Chinese Buddhist Sculpture
1st floor Room 1
April 26, 2022 (Tue) -
April 23, 2023 (Sun)
The galleries feature art and artifacts from regions including China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India, and Egypt.
1st floor Room 1
April 26, 2022 (Tue) - April 23, 2023 (Sun)
This section mainly features stone or gilt bronze Buddhist statues from about the 6th to the 8th century. The statues on display present the exquisite form of sculptures from the golden era of Buddhist statues in China.
2nd floor Room 3
March 8, 2022 (Tue) - July 31, 2022 (Sun)
This part introduces artifacts from West Asia and Egypt, known as the cradle of the earliest civilizations.
2nd floor Room 3
June 29, 2021 (Tue) - July 3, 2022 (Sun)
This part mainly features Buddhist statues from Gandhara (northwestern Pakistan) and Mathura (northern, central India) from the 2nd to the 5th century. The wide variety of sculptures on display is a notable feature.
2nd floor Room 3
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - May 29, 2022 (Sun)
This part introduces art of the Western Regions (Central Asia) from about the 1st to the 10th century, with a focus on Buddhist art. The highlight of this part is the rich variety of works with high artistic and historical significance.
3rd floor Room 4
May 17, 2022 (Tue) - November 13, 2022 (Sun)
This section focuses on pottery and jade objects from about 3000 BC to AD 200. The items on display present the beauty that ancient Chinese people pursued in the form and color of pottery, as well as the characteristic luster of jade.
3rd floor Room 5
April 19, 2022 (Tue) - August 7, 2022 (Sun)
This gallery focuses on Chinese bronzes from about 1,800 BC to 1,000 AD. The changing shapes and designs of the bronzes on display provide clues to the thoughts and shifting religious beliefs of the ancient Chinese people.
3rd floor Room 5
March 23, 2022 (Wed) - June 12, 2022 (Sun)
This gallery introduces burial items of tombs from about the 2nd century BC to the 8th century AD. Mingqi are models of various implements and equipment, such as cooking stoves, vehicles including carriages and oxcarts, and even toilets. Tomb figures are models of humans who served a master, such as servants and entertainers. The objects on display present the idealized lifestyle that people of this time entrusted to mingqi and tomb figures.
3rd floor Room 5
March 23, 2022 (Wed) - June 12, 2022 (Sun)
This gallery presents the changing expressions of Chinese ceramics from the 7th to the 19th century.
3rd floor Room 5
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - June 26, 2022 (Sun)
The word meibutsu gire refers to pieces of fabric to which masters of the tea ceremony attributed great value. A piece previously owned by a famous person or temple, for example, had even greater value, with some pieces given names related to their former owners. These pieces of fabric included brocade, gold brocade, figured satin-weave silk, and striped textiles called kandō. Masters of the tea ceremony used them in a variety of ways, such as for making pouches for tea caddies, or fabric frames for calligraphy or paintings to be hung on the walls of tea rooms.
4th floor Room 7
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - April 16, 2023 (Sun)
In the 2nd century BC, Chinese tombs were not simply holes in the ground. They developed to have walls and ceilings, with a structure almost like underground mansions. Tombs also appeared that had shrines built above ground for the bereaved families to perform rituals. Particularly in Shandong province and southern Henan province, sturdy stone was favored for making the tombs and shrines, with the stone surfaces used for carving images. Many of these stone bas–reliefs were created until the second half of the 2nd century in the Eastern Han dynasty.
4th floor Room 8
May 24, 2022 (Tue) - June 26, 2022 (Sun)
Pine trees and bamboo that remain green in the bitter cold, plum trees that bloom in early spring, chrysanthemums that bloom in late autumn, and orchids that emit an elegant fragrance unseen by the public have been viewed as virtuous sovereigns who do not lose their composure even under difficult circumstances. Pine, bamboo, and plum trees are called the Three Friends of Winter, and bamboo, plums, chrysanthemums, and orchids are called the Four Noble Ones. They are both popular subjects in ink paintings in which artists fully demonstrated the beauty of ink and the brush. This exhibition introduces paintings of the Ming and Qing dynasties depicting the Three Friends and Four Noble Ones.
4th floor Room 8
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - June 26, 2022 (Sun)
Chinese script was first standardized during the reign of the Qin emperor (221–206 BC). This so-called seal script was replaced by the less complicated clerical script of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220). From the Three Kingdoms period (220–289) to the Northern and Southern dynasties (439–589), clerical script was further simplified to what is now known as standard script.
In this exhibition we are introducing ink rubbings showing the development from clerical script to standard script from the 1st century BC to the 9th century AD.
4th floor Room 8
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - June 26, 2022 (Sun)
The literati were people who devoted themselves to reading, calligraphy, painting, and other highly valued art forms in China. Their way of life was viewed as an ideal. This exhibition room recreates the studies of the literati, where they created works of calligraphy and painting.
5th floor Room 9
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - July 3, 2022 (Sun)
Lacquer is the sap of the lacquer tree, which grows in East and Southeast Asia. Naturally sticky, it can be brushed onto different materials, and hardens into a durable coating that is waterproof and resistant to acids, alkalis, and heat.
The history of lacquerware in China dates back to the Neolithic period. Over the past 7,000 years, a number of ornate decorative techniques have grown out of Chinese innovations, including: built-up layers of lacquer that are then carved, mother-of-pearl inlay, incised lines of gold, and a special type of decorative inlay made up of different colors of lacquer and outlined in incised lines.
5th floor Room 9
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - July 3, 2022 (Sun)
Lacquer is the sap of the lacquer tree, which grows in East and Southeast Asia. Naturally sticky, it can be brushed onto different materials, and hardens into a durable coating that is waterproof and resistant to acids, alkalis, and heat.
The history of lacquerware in China dates back to the Neolithic period. Over the past 7,000 years, a number of ornate decorative techniques have grown out of Chinese innovations, including: built-up layers of lacquer that are then carved, mother-of-pearl inlay, incised lines of gold, and a special type of decorative inlay made up of different colors of lacquer and outlined in incised lines.
5th floor Room 10
May 24, 2022 (Tue) - November 20, 2022 (Sun)
This section of the gallery presents polished stone tools and metal objects from the Korean Peninsula. These Korean archaeological objects had a great influence on Japan’s Yayoi culture.
5th floor Room 10
May 24, 2022 (Tue) - November 20, 2022 (Sun)
This gallery presents artifacts from Korea’s Three Kingdoms period (57 BC–668 AD), an era when powerful rulers vied for control of the Korean Peninsula. The three kingdoms were comprised of Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the southwest, and Silla in the southeast. A fourth state, known as the Gaya confederacy, also existed in the south before being annexed by Silla.
Each region made full use of the materials of the time–namely, gold, silver, bronze, iron, glass, and jade–to create distinct ornaments and other objects including, armor, horse tack, clay tiles, and pottery.
5th floor Room 10
May 24, 2022 (Tue) - November 20, 2022 (Sun)
This gallery introduces Korean ceramics from the Proto–Three Kingdoms period (1st century BC–3rd century AD) to the Joseon dynasty(1392–1910).
5th floor Room 10
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - October 10, 2022 (Mon)
This gallery features the essence of Korean Buddhist art.
5th floor Room 10
April 12, 2022 (Tue) - July 18, 2022 (Mon)
This gallery features Korean furniture, clothing, and room decor from the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910). While the costumes, furniture, tableware, and stationery each possessed individual beauty, their appeal was enhanced by their placement in living spaces.
Basement Room 11
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - April 9, 2023 (Sun)
This section introduces sculptures from Khmer, with a focus on stone statues from the Angkor period (9th–13th century). The Tokyo National Museum collection of Khmer sculptures, which are distinguished in both quality and quantity, was acquired in 1944 through an exchange project with the research institute l'École francaise d'Extrême–Orient.
Basement Room 12
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - April 9, 2023 (Sun)
This part focuses on Southeast Asian gilt bronze statues of gods and Buddhist deities from the 7th to 13th century. The statues are made using the lost–wax casting process, and therefore they have common qualities in their plasticity and smoothness of form.
Basement Room 12
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - April 9, 2023 (Sun)
The excavated pottery and metal wares exhibited in this part clearly show the prosperity of cultures with rich regional characteristics in ancient India and Southeast Asia.
Basement Room 12
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - July 31, 2022 (Sun)
This part introduces the individual styles of ceramics made in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam from the 9th to the 16th century.
Basement Room 13
April 5, 2022 (Tue) - June 26, 2022 (Sun)
Various textiles and techniques were spread across Asia from India, such as cotton cloth, splashed-pattern dyeing, tie-dyeing and brocades with metal threads. In particular, chintz, which was cotton cloth dyed with floral patterns or legendary images using woodblock printing or hand-drawing, fascinated people around the world and was a major export from the 16th to the 19th century.
Basement Room 13
May 10, 2022 (Tue) - June 5, 2022 (Sun)
The art of "miniature painting" is one of India's best-known genres. These paintings use elaborate brushwork and vibrant colors to depict a variety of themes, including: Indian myths, Hindu gods, portraits of kings, scenes from history, and love stories. Miniature paintings can also be enjoyed for their distinct regional styles that reflect India’s rich history of cultural diversity.
Basement Room 13
May 10, 2022 (Tue) - July 31, 2022 (Sun)
Taiwan’s population includes not only Han Chinese, who originally came from the mainland, but also 16 indigenous tribes. Of these tribes, the Payuan people based in southern Taiwan form a hereditary society that consists of two classes: the nobility and commoners.
This exhibit shows clothing and tools pertaining to the daily lives and culture of the Payuan people. Among these, two swords have designs incorporating a venomous snake that these people have long revered as a symbol of the nobility’s ancestral spirits. A vest, another object in the lineup, is made of clouded leopard fur―a material only chiefs, the highest-ranking members of the nobility, were allowed to wear. These and other objects on display reflect the social and spiritual values of the Payuan people.