Historic Exhibition Of Animals In Japanese Art Opens May 2019 At The National Gallery Of Art In Washington, DC.

Historic Exhibition of 16 Centuries of Animals in Japanese Art Will Showcase Masterpieces That Rarely Leave Japan

Unknown Artist, Deer Bearing Symbols of the Kasuga Deities, Nanboku-chō period, 14th century, bronze, Hosomi Museum

Washington, DC—Artworks representing animals—real or imaginary, religious or secular—span the full breadth and splendor of Japanese artistic production. Today, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, announced The Life of Animals in Japanese Art, the first exhibition devoted to the subject, covering 16 centuries (from the sixth century to the present day) and a wide variety of media—sculpture, painting, lacquerwork, ceramics, metalwork, textile, and the woodblock print. On view from May 5 through July 28, 2019, the exhibition will feature 315 works, drawn from 66 Japanese and 30 American public and private collections. The artists represented range from Sesson Shūkei, Itō Jakuchū, Soga Shōhaku, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, to Okamoto Tarō, Kusama Yayoi, Issey Miyake, Nara Yoshitomo, and Murakami Takashi.

Many of the nearly 180 works traveling from Japan are masterpieces that rarely—if ever—leave the country, including seven designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government. Three of the registered artworks are from the Tokyo National Museum: the six-foot-tall Monju Bosatsu Seated on a Lion, with Standing Attendants (1273) by the Buddhist sculptor Kōen; the intricately carved wood Buddhist sculpture Aged Monkey (1893) by Takamura Kōun; and the Footed Bowl with Applied Crabs (19th century) by Miyagawa Kōzan I. Two are on loan from the Nara National Museum: a hanging scroll, Sword with Kurikara Dragon and Two Child Acolytes (13th century); and a Buddhist hanging scroll, Fugen Enmei (13th century). Finally, the wood sculpture Fugen's Elephant(13th century) is on loan from a private collection, and a spectacular bronze, Deer Bearing Symbols of the Kasuga Deities (14th century), is on loan from the Hosomi Museum, Kyoto.

This historic exhibition is co-organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Japan Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), with special cooperation from the Tokyo National Museum, and curated by Robert T. Singer, curator and department head, Japanese art, LACMA, and Masatomo Kawai, director, Chiba City Museum of Art, in consultation with a team of esteemed historians of Japanese art. LACMA is presenting an abbreviated version of the exhibition, titled Every Living Thing: Animals in Japanese Art from September 8 through December 8, 2019. The Gallery's presentation of the exhibition, covering 18,000 square feet in the East Building Concourse, is organized into thematic sections that explore the various roles animals have played in the art of Japan. A fully illustrated catalog is being published in association with Princeton University Press.

"The Gallery is honored to partner with the Japan Foundation and LACMA to present the first exhibition to consider the representation of animals across the history of Japanese art," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "It is a privilege to work with the Japan Foundation to share these Japanese masterpieces with American audiences, and we are grateful to the Foundation for making this incredible group of loans possible. As the largest single Japanese lender, the Tokyo National Museum has also played a significant role in this exhibition and we are pleased to welcome nearly 30 works from the Museum's unparalleled collection."

"The Japan Foundation creates global opportunities to foster friendship, trust, and mutual understanding through culture, language, and dialogue, to cultivate friendship and ties between Japan and the world. We believe this is a basis for building a truly peaceful and rich world," said Hiroyasu Ando, president, the Japan Foundation. "To achieve this mission, the Japan Foundation has organized numerous cultural events around the world and in the U.S. Among them, the upcoming exhibition of The Life of Animals in Japanese Art is one of the most ambitious and creative projects, and will display artworks of high quality for everyone's enjoyment. One may call these works of art—created through long, close interactions between animals and Japanese people over 1,500 years—a gift from humans to animals. I very much look forward to sharing this gift with our American friends."

Exhibition Support

The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Additional funding is provided by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

Exhibition Organization and Curators

The exhibition is co-organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Japan Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with special cooperation from the Tokyo National Museum.

The exhibition's curators Robert T. Singer, curator and department head, Japanese art, LACMA, and Masatomo Kawai, director, Chiba City Museum of Art, worked in consultation with a team of esteemed historians of Japanese art: Ryusuke Asami, chief curator sculpture, Tokyo National Museum; Masaaki Arakawa, professor, Gakushuin University; Hiroyuki Kano, former professor, Doshisha University; Mika Kuraya, chief curator, Museum of Modern Art, Toyko; Yasuyuki Sasaki, curator, Suntory Museum of Art; Tomoko Matsuo, curator, Chiba City Museum of Art; Nobuhiko Maruyama, professor, Musashi University; and Hiroshi Ikeda, honorary researcher, Toyko National Museum.

Exhibition Dates

National Gallery of Art, Washington, May 5–July 28, 2019
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, September 8–December 8, 2019

Exhibition Highlights

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art takes an expansive look at the representation of animals in a variety of art forms including painted screens, hanging scrolls, woodblock prints, netsuke, ceramic plates, kimono, and samurai helmets. The selection portrays all types of creatures—from foxes and frogs, snakes and sparrows, to mythical animals such as dragons, phoenixes, and kappa river sprites. To explore the many roles animals have played in Japanese culture, objects are divided into eight sections: Ancient Japan;The Japanese Zodiac; Religion: Buddhism, Zen, Shinto; Myth and Folklore; The World of the Samurai; The Study of Nature; The Natural World: Creatures on Land, in the Air, and in Rivers and Seas; and The World of Leisure.

Since antiquity, animals have held spiritual and symbolic significance in Japanese culture, as evidenced by haniwa, ancient clay sculptures that were placed around gravesites, possibly to protect the dead in the afterlife. A sixth-century haniwahorse on loan from LACMA—standing nearly four feet tall—is one of the largest known sculptures of this animal from the period. In Buddhism, Shinto, and Zen, artworks depicting animals were commonly given places of prominence in temples and shrines according to the creatures' divine duties. For instance, Shinto deer were revered as messengers to—or even stand-ins for—the gods, as illustrated by the 15th-century Kasuga Deer Mandala, on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago.

The allegorical power of animals is not limited to the spiritual realm; they carry many meanings in secular works of art as well. Objects portraying the Japanese zodiac animals individually were commonly collected as symbols of an individual's identity. Even rarer are works that depict all 12 animals of the zodiac together. The exhibition includes several examples: a set of 19th-century woodblock prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi on loan from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a finely embroidered 19th-century Kosode with the Twelve Zodiac Animals on loan from the National Museum of Japanese History, and a remarkable mid-to-late-19th-century netsuke by Kaigyokusai Masatsugu on loan from LACMA, with all 12 zodiac animals intertwined in one small piece of carved ivory.

Animals were popularly described in myth and folklore in anthropomorphic terms, often as a means of disguising social critiques. One of the most well-known works in the exhibition is a scene from the handscroll Frolicking Animals (12th-13th century), on loan from the collection of Robin B. Martin, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum. Long attributed to the Buddhist monk Toba Sōjō, the scene depicts monkeys, a rabbit, and a deer as protagonists in a thinly veiled satire of priests. Humans also adopted the form of, or decorated themselves with, animals for their symbolic energy. Samurai commonly wore armor decorated with dragons or helmets in the shapes of rabbit ears, deer antlers, or the mythological shachihoko, which has the head of a tiger and body of a carp.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, artists developed an interest in the study of the natural world and thus in drawing individual animals directly from life. Inspiration for most images of animals had previously come from earlier examples in art. Whereas Itō Jakuchū painted with lifelike detail every barb in every vane of a feather in Pair of Cranes and Morning Sun(c. 1755–1756), on loan from the Tekisuiken Memorial Foundation of Culture, while Utagawa Hiroshige carved every scale of a seabream in A Shoal of Fishes, his 19th-century woodblock print series on loan from the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum. Many artists depicted numerous animals within a single species in order to convey their auspicious meanings. An elaborate formal kimono like the 19th-century Uchikake with Phoenix and Birds, on loan from the Kyoto National Museum, would have brought its wearer good luck, while giving someone a hanging scroll like One Hundred Rabbits (1784) by Maruyama Ōkyo, on loan from a private collection in Japan, conveyed a wish for prosperity and plenitude.

Contemporary artworks spread throughout the exhibition demonstrate the influence of traditional representations of animals on the work of living Japanese artists. The medieval Deer Bearing Symbols of the Kasuga Deities is installed alongside Kōhei Nawa's PixCell-Bambi 14 (2015), while Kusama Yayoi's polka-dotted three-dimensional dogs are in conversation with haniwa animals, illustrating the similarities in their forms and expressions. On loan from the Broad Art Foundation, Murakami Takashi's 82-foot-long vibrant painting In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow (2014) was created in response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Murakami drew inspiration from a series of scrolls on the 500 arhats, Buddhists who achieved enlightenment, created by Kanō Kazunobu over a ten-year period that included the 1855 Edo earthquake. For his painting, Murakami embellished the background, arhats, and animals such as the shachihokowith his signature flourish and vibrant palette. Many of the works exhibited employ distinctly contemporary techniques to depict animals. Whimsical creations by designer Issey Miyake transform wearers into a starfish, a monkey, or a swallow. In a digital work, Chrysanthemum Tiger (2017), from the Tokyo-based collective teamLab's Fleeting Flower series, flowers and petals coalesce to form a moving image of a tiger which then dissolves, scatters, and takes shape again.

Exhibition Catalog

Published by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with Princeton University Press, a richly illustrated catalog features contributions by the exhibition's curators and an international team of esteemed experts in Japanese art. Included are essays by scholars Barbara Rossetti Ambros, department chair, religious studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Thomas Hare, William Sauter LaPorte '28 Professor in Regional Studies and professor of comparative literature, Princeton University; and Federico Marcon, associate professor of East Asian studies and history, Princeton University. With 425 illustrations and some 400 pages, the catalog will be available in Spring 2019 at shop.nga.gov, or by calling (800) 697-9350 or (202) 842-6002; faxing (202) 789-3047; or emailing mailorder@nga.gov.

The exhibition catalog is made possible through the generous support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Additional funding for the catalog is provided by Janice Holland.

Related Programs

Lecture
Introduction to the Exhibition—The Life of Animals in Japanese Art
May 5, noon
East Building Auditorium
Robert T. Singer, curator and department head, Japanese art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and chief curator of The Life of Animals in Japanese Art

Public Symposium
The Role and Representations of Animals in Japanese Art and Culture
June 7, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium
Moderated by Robert T. Singer, with illustrated lectures by noted scholars, including Barbara Rossetti Ambros, department chair, religious studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Rory Browne, director of the academic advising center and associate dean of Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Boston College; R. Keller Kimbrough, professor of Japanese, department of Asian languages and civilizations, University of Colorado, Boulder; Federico Marcon, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University; Daniel McKee, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University; and Miwako Tezuka, consulting curator, Reversible DestinyFoundation.

Concert
Yumi Kurosawa, koto
With special guests Anubrata Chatterjee, tabla, and Virgil Gadsen, dancer
May 19, 3:30 p.m.
West Building, West Garden Court

This performance brings together the elements of Japan's spiritual philosophy and the importance of the animal world, as represented in literature, art, dance, and music. To illustrate the soundscape of our story, the koto's melodic timbre recalls Japan's history with chant, the tabla reminds us of the heartbeat, and the featured element of dance echoes the natural world of movement.

Films
The Life of Animals in Japanese Cinema
Summer 2019
Japanese filmmaking has over the years made rich use of animal forms as symbol and object, offering varied meanings and observations about the natural world. This series of approximately 30 films—narrative features, documentaries, and shorts, both contemporary and classic—includes Hachi: A Dog's Tale, Godzilla (1954 original), What the Snow Brings, Pom Poko, Princess Raccoon, Ghost Cat of Arima Palace, Samurai Cat, Madadayo, The Hidden Fortress, Ran, I Am a Cat, and Song of the Horse. Animations by Koji Yamamura and Osamu Tezuka, Kihachirō Kawamoto puppet shorts, plus two productions from the famed Shochiku series Cinema Kabuki—Triple Lion Dance (Renjishi) and The Heron Maiden—are also featured.

The Japan Foundation

To cultivate friendship and ties between Japan and the world, the Japan Foundation creates global opportunities to foster friendship, trust, and mutual understanding through culture, language, and dialogue. The Japan Foundation was established in October 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2003, it was reorganized as an independent administrative institution. Based on a government endowment of 78 billion yen, the activities of the Japan Foundation are financed by annual government subsidies, investment revenue, and donations from the private sector.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov. Follow the Gallery on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt, Twitter at www.twitter.com/ngadc, and Instagram at http://instagram.com/ngadc.

Smithsonian American Art Museum to Present The Work Of Yasuo Kuniyoshi

Honda is proud to partner with the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the first comprehensive, domestic overview of Yasuo Kuniyoshi's work in over 65 years.

The "Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the career of one of America's great modernist painters. Sixty-six of Kuniyoshi's finest works reveal the unique vision of an extraordinary artist.

Though separated by time, Honda and Kuniyoshi share similar stories of traveling far from home to seek out new dreams, and ultimately, finding success in the United States.

After coming to the United States as a teenager in the early years of the 20th century – and despite being labeled an "enemy alien" during World War II – Kuniyoshi was able to defy negative sentiment and triumph in the American art world. He challenged conventional ideas, blending American folk art with Japanese influences as only he could.

Sharing Kuniyoshi's journey, in 1959 Soichiro Honda sent a group of eight associates to set up operations for the company's fledgling motorcycle business in a storefront shop in Los Angeles, California. The success of Honda's motorcycles in the U.S. eventually led to the introduction of automobiles. Today, the company has a major U.S. presence with 11 manufacturing facilities in six states, 14 research and development facilities, and nearly 30,000 employees, building everything from cars to race engines to jet airplanes.

"Like Kuniyoshi-san, our journey in America is built on what we call 'The Power of Dreams,'" said Takuji Yamada, president of Honda North America. "These dreams inspire us to create innovative products that enhance human mobility, and ultimately, benefit society."

The "Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens April 3 and runs through August 30, 2015.

For more details please visit: americanart.si.edu/

Etihad Airways to fly Boeing 787 to Washington, DC.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will deploy a state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on its daily Washington, DC service from March 11, 2015, marking the US debut of its next generation First, Business and Economy class products.

The airline's acclaimed interiors for the Boeing 787-9 include eight First Suites, 28 Business Studios and 199 Economy Smart Seats, offering superior levels of comfort, entertainment and in-flight connectivity. Onboard décor and lighting have been inspired by contemporary Arabian design, complementing Etihad Airways' new 'Facets of Abu Dhabi' livery design.

James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said: "As the most technologically advanced aircraft in its class, the Boeing 787 will reduce the operating costs and carbon emissions on our Washington, D.C. route and provide maximum efficiency and reliability. Importantly, we have customized the aircraft with the world's most innovative and sophisticated First, Business and Economy class cabins, providing our guests with superior levels of comfort and attention to detail not previously enjoyed by the modern air traveler."

Etihad Airways commenced its daily non-stop flights between Abu Dhabi and Washington, D.C. in March 2013, creating the first direct air link between the two capitals. The service has attracted strong demand from government and business travellers, and has also supported the continued growth of leisure travel between and beyond the two cities.

Guests travelling to Washington, D.C. experience the unique benefit of arriving having pre-cleared US Customs and Border Protection at Abu Dhabi Airport. The process allows passengers to pass through all required checks including US customs, immigration and security before they board their flight to the US, enabling them to avoid queues on arrival.

Another key benefit of US preclearance is that baggage security screening meets United States TSA security standards, allowing air travellers who connect onto a domestic flight in the US to have their baggage checked through from Abu Dhabi to their final destination.
Guests travelling from Washington, D.C. have the convenience of an attractively timed evening departure, allowing them to travel after completion of their business day.

Etihad Airways' premium guests are also provided with access to the airline's lounge at Dulles International Airport. The split-level facility offers soothing relaxation spaces, elegant fine dining areas, state-of-the-art business amenities, family entertainment areas, and luxurious bathrooms with invigorating shower facilities. With a prime location next to Etihad Airways' departure gate in Terminal A, it also provides unfettered and convenient direct access to the aircraft without having to go through a traditional departure gate.

Washington, D.C. is one of six destinations served by Etihad Airways in the United States, alongside San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and New York.

Mr Hogan said: "Etihad Airways operates 45 flights a week to and from the US and connects the country with our extensive global network, including 34 destinations in the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent. We continue to experience strong demand for travel between the US and India, where we serve 11 cities in our own right and 15 in combination with our partner Jet Airways, providing unparalleled reach into the country. In addition, our guests benefit from some of the fastest journey times in the industry from Washington D.C. to popular destinations such as Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai."

Etihad Airways' order for two variants of the B787 (-9 and -10), is one of the largest for the type, totalling 71 aircraft. The lightweight composite materials used in the aircraft mean that the B787 uses up to 30 per cent less fuel than other aircraft in its category and therefore produces a comparable reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. New technologies are also used to ensure its noise footprint is more than 60% smaller than other aircraft of its size.
Etihad Airways schedule for Washington D.C. flights, effective March 15, 2015:

Flight No. Origin Departs Destination Arrives Frequency Aircraft
EY 131 Abu Dhabi (AUH) 11:30 a.m. Washington D.C. (IAD) 6:45 p.m. Daily B787
EY 130 Washington D.C. (IAD) 10:50 p.m. Abu Dhabi (AUH) 7:45 p.m.+1 Daily B787
Note: All departures and arrivals are listed in local time.