Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room T2
October 30, 2012 (Tue) - December 9, 2012 (Sun)
The Prince Takamado Collection is comprised of netsuke, mainly from the contemporary era, which were acquired by His Imperial Highness Prince Takamado, together with Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado. To mark the gracious donation of netsuke from this collection to the Tokyo National Museum, the Prince Takamado Collection Room was opened at the museum in November of last year to display these netsuke.
Contemporary netsuke feature the use of a wide variety of traditional and modern materials, with each piece revealing the original and striking creativity of the contemporary artist who produced it. In his enthusiastic collecting of contemporary netsuke, Prince Takamado held the opinion that some good examples of these netsuke should remain in Japan, to be exhibited at appropriate facilities within the country. Owing to this, Prince Takamado's collection encompasses netsuke by top artists and in a wide range of materials, making it one of the world's leading collections of contemporary netsuke.
In commemoration of the 10th anniversary memorial of Prince Takamado, this exhibition presents all the netsuke donated to this museum from The Prince Takamado Collection and provides an excellent opportunity to survey the diversity of contemporary netsuke. We hope that all visitors, by viewing this world-famous Prince Takamado Collection, will appreciate the attraction of contemporary netsuke.
*Netsuke are also on display in the Prince Takamado Collection Room.
Major works in this exhibition