Past Exhibition
150th Anniversary Thematic Exhibition:
Yokoyama Taikan ―The Elite of the Tokyo Art World
Yokoyama Taikan, Sakuemon's House, Yamatane Museum of Art
3 January (Wed.) – 25 February (Sun.) 2018
(Closed on 9 January, 13 February, and on Mondays, except for 8 January, 12 February.)
Hours:10 am - 5 pm (Last admission at 4:30 pm)
Admission Fees: Adults: 1,000 [800] yen; university and high school students: 800 [700] yen; middle school and younger children: free of charge
*Figures in brackets are for groups of 20 or more, advance tickets, repeaters with used tickets for this exhibition and those who are wearing kimono.
*Disability ID holders and one person accompanying them are admitted free of charge.
Organized by: Yamatane Museum of Art and The Asahi Shimbun
Works of Yokoyama Taikan:
Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) was a pioneering figure in modern nihonga. We are delighted to present this exhibition, which includes our museum’s entire collection of Taikan’s work, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 60th anniversary of his death.
Taikan was born into a samurai family serving the Mito domain in Hitachi province (now Ibaraki prefecture). In 1889, he enrolled in the first graduating class of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts). There he and Shimomura Kanzan and Hishida Shunsō were taught by Hashimoto Gahō and other artists under the direction of Okakura Tenshin. In 1898, he followed Tenshin in leaving the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and took part in founding an alternative art academy, the Japan Art Institute. After a period of study at Izura, in Ibaraki prefecture, in 1914, he helped reestablish the Japan Art Institute after Tenshin’s death. Carrying out Tenshin’s dying wish, he devoted his life to creating innovative nihonga. Taikan established a reputation as an artist of national stature in a career as an artist that overlaps the period during which, with Japanese, East Asian, and Western cultures competing with each other, nihonga developed from the Meiji period on. Indeed, Taikan himself symbolizes modern nihonga.
Taikan was also one of the nihonga artists with whom our museum’s founder, Yamazaki Taneji, had the closest ties. This exhibition introduces all forty-one works (except for reference materials) by Taikan in our collection, which includes works acquired through Taikan’s friendship with Taneji, his first ink scroll paintings, the Chu Province Scroll and Yanshan Scroll, as well as Sakuemon’s House and other masterpieces. This exhibition will be the first opportunity, since our museum’s opening in 1966, to view our entire Taikan collection at once.
The exhibition will also include work by other artists who, like Taikan, had a close relationship with Taneji. These include Kobayashi Kokei, Yasuda Yukihiko, and Maeda Seison, who were active in the Re-established Inten, and Yamaguchi Hōshun and Higashiyama Kaii, who also studied at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and was active in the Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition). It will be a remarkable opportunity to view the art of Taikan, who led the development of modern nihonga, along with excellent works by other elite members of the Tokyo art world.
 Yokoyama Taikan Yanshan Scroll, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Tao Yuan-ming, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Mt. Kisen Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Horned Owl, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Mynah Bird, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Mt. Fuji, The Sacred Mountain, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Spring Stream and Autumn Colors, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Spring Morning, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Yokoyama Taikan Divine Spirit: Mt. Fuji, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Hishida Shunsō, Return from a Fishing Trip, Yamatane Museum of Art |
 Kobayashi Kokei, Oxen, Yamatane Museum of Art |