The Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery – Saito Fumio Collection – Opens December 3, 2019
2019.11.25
The Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery – Saito Fumio Collection – Opens December 3, 2019
Japanese Ukiyo-e influenced European artists such as Edouard Manet and Vincent Van Gogh and numerous works are housed at art museums overseas. Even today people all over the world continue to be fascinated by the art of Ukiyo-e.
The “Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery – Saito Fumio Collection”, featuring Ukiyo-e masterpieces that represent Japan, will open its doors on Tuesday, December 3, 2019.
【What is Ukiyo-e?】
Ukiyo-e paintings emerged as pop culture during the Edo era (1603 to 1868).
The term “Ukiyo” means “contemporary/modern”. As such, each Ukiyo-e depicts a scene of the people’s lifestyle or the trends of the times when they were painted.
For example, Ukiyo-e paintaings of beautiful women (in Japanese, Bijin-ga) would have been equivalent to a fashion magazine; ones of famous locations, equivalent to a travel guide; and Ukiyo-e portraits of Kabuki theater actors to something like photographs or posters of movie stars.
During the Edo era, paintings by famous painters were available only to those who had power and/or wealth. As the technology of woodblock prints evolved, mass produced Ukiyo-e prints became affordable to the middle class and enabled them to casually cherish art as their pastime. This was a very rare cultural situation in world history.
【Characteristics of the Gallery】
● Access from Haneda International Airport in as little as 15 minutes
Easy access to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) in as little as 15 minutes enables transit passengers to visit the museum between flights.
●A rich collection of rare valuable works
This Ukiyo-e Gallery has a collection of Ukiyo-e masterpieces highly appraised domestically and abroad. The gallery has borrowed all of its Ukiyo-e exhibitions from the Kawasaki Isago no Sato Museum free of charge, and consists of approximately 4,000 Ukiyo-e works, all gathered on a non-biased criteria regardless of painters, genres or period of history. The collection includes about 100 rare, original paintings drawn by painters themselves, as well as the complete series of the “Fifty-three Stations of Tokaido” and the “Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji”.
【Outline of the Gallery】
□Name: (Used widely for external use) Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery - The Saito Fumio Collection(Official) Art Garden Kawasaki Special Exhibition Hall
□Address:3rd Floor Kawasaki-ekimae Tower Rebark, 12-1 Ekimae Honcho, Kawasaki-ku,Kawasaki 210-0007(Connected directly to JR Kawasaki Station North Exit)
□Floor space: 150 square meters of floor space; 100 square meters dedicated to exhibitions
□Closed every Monday (however, if a public holiday falls on a Monday, the gallery will be open. When Tuesday is not a public holiday, it will be closed on Tuesday); from December 29 to January 3; and days when there are no exhibitions held.
□Open hours:11:00 - 18:30
□Admission fee: 500 yen (junior high school students or younger, people with disabilities and up to one care-giver per person with a disability are free of charge)
【Gallery Opening and Preview】
□Gallery Opening: Tuesday, December 3, 2019
□Preview for the press and those involved: 10:00 am, Monday, December 2, 2019
Please inquire for details.
【Other Exhibitions】
●Commemorative Exhibition of the Opening of the Gallery: “The Treasures of Japan – The Ultimate Ukiyo-e Masterpieces”
To commemorate the opening of the gallery, we will be featuring an exclusive Ukiyo-e collection of 105 masterpieces including about 90 woodblock prints and 15 originally drawn paintings. Exhibiting the full spectrum of the first half of Ukiyo-e history, visitors will be able to see masterpieces of Hishikata Yoshinobu, Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu, and Kitagawa Utamaro from the late 17th Century when Ukiyo-e first emerged up to the late 18th Century when multi-colored Nishiki-e (brocade prints) production was established by painters.
Exhibition: Tuesday, November 3, 2019 to Sunday, January 26, 2020
At the Art Garden Kawasaki located on the same floor, there will be a separate limited exhibition of 60 originally drawn works by painters. The drawings, each featuring a unique brush-work technique and coloring by these painters, will be on display only for two weeks from the day of the opening of the Kawasaki Ukiyo-e Gallery.
1.Tuesday, December 3 to Sunday, December 8, 2019 at Exhibition Room No. 1 – No.3, Art Garden Kawasaki
2.Tuesday, December 10 to Sunday, December 8, 2019 at Exhibition Room No.1
■For inquiries contact:
Mr. Seto
In charge of the preparation for the Special Exhibition Room
Art Garden Kawasaki
The Kawasaki Foundation
Phone:080-8750-3991 (from December 1, call 044-280-9511)
Fax:044-200-3248
