Museum Collection Ⅲ
Passing Down and Renewing the Techniques and Spirit of the Craft Tradition

It is with great pleasure that we present Museum Collection III: Passing Down and Renewing the Technique and Spirit of the Craft Tradition, the third collection exhibition held at the museum in fiscal 2019. In this edition, we present works by lacquerers, metalworkers, and dyers and weavers drawn primarily from the museum’s holdings.

A total of 15 artists are represented here beginning with the lacquerers SEKINO Kohei (1943-2014) and KOYANAGI Tanekuni (b. 1944); the father-and-son metalworkers OSUGA Takashi (1901-1987) and OSUGA Sen (b. 1931), and IO Toshio (1908-1994) and IO Kenji (b. 1945); and the dyers and weavers YANAGI Yoshitaka (1911-2003), YAMADA Mitsugi (1912-2002), SHIMURA Fukumi (b. 1924), YUNOKI Samiro (b. 1922), TERAMURA Yuko (b. 1937), DEGUCHI Hiroko (b. 1939), OTSUKI Keiko (b. 1943), YAMAGATA Yuriko (1944-2009), and OSAWA Mikiko (b. 1946).

Developed over many years in the course of daily life, crafts are an accumulation of previous generations’ aesthetic sensibilities, wisdom, and ingenuity. This exhibition deals with new works, which reflect contemporary life and aesthetics, while carrying on the techniques and spirit of the past. We hope that you will enjoy these works by artists who form a link between the present and the future through the beauty of crafts.

There is also a small display titled “The World of the Noh-mask Maker IRIE Biho,” which focuses on noh masks and sculptures by IRIE Biho (1896-1975), an artist with ties to the Setagaya area, as well as works related to him.