Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! To start off 2024 I would like to showcase one of the Japanese museums I visited in early December. As mentioned in my last post, I made a trip to Hong Kong to view the major sales at the auction houses Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's. On my way back to Toronto, I stopped in Tokyo for a week where I managed to visit various iconic temples and museums.
Tokyo is renowned for their private Asian art museums and over the years I have been to many of them like the Matsuoka, Nezu and Idemitsu. Unfortunately you can't take photos in most of their respective galleries, which is why I am presenting the Seikado Bunko in this blog.
The Seikado Bunko was founded by Baron Yanosuke Iwasaki (1851-1908) and Yataro Iwasaki (1835-85). Yanosuke was the second president of Mitsubishi, while Yataro was the younger brother of the company's founder.
Famous for their collection of Japanese and Chinese rare books, The Seikado Foundation houses approximately 200,000 volumes. The collection also contains important Japanese and Chinese painting and calligraphy, porcelain and decorative arts. Originally housed in the official Iwasaka residence, the museum moved to its present location in the Meiji Seimei Kan building close to Tokyo Station in 2022.
Image 1. This is the VERY grand foyer of the Seikado Bunko Museum.
The exhibition I visited celebrated the first anniversary of the museum's new location and featured a plethora of Chinese Song ceramics and Qing porcelain. Visitors weren't allowed to take photos of the Song pieces (which includes their famous Inaba Tenmoku!), but the museum was fine with people like me snapping photos of the Qing Dynasty objects. Here are some of my highlights.
Image 2. A carefully staged setting of the twelve month cups. Each of these are Kangxi mark and period (1664-1722) and depict a pleasant scene of florals in wucai (five colour) enamels. The reverse of each cup contains a poem commemorating that specific month.
Image 3. An amazing selection of Qing Dynasty monochrome porcelain wares from the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. The rarest are the two Yongzheng mark and period 'chrysanthemum' dishes in the upper right corner. The colours are incredible!
Image 4. This is a rare pair of coral ground bowls featuring the 'hundred boys' motif in famille verte enamels. These are Kangxi mark and period (1664-1722) and I actually haven't come across bowls of this specific design before!
Image 5. Here is an exceptionally large porcelain stand (you can't really tell but it's about 40 cm in diameter) from the Qianlong period. Its form and the quality of the coral red and gilt lotus design is simply stunning.
Image 6. A long display case full of Qing porcelain treasures including vases, jars and dishes. Many different types of decoration techniques are represented including doucai, wucai, blue and white, and monochromes.
Image 7. An excellent selection of early to mid Qing Dynasty porcelain from the Kangxi to Yongzheng reigns. My favourite here is (obviously) the blue and white vase in the back and the famille verte 'peach' dish.
Image 8. A couple of very impressive Qianlong period porcelain wares at the museum.
Image 9. One of my favourite pieces at the museum is this extremely rare and stunning doucai enamelled Buddhist emblem vase, with Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795). The quality of the design is so spectacular as is the sinuous dragon handles and soft doucai enamels.
Image 10a. This pair of exceptionally rare blue, white and puce decorated vases are featured on the cover of the museum's exhibtion catalogue. They are Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795) and feature extremely well-painted confronting phoenixes on one side, and dragons on the other.
Image 10b. The other side of the vases with confronting dragons.
Image 11. Behind the magnificent vases was this famille verte 'hundred deer' hu vase. This was also made during the Qianlong period and the deer symbolize longevity. This is reportedly the only version of this vase produced that does not have any handles.
Image 12. The Seikado Bunko had a really nice gift shop, and you can get a t-shirt with your choice of a Song Dynasty Cizhou pillow OR a Yongzheng mark and period blue glazed chrysanthemum dish!
Image 13a. The catalogue of the current exhibition which features the prized Inaba Tenmoku (bottom), a Southern Song Dynasty Jian ware tea bowl (1127-1279) passed down through through the important Inaba noble family of Kyoto.
Also known as Yōhen tenmoku tea bowls, all three recorded examples of this tea bowl on the planet are in Japan. This particular example is ranked as a Japanese National Treasure for its finest 'oil spot' glaze. When shown in the light, they give off a multi-coloured iridescence.
Image 13b. Since I couldn't take a photo of the Inaba Tenmoku (which was housed in a very special display case), I took a photo of its catalogue entry. This image really doesn't do the bowl any justice.
Image 13c. And if you want, you can purchase a summer shirt with the Inaba Tenmoku's glaze on it!
Anyways, that's it for this blog and hope everyone has a wonderful January. I'll be heading to Vancouver shortly for some work through Heffel Gallery, and then I'll be visiting Montreal and Ottawa as part of my Asian art appraisal trips.
Please feel free to send me an email if you have questions about Asian art, and you can always follow me on my adventures through my Instragram feed @anthonywuart.
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