The exhibitions in Japan: Historical perspectives and contemporary relevance

Guest editor: Naoki Sato

The history of art collecting in Japan has a long tradition of some 1,400 years, dating back to the Shosoin at Todaiji Temple in Nara. It began in 756, when Empress Komyo donated to the temple 650 objects of art and craft and 60 kinds of medicine favoured by the dead Emperor Shomu. The Shosoin is a treasure trove of cultural artefacts, including artefacts from China and Persia, and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998. However, the treasury was literally a storehouse and not open to the public. It was not until the Meiji era (1868-1912) that some of the treasures were shown to the public at Todaiji Temple as part of the annual Nara Exposition, held from 1875 to 1880. Some 9,000 pieces of the treasure have been identified, and even today about 70 pieces are exhibited every year at the Nara National Museum, attracting large crowds.

The first exposition in Japan was the Kyoto Exposition, held in 1871 at the Nishi Honganji Temple in cooperation with the Kyoto prefecture and the private sector. Its aim was to restore the flow of people to Kyoto, which had lost its vitality because of the transfer of the capital to Tokyo. The following year, 1872, the first exhibition organised by the Ministry of Education was held in Tokyo at Yushima Seido. A total of 798 works were exhibited, including 18 sacred objects donated by the Tokugawa Shogun family, and the exhibition was so popular that it had to be extended due to the 3,000 visitors who flocked to the hall every day. It marks the beginning of the exhibition boom in Japan and is regarded as a pioneer of modern exhibitions. The Tokyo National Museum marks this exhibition as the year of its foundation.

The history of exhibitions and the establishment of museums in Japan is linked to the World Fairs in which Japan took part as part of its national policy of aligning itself with the West. A Japanese delegation was sent to the second World Fair in London in 1862. While the delegation observed the advanced culture of the West and tried to introduce it to Japan, they also felt the need to promote their national presence abroad by exhibiting traditional Japanese arts and crafts. The terms ' exposition' and 'museum' became widely known in Japan as translated words with the publication of Seiyo Jijo (1866) by Yukichi Fukuzawa, a member of the delegation. Japan's first official participation as a state was at the Vienna World Fair in 1873. Items from the aforementioned Yushima Seido exhibition were sent to Vienna and displayed in the Japan Pavilion. Japanese art objects had an impact on Western artists, and this was the catalyst for the birth of Japonisme. In other words, the Expo was no longer just a trade fair for industry, but also a forum for international cultural exchange.

The opening of a number of national, prefectural and private art museums after the Second World War supported the development of contemporary culture in Japan: the Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura opened in 1951, in the following year the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo was established as the first national art museum in Japan, and a series of permanent exhibition facilities were founded throughout Japan to display modern and contemporary art. As for Western art, the businessman Magosaburo Ohara founded Japan's first private art museum devoted to Western art in Kurashiki in 1930, before the Second World War, and the National Museum of Western Art opened in Ueno, Tokyo, in 1959. These museums were unique in Japan as a manifestation of modern Japanese fascination with Western culture. The National Museum of Western Art is based on a private collection acquired in France and the United Kingdom by Kojiro Matsukata, president of Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation. His private collection, which had been stored in Paris during the war, was confiscated by the French government under the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, but was donated and returned in 1958. One of the conditions for the return of the valuable collection, which included many works purchased directly from Claude Monet, including sculptures by Auguste Rodin, was the building of a national museum for the permanent display of the collection. This led to the establishment of the only museum architecture designed by Le Corbusier in East Asia, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2016.

The post-war boom in art museums led to the creation of "department store art museums", which were peculiar to Japan. The Seibu Museum of Art (later the Sezon Museum of Modern  Art), which opened in 1975 in the Seibu Department Store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, was a great success, introducing to Japan a wide range of 20th-century art at a time when there were no national museums of contemporary art. The museum closed in 1999, but its collection has been transferred to the Sezon Museum of Modern Art in Karuizawa. The Mori Art Museum, which opened in 2003 in the Roppongi Hills commercial district, and the National Art Center, Tokyo, which opened in 2007, have created a new art scene in the Roppongi area.

Public museums and art galleries have been widely established as cultural institutions throughout Japan since the 1970s. The aim was to spread culture to the provinces as a symbol of post-war revitalisation. Each prefecture provided a building as a container, but there was a lack of pre-existing collections, and prefectural councils had to purchase works to open or prepare exhibitions in order to fill the annual schedule, which caused a problem in making the exhibitions’ concept. This increased the demand for touring exhibitions, but the national and prefectural cultural budgets alone were not enough to cover the costs, and 'Cultural Affairs Departments' of Japanese newspapers and broadcasters entered the exhibition business. Initially, the idea was to be mecenats, not focusing on profit, but with the deterioration of the Japanese economy, many blockbuster profit-making exhibitions have been held in recent years, making it difficult for curators to hold exhibitions that they plan independently. The management of Japanese museums with the cooperation of private companies is known as a unique system in the world.

 

The aim of the fifth issue of MMD's Call for Papers is to promote a wide debate on the history of museum collecting and exhibition in Japan, as well as on contemporary operational issues. Of particular interest will be the exploration of the cultural contribution of Japan, a country with a highly developed economy in the Far East, to the post-World War II global context in terms of exhibitions and museums. In these days of global art history, the way in which Japan looks at art from abroad has changed. Japan is no longer exclusively focused on Western art, but is also increasingly interested in art from other Asian countries and African art. At the same time, the world has begun to draw attention to Japanese pop culture. In the past, foreign art was often exhibited in Japan, but recently Japanese art is increasingly being introduced to the world. From the perspective of exhibitions and museums, constructive discussions are expected in order to re-examine Japan as a country and its past, and show us where Japan is going in the future.

 

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

-Traditional art exhibitions and places to appreciate art works in Japan prior to the establishment of museums. For example, the display of karamono (import goods from China) in samurai society, the historical documentation of tea ceremonies and their utensils.

-The display of Japanese art and political strategies at world fairs.

-The impact of Western art exhibitions on Japanese culture.

-Case studies on the impact of specific art exhibitions on Japanese society.

-The advantages and disadvantages of department store museums for Japanese culture and society.

-The role and future of the cultural affairs departments of private companies in Japanese exhibitions.

-The current state of museum and gallery education and the problems it faces.

-The archiving and research use of materials in museums and art galleries.

 

Submissions should be sent as an abstract (max. 1,500 characters including spaces) and a short author bio (max. 1,000 characters including spaces) to the guest editor (sato.naoki@fa.geidai.ac.jp) by 1 June 2025.

If accepted, the full paper must be submitted for peer review by 15 October 2025.

Key Dates:

- Abstract submission: 1 June 2025

- Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2025

- Full paper submission (including images): 15 October 2025

- Reviewers report to authors for amendments: 15 December 2025

- Final text submission: 15 January 2026