Special Exhibition :
Sakura, Sakura, Sakura 2020
— Flower Viewing at the Museum!

14 March (Sat.) – 10 May (Sun.) 2020
※Dates changed 18 July – 13 September
(Closed on 11 Aug and on Mondays, except for 10 Aug.)

Hours:11 am - 4 pm (Last admission at 3:30 pm)

Admission Fees: Adults: 1,300yen; *university and high school students, middle school and younger children: free of charge (but middle school and younger children must be accompanied by an adult)
Disability ID holders and one person accompanying them: 1,100 yen
*[August 4 to September 13] Admission is free for university and high school students
*Discount for those who are wearing kimono: Discount of 200 yen for adults.

Organized by: Yamatane Museum of Art and Asahi Shimbun.

Highlights of the Exhibition

Hashimoto Gahō, Kojima Takanori, a Heroic Samurai: Scene from the Taiheiki (Chronicle of the Great Peace), Color on Silk, Meiji Period, c. 1899, Yamatane Museum of Art

Yokoyama Taikan, Mountain Cherry Trees, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1934, Yamatane Museum of Art

Hishida Shunsō, Women Viewing Cherry Blossoms, Color on Silk, Meiji Period, 1894, Yamatane Museum of Art

Matsuoka Eikyū, Court Ladies in Spring Clothing, in the Spring Sunlight, Color on Silk, Taishō Period, 1917, Yamatane Museum of Art

Kobayashi Kokei, Cherry Blossoms, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, c. 1933, Yamatane Museum of Art

Kawabata Ryūshi, Cherry Tree in Bloom, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 20th Century, Yamatane Museum of Art

Tsuchida Bakusen, Oharame, Women Peddlers, Color on Gold-Leafed Silk Gauze, Taishō Period, 1915, Yamatane Museum of Art

Okumura Togyū, Cherry Blossoms at Daigo-ji Temple, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1972, Yamatane Museum of Art

Okumura Togyū, Spring in Yoshino, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1977, Yamatane Museum of Art

Omoda Seiju, Spring Garden, Color on Silk, Taishō Period, 1918, Yamatane Museum of Art

Hayami Gyoshū, Cherry Blossoms in the Dark, Color on Silk, Shōwa Period, 1928, Yamatane Museum of Art

Hashimoto Meiji, Cherry Tree in Morning Sun, Color on Paper, Shōwa Period, 1970, Yamatane Museum of Art

Approximately 50 works in total are to be displayed.

Exhibition Overview

The Yamatane Museum of Art holds a special exhibition of paintings of cherry blossoms, a beloved symbol of Japan.

Cherry trees have long grown wild in Japan, on its mountains and lowlands. In the middle ages and the early modern period, aristocrats, samurai, and others in the upper reaches of society admired the cherry trees growing by their homes or in famous places. In the Edo period, a great number of new varieties of cherry trees were bred, cherry-blossom viewing became a custom widely observed by the common people, and the Japanese attachment to the cherry blossom grew broader and deeper. The cherry blossom, so beautiful in full bloom and so evanescent, its petals swiftly scattering, has long been celebrated in poetry, incorporated in designs for furnishings and other objects, and depicted in paintings. It has blossomed in the arts in a profusion of ways.

This exhibition, focusing on the cherry blossom, with such deep ties to the Japanese aesthetic, introduces about fifty modern and contemporary Nihonga from our collection. Hishida Shunsō’s Women Viewing Cherry Blossoms depicts ladies gathered beneath the trees in full bloom. Okumura Togyū’s Spring in Yoshino takes Nara’s Mount Yoshino, famous for its cherry trees, as its subject. Hashimoto Meiji’s Cherry Tree in Morning Sun addresses the Miharu Takizakura, a famous thousand-year-old cherry tree in Fukushima. Hashimoto Gahō’s Kojima Takanori, a Heroic Samurai: Scene from the Taiheiki (Chronicle of the Great Peace), depicts the “cherry tree of loyalty” episode in which Takanori rips bark off a cherry tree to write on it a poem of loyalty to the deposed emperor. Famous places, manners and customs, grand narratives: cherry trees play leading roles in works on scores of themes.

Paintings of cherry trees are in full bloom in our museum. We hope you will enjoy the many portraits of the cherry tree that modern and contemporary Nihonga artists have created.

*All works mentioned are from the Yamatane Museum of Art collection.

Hashimoto Gahō, Kojima Takanori

Hishida Shunsō, Women Viewing Cherry Blossoms

Matsuoka Eikyū, Court Ladies in Spring Clothing, in the Spring Sunlight

Kobayashi Kokei, Cherry Blossoms

Yokoyama Taikan, Mountain Cherry Trees

Tsuchida Bakusen, Oharame, Women Peddlers

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