Rare Chinese Rouge De Fer and Verte Porcelain Rouleau Vase Kanxi Period, ca. Late 17th Century

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc.
16 East 52nd St, 10th Fl, NYC

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc. is delighted to present its new Summer Booklet, showcasing a carefully curated selection of recent acquisitions and collection highlights.

Available as a complimentary download on the gallery’s website, the booklet offers a glimpse into an exceptional array of works acquired over the past several months across a wide range of collecting areas. Visitors are also warmly invited to experience these remarkable treasures in person at the gallery on East 52nd Street, which remains open throughout August.

They look forward to welcoming you soon!

To view their new booklet, click here.

Installation view of Summer Symphony: Work from Ippodo Gallery’s Archive at Ippodo Gallery, NYC

Summer Symphony: Work from Ippodo Gallery’s Archive
Closing Saturday, Aug 8, 2026
35 N Moore St, NYC

Don’t miss your chance to experience Summer Symphony: Works from Ippodo Gallery’s Archive before it closes August 8. This special exhibition brings together a curated selection of works from the the gallery‘s collection, including both beloved pieces from past exhibitions and rarely seen treasures on public view for the first time.

Celebrating the richness of kogei (Japanese fine art craft), Summer Symphony harmonizes ceramics, painting, metalwork, calligraphy, photography, and glass into a vibrant seasonal presentation. Spanning generations, artistic practices, and traditions, each work contributes its own distinctive voice to this beautifully orchestrated exhibition.

Evoking the atmosphere of the most lively and warm season, Summer Symphony moves between moments of vibrancy and reflection. Mitsukuni Misaki’s blue vessels conjure serene ocean horizons; KAKU’s carefully folded washi spirals resemble white seashells, shaped by the wind and tide; YMER&MALTA’s lamps bring to mind shards of sunlit seaglass; Ken Matsubara’s Nihonga paintings capture crashing waves on a warm summer night. Together, the works invite viewers to experience the senses of the season through the richness of Ippodo Gallery’s contemporary world of fine art and craft.

Summer Symphony offers a final opportunity to experience a season of light, beauty, and discovery through a thoughtfully curated selection of works from Ippodo Gallery’s archive before the exhibition closes!

To learn more, click here.

Kawano Shoko, Summer Evening, 2018, madake bamboo, nemagari, and rattan, 12.50 x 16.75 x 12.25 in. Image: Mankus Photography

Kawano Shoko
July 31 – August 22, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, Jul 31, 5-7pm
Artist Demonstration: Saturday, Aug 1 at 2pm
1601 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM

TAI Modern presents Kawano Shoko, the gallery’s second solo exhibition dedicated to the acclaimed Japanese bamboo artist opening July 31. Marking ten years since his first exhibition with the gallery and following his receipt of Japan’s prestigious Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2024, this highly anticipated presentation showcases the extraordinary innovation and masterful craftsmanship that have established Kawano as one of the leading voices in contemporary bamboo art.

Constructed from finely prepared bamboo strips, woven with the artist’s signature sukashi-ajiro (open twill plaiting), Kawano’s works emphasize organic form, openness, and the natural flexibility of bamboo. Space and rhythm are integral to each composition. Kawano frequently adds an exterior layer of carved, parallel bamboo plates to an open twill-plaited form, based on a technique learned from Hayakawa Shōkōsai V during the Living National Treasure workshops he led in 2006–07. Ten years after Kawano’s first solo presentation at TAI Modern, Kawano Shoko brings together a body of work grounded in centuries of craftsmanship while continuing to evolve its vocabulary into contemporary expression.

Originally aspiring to become a sculptor, Kawano found in bamboo the expressive possibilities of three-dimensional form while embracing the discipline and technical rigor of the Beppu bamboo tradition. Over the past thirty-eight years, he has developed a distinctive sculptural language that balances structural precision with remarkable lightness and fluidity.

Now, at sixty-eight, Kawano reflects on his practice from a new vantage point. As opportunities to teach and mentor younger artists have become an increasingly important part of his life, the transmission of knowledge has emerged alongside artistic production as a central concern. “I feel a sense of responsibility to pass on the skills I have cultivated over many years,” Kawano said. “I am touched by their pure passion and sensibility toward craftsmanship, and they provide me with fresh and valuable inspiration that cannot be replaced by technical skill alone.”

To learn more, click here.

“Benkei,” 1870s-1880s, Suzuki Chokichi (Japanese, 1848-1919), Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912), Bronze on wood base with gilding, 61 x 31 x 23 ½ in., Gift of Arthur I. Appleton, G12518; Courtesy Appleton Museum of Art

Our summer roundup continues, and this time, we’re heading beyond New York City to highlight must-see Asian art exhibitions at Asia Week New York’s member museums across the United States. From celebrated masterpieces and historic treasures to innovative contemporary installations, these remarkable presentations offer new insights into the rich artistic traditions and cultures of Asia. Beat the summer heat, immerse yourself in world-class art, and plan a visit to these exceptional museums nationwide. Explore the highlights below!

Appleton Museum of Art
Exposition, Empire and Expression: Japanese Global Art 1870s-1970s
Ongoing
4333 E. Silver Springs Boulevard, Ocala, FL

Exposition, Empire and Expression is a must-see exploration of one of art history’s most dramatic transformations. Beginning with Commodore Matthew Perry’s forced opening of Japan to global trade in the 1850s, the exhibition traces a century of extraordinary artistic evolution from breathtaking bronze masterpieces to innovative kimono designs and bold postwar works revealing a century of artistic reinvention shaped by culture, power, and global exchange.

To learn more, click here.

Torii Kiyotada (Japanese, active c. 1716–51), The Main Gate, New Yoshiwara, c. 1745, hand-colored woodblock print; toku-oban yoko-e, beni-e, 43.4 × 63.9 cm (17 × 25 1/4 in.), Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1939.2152; Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute Chicago
The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection
Through September 6, 2026
111 South Michigan Avenue

Don’t miss this extraordinary glimpse into one of Japan’s most captivating artistic traditions. Born from the “floating world” philosophy of Edo-period Japan, ukiyo-e celebrated beauty, pleasure, and life’s fleeting moments through vibrant depictions of fashionable women, Kabuki actors, and urban culture. Featuring around 40 remarkable works, many gifted by pioneering collector Clarence Buckingham, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience nearly 200 years of Japanese artistic brilliance.

To learn more, click here.

All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016. Yayoi Kusama. Wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, and LED. Dallas Museum of Art, TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund, 2018.12.A–I. ©YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner; Courtesy Cincinnati Museum of Art

Cincinnati Art Museum
Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins
Through October 18, 2026
953 Eden Park Drive

Step inside the infinite world of Yayoi Kusama in Cincinnati! All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016) transforms her iconic yellow polka-dotted pumpkins into a mesmerizing mirrored universe, inviting visitors to become part of the artwork. Complementing the immersive installation, a rare group of Pumpkin acrylic paintings from 1990 to 2004 traces the evolution of Kusama’s beloved motif across her seven-decade career.

To learn more, click here.

BUSEKI Suishin 武関翠心, Flower Basket (hanakago 花籠), about 1920–40. Split smoked bamboo (susudake); 10⅞ × 18 × 17¾ in. Gift of Diane and Arthur Abbey, New York, 2024.727. Photo © and courtesy of Kagedo Japanese Art; Courtesy Denver Art Museum

Denver Art Museum
Grass Scripts Bamboo Art from the Abbey Collection
Ongoing
100 W 14th Avenue Pkwy

Grass Scripts: Bamboo Art from the Abbey Collection delves into how pioneers of modern bamboo in early 1900s Japan sought recognition for their millennia-long tradition as art rather than as craft. Through modern innovations of form and technique, lyrical titles, and signatures, these masters of bamboo brought their own hands and wrote their own selves into the bamboo work of art. Made possible by the generous gift of Arthur and Diane Abbey, this exhibition offers a rare and rewarding window into one of Japan’s most extraordinary artistic traditions.

To learn more, click here.

Animal Power rotation in Islamic art gallery, Gallery 2550; Courtesy Harvard Art Museums

Harvard Art Museums
Animal Power
Through October 21, 2026
32 Quincy Street

Animals have long held profound meaning across cultures, and this installation across Harvard Art Museums’ Islamic and South Asian art galleries brings their rich symbolism to life. Featuring a magnificent Persian hunting carpet, historic ceramics and metalwork, contemporary glass birds, devotional paintings, textiles, and intricate embroidery, the exhibition reveals the enduring connections between animals, art, faith, and culture.

To learn more, click here.

Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa, 1856, 7th month. Utagawa Hiroshige, Japanese, 1797–1858; Sakanaya Eikichi, Publisher, Japanese. Edo period (1603–1868). Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Louis W. Hill, Jr.. P.75.51.381

Minneapolis Institute of Art
Hiroshige’s 100 Views of Edo x Emily Allchurch
Through August 23, 2026
2400 Third Avenue South

What happens when a contemporary artist retraces the footsteps of a 19th-century master? This exhibition pairs Utagawa Hiroshige’s iconic series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, among the most celebrated achievements in Japanese printmaking, with Tokyo Story, a response by British artist Emily Allchurch. Where Hiroshige captured Edo’s landscapes across all four seasons with breathtaking drama and invention, Allchurch traveled to Tokyo in 2009 to photograph what those same places look like today. Using digital collage, she follows Hiroshige’s compositions, cropping, and colors to create images that feel at once familiar and startlingly new. Past and present, woodblock and pixel in conversation across two centuries.

To learn more, click here.

Yayoi Kusama, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009, wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic paint, and LED, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © Yayoi Kusama

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Yayoi Kusama Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity
Through Winter 2027
1001 Bissonnet

Created to mark her 80th birthday, Yayoi Kusama’s Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity is one of the most quietly breathtaking of her legendary Infinity Rooms. Inspired by the Buddhist Tōrō nagashi lantern ceremony honoring ancestors, Kusama transforms a personal ritual into a universal experience. Step inside and watch a constellation of lights multiply across mirrored surfaces before fading into darkness and beginning again—a meditative experience not to be missed.

To learn more, click here.

Kimura Yoshirō (Japanese, born 1946). Droplet (Vessel with Blue Glaze), 2017. Half-porcelain with glaze, 21 1/4 × 23 in. (54.0 x 58.4 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. Purchase: the Asian Art Acquisition Fund in memory of Laurence Sickman, 2025.28.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
Water Embodied: Flow and Meaning of Water in Japanese Art
Through August 23, 2026
4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO

Water has long shaped Japan’s landscape, culture, and imagination. Spanning nearly 500 years of Japanese art, this exhibition explores how water has been represented, revered, and reimagined across generations. Featuring nearly 50 objects, it reveals water’s dual nature as both a boundary and a bridge—connecting people, ideas, and traditions. Catch this captivating journey before it ends!

To learn more, click here.

Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home, interior. Photo by Dennis Helmar; Courtesy Peabody Essex Museum

Peabody Essex Museum
Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home
Ongoing
161 Essex Street, Salem, MA

Built during China’s Qing Dynasty by a prosperous merchant named Huang, Yin Yu Tang, the “Hall of Plentiful Shelter,” stood for more than 200 years as the beloved home of multiple generations in the Huizhou region. When the last family members left in 1982, the house’s story could have ended there. Instead, it began a remarkable new chapter. In the 1990s, the entire structure, along with its contents, was carefully dismantled and transported to Massachusetts, where a team of curators, preservation architects, and Chinese and American craftspeople spent seven years meticulously rebuilding it on PEM’s campus. Since opening to visitors in 2003, Yin Yu Tang has become one of the museum’s most extraordinary treasures: a living testament to family, memory, and the power of cultural exchange.

To learn more, click here.

Kōgie Kamejo (Japanese, active 18th/19th century), Incense burner in the shape of a quail, 18th century, Brass with patina and traces of gilding, 4 3/4 in x 2 7/8 in x 5 3/16 in, Gift of Richard Louis Brown in honor of Maribeth Graybill, public domain, 2019.38.1a,b; Courtesy Portland Art Museum

Portland Art Museum
MAKERS: The Culture of Craft
Through May 30, 2027
1219 SW Park Avenue

Makers celebrates the virtuosity of Japanese craftsmanship and the enduring relationship between maker and material. Spanning centuries, the exhibition explores the intersections of art, craft, design, and labor through works ranging from Bizen pottery and lacquerware to bamboo sculpture and metalwork. Featuring many new acquisitions on view for the first time, it highlights the artistry, mastery, and emotional power of beautifully crafted objects while reflecting Portland’s own vibrant maker culture.

To learn more, click here.

Shibata Gitō, Japanese, 1780-1819, Illustration to the Heike Monogatari, ca. 1800, Ink and colors on silk, Image: 33 × 10 3/4 in. (83.8 × 27.3 cm); Overall with knobs: 73 × 17 1/2 in. (185.4 × 44.5 cm), On loan from the Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection, L.2011.10.60; Courtesy San Antonio Museum of Art

San Antonio Museum of Art
Samurai Spirit: Swords, Accessories, and Paintings
Through January 3, 2027
200 West Jones Avenue

Few objects in Japanese culture carry as much symbolic weight as the samurai sword, a weapon of lethal beauty, forged through the painstaking process of heating and folding steel countless times. The warriors who wielded them inspired centuries of legend, literature, and art, and their blades became revered emblems of honor. This exhibition features two exceptional 14th-century examples, a wakizashi and a katana, acquired through the generous bequest of the late Robert Clemons, offering a rare encounter with craftsmanship that has captivated for more than 600 years.

To learn more, click here.

Vase, 13th-14th century, Porcelaneous stoneware with incised decoration and ash glaze (Seto ware), Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333), Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 53.19. photo: Scott Leen; Courtesy Seattle Art Museum

Seattle Art Museum
Ash-Glazed Ceramics from Korea and Japan
Ongoing
1300 First Avenue

Drawn from the Seattle Art Museum’s exceptional holdings of Japanese and Korean art, this exhibition brings together 34 ceramic masterworks united by a single, extraordinary material: ash glaze. Spanning centuries and cultures, this selection reveals the transformative power of fire, earth, and time—from ancient Korean ritual wares and early Japanese ceramics to refined Seto pottery and monumental storage jars. Together, these works tell a sweeping story of craftsmanship, innovation, and artistic ingenuity across two of Asia’s greatest ceramic traditions.

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Cultural Heroes in East Asian Painting 

Two newly opened displays at the Yale University Art Gallery offer a vivid journey through the artistic traditions of Asia, each illuminating a different facet of the human experience. Cultural Heroes in East Asian Painting celebrates the figures who shaped culture and conscience: haiku master Matsuo Bashō, Confucian paragons of filial piety, and the revered Eighteen Scholars of the Tang dynasty, now on view for the first time after years of conservation. The Natural World in Indian and Islamic Art, meanwhile,  places nature at the heart of the story — from the epic sweep of the Persian Shahnama to intimate royal portraits, lightning, blossoms, birds, and flowers are never merely decoration; they are meaning itself. Don’t miss them and plan your visit today!

Cultural Heroes in East Asian Painting
July 20 – November 8, 2026
Second Floor

Famed poets and other celebrated historical figures are featured in the current display of East Asian paintings. Highlights include a Japanese scroll of the famous haiku master Matsuo Bashō and representations of the Confucian paragons of filial piety, which record the extraordinary sacrifices that obedient children (purportedly) made for their parents. Noted scholar-bureaucrats are the subject of a set of three Chinese 17th-century hanging scrolls. They depict the revered Eighteen Scholars of the Tang dynasty, advisors to the emperor Taizong (r. 626–49 C.E.), which are on view for the first time after several years of conservation.

Installation view, The Natural World in Indian and Islamic Art

The Natural World in Indian and Islamic Art
July 20 – November 8, 2026
Second Floor

Brilliant flashes of lightning that signal the power of a storm or delicate blossoms that evoke a perfumed summer evening illustrate the multifaceted role nature plays in Indian and Islamic painting. Artists used the natural world as the setting for religious and historical tales, such as the famed Persian Book of Kings (Shahnama), or to frame elegant portraits of rulers. Birds and flowers also emerged as independent subjects in artworks produced in workshops associated with the courts of Iran and other Islamic centers as well as India, particularly in the 17th century.

To learn more, click here.

The Unheard Melody: Music in Chinese Paintings 大音希声：中国绘画中的音乐
A Special Showcase of Song Dynasty Art and Music
August 5 – 27, 2026
Opening & Lecture: Wednesday, Aug 5, 2-3:30pm
100 Washington Street, NYC

If Song dynasty paintings could speak, what would they tell us?

Drawing from the musical imagery found in A Collection of Song Dynasty Paintings, The Unheard Melody: Music in Chinese Paintings invites visitors to discover the sounds and stories embedded within these masterpieces at China Institute. Featuring three thematic sections —“Harmony Through Music”, “Elegance and Refinement in Music”, and “Music in Common Life”—the special showcase reveals the diverse roles of music in Song society, from court rituals and ceremonial performances to literati gatherings and everyday life. Through high-resolution digital reproductions, audiovisual installations, and interactive experiences featuring traditional Chinese instruments, visitors will experience how ancient paintings preserve the sounds, movements, and musical imagination of their time.

The opening ceremony will bring the world of Song dynasty art and music to life through traditional Chinese music and Kunqu opera performances and immersive cultural experiences including flower arrangement, lacquer fan painting, and Hanfu garment activities.

Professor Miao Zhe’s lecture “Florence, Kyoto and Hangzhou: The Rise of Chinese Painting Collections in the U.S.” will unveil the fascinating journey of Southern Song dynasty paintings across cultures, tracing how changing artistic tastes during the Gilded Age shaped the formation of Chinese painting collections in the United States.

Join China Institute to experience the magic and timeless beauty of ancient China!

To learn more and view the opening day schedule, click here.

Natori Shunsen (1886-1960), Creative Prints, Collected Portraits of Shunsen: Actor Ichikawa Kigan V as Otomi (Sosaku hanga Shunsen Nigao-e Shu: gosei, Ichikawa Kigan no Otomi), signed Shunsen with artist’s seal Shunsen and artist’s approval seal Natori on lower left, publisher’s seal Watanabe-ko (Watanabe Shozaburo) at lower right edge, from an edition limited to 150 impressions, 1927, dai oban tate-e 15 3/4 by 10 3/4 in. (40 by 27.2 cm)

A Private Collection of Shin-Hanga Kabuki Portraits – Part 2
Summer 2026
145 West 58th St, Suite 6D, NYC

Step into the captivating world of kabuki with Scholten Japanese Art’s Part 2 of their special online exhibition featuring thirty exceptional 20th-century actor prints from a distinguished private collection. Following the first installment, released in December 2025 and showcasing works from the 1920s through the early 1930s, this new presentation turns to the 1930s through the 1950s with masterful portraits by two of the genre’s foremost artists, Natori Shunsen and Ota Gako (Masamitsu). Together, these remarkable woodblock prints represent some of the finest examples of shin-hanga kabuki actor portraiture.

Explore this extraordinary online exhibition today and discover the artistry, drama, and enduring appeal of Japan’s iconic theatrical tradition.

To learn more and view the exhibition index, click here.

Nakatomi Hajime, FLY: Trio, 2024, madake bamboo, rattan, 23.75 x 25.00 x 15.25 in. Image by Minamoto Tadayuki

Nakatomi Hajime
Closing Saturday, July 25, 2026
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Sante Fe, NM

Don’t miss your final chance to see Nakatomi Hajime, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, at TAI Modern before it closes on Saturday, July 25. Bringing together work from five series developed over more than two decades — Prism, Musubi, Auspicious 8, Frill, and FLY — work defined by a single animating question: what does it mean for something not to look like bamboo? Rather than emphasizing material qualities or classical techniques and forms, Nakatomi embraces this paradoxical inquiry. His aim is to express the beauty of bamboo through colors, shapes, sizes, and materials not typically found in bamboo art. The most recent works in the exhibition combine bamboo with other materials, such as gold.

“Many people who see my work murmur, ‘Is this really bamboo?’” Nakatomi has written. “That is because I create my pieces so that they do not look like bamboo. Yet, such small reactions cast a faint light on the path I am taking — they give me the conviction that a new form of bamboo art is being born here.”

Nakatomi came to bamboo art by way of an unlikely path. Raised in Osaka and educated at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied business and commerce, he had no prior relationship with art until an interest in ceramics led him to the university art club. A large photograph of Flame, a 1957 bamboo sculpture by master Shono Shounsai, encountered by chance at a Tokyo department store, set him on an entirely new course.

In the spring of 2000, Nakatomi entered the bamboo craft training center in Beppu, Kyushu, one of Japan’s foremost centers of bamboo production. After completing his training, he was introduced to Honda Syoryu, a celebrated bamboo sculptor. Nakatomi served as Honda’s assistant for three years, an experience he has described as transformative not for its technical instruction, but for the spiritual insight it offered into the nature of artistic creation.

Experience this landmark exhibition before it comes to a close!

To learn more and view the online catalog, click here.