Japan.

As neighboring countries, Japan and South Korea are geographically close to each other and have influenced each other over the course of history. Separated by an ambiguous, hard-to-define space, their cultures appear similar yet seem different, and at the same time appear different yet seem similar. By exploring their cultural differences, this exhibition allows you to rediscover Korea’s uniqueness and aesthetic sensibilities, which were born out of the region’s distinctive features. At the same time, it also surveys the overlapping similarities between Japan and Korea, uncovering the connections between these two cultures. We hope that this exhibition will serve as a space where you can come to appreciate the profound depth of Korean culture and its charms.