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.