Utagawa Hiroshige III (Ando Tokubei) (1842-1894), Famous Places in Tokyo: Foreigners’ Houses in Tsukiji, (Tokyo meisho zue: Tsukiji ijinkan), oban tate-e 13 3/4 x 9 3/8 in. (35 x 23.7 cm)

Meiji Era Prints
From a Private New York Collection
July 2025
145 West 58th St, Ste 6D, NYC

Scholten Japanese Art is pleased to announce the addition of a selection of Meiji era prints recently added to their website from a private collection assembled by a prominent American defense attorney who was one of the first foreigners to pass the Japanese bar exam and co-founded a law firm in Tokyo, where he lived the rest of his life. The trove passed to his son who shared his father’s appreciation of Yokohama and Meiji Period prints and continued to curate the collection both here in New York and abroad.

The Meiji Period (1866-1912) was an era of tremendous transformation in Japan following the Meiji Restoration, which ended the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and ‘restored’ the rule of the Emperor Mutsuhito (1852-1912, posthumously named Emperor Meiji) and a centralized government. The name of the era, Meiji, meaning “enlightened rule” signified Japan deliberate emergence from an isolationist and feudal society to a modern and industrialized nation, eager to catch up with Western powers of the time.

In 1853 Japan was opened up to the West by Commodore Matthew Perry (1794-1858), ending the country’s 220 year isolation policy. Western technologies in all aspects of life were quickly implemented, and these advancements can be seen in the prints that were produced in this era; both in subject matter depicted and the printmaking process itself. Artists inspired by readily available brilliant synthetic dyes and the dynamic growth of Tokyo and Yokohama produced urban scenes populated with foreigners and locals bustling together among new types of architecture and methods of transportation. Likewise, the techniques utilized evolved as some artists began to mimic etching methods found in Western printmaking – this can be particularly be seen in works by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915).

The declaration of war with China in 1894 stimulated a burst of productivity in the woodblock print market, with Kiyochika in particular leading the charge. Depictions of battles from the front, often in triptych format, became highly popular with the print-buying public, and served as a way to promote national pride and support for the war effort. Although many of the war prints illustrated new explosive weapons and modern technologies, the artists themselves did not see these events first-hand, but rather based their compositions on a combination of traditional ukiyo-e portrayals of warrior subjects and their own imaginations.

To explore this extraordinary collection, click here.

Installation view, Paper Space, Photos: Tadayuki Minamoto

Paper Space
Closing Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Shibunkaku Kyoto

There’s still time to experience Paper Space, the captivating solo exhibition by acclaimed graphic designer Atsuki Kikuchi at Shibunkaku Kyoto, on view through July 22!

This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in Kikuchi’s creative world, where paper becomes a dynamic medium for exploring form, space, and texture. Alongside showcasing his latest works, Kikuchi has also taken on the role of curator, thoughtfully selecting a range of early modern to modern artworks from Shibunkaku’s collection. These curated pieces create a dialogue with his own designs, revealing the historical and aesthetic influences that have shaped his practice.

Don’t miss the chance to see how tradition and contemporary design intersect in this unique presentation before it closes!

To learn more, click here.

Installation view, Chang Ucchin: The Eternal Home

Chang Ucchin: The Eternal Home
Closing Saturday, July 19, 2025
122 E 32nd St, NYC

Don’t miss the final days of Chang Ucchin: The Eternal Home, the first dedicated New York exhibition of one of Korea’s most beloved modern artists at the Korean Cultural Center New York!  A pioneering figure in Korean modernism, Chang Ucchin (1917–1990) developed a singular visual language defined by simplicity, playfulness, and a deep reverence for nature and home.

Through elemental motifs—trees, birds, the sun, the moon—Chang created poetic worlds of warmth and serenity. For him, the home was more than a structure: it was a spiritual sanctuary, where humanity and nature exist in perfect harmony.

In today’s rapidly shifting world, Chang Ucchin’s work offers a quiet refuge. His paintings invite us to rediscover the warmth of home, the comfort of nature, and the possibility of joy in life’s simplest moments. By dissolving the boundaries between reality and the ideal, The Eternal Home allows us to enter the world he imagined—one of purity, balance, and enduring artistic resonance.

Be sure to catch it before it closes July 19!

To learn more, click here.

Courtesy Japanese Art Society of America

JASA is pleased to present two exciting events this July! On Thursday, July 24, join a live Zoom webinar on Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road, featuring curator U.S. collector Alan Medaugh, a key lender to the British Museum exhibition. Then, on Tuesday, July 29, JASA members are welcome to an in-person tour of The Three Perfections at The Met, led by curator John T. Carpenter. The show features masterpieces from the renowned Cowles collection—one of the finest holdings of Japanese art outside Japan.

Zoom Webinar: Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road
Thursday, July 24, 2025 at 5pm (EST)
Online

On Thursday, July 24, join a live Zoom Webinar on Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road, the British Museum’s exhibition on view through September 7. This talk will include not the lead curator, Alfred Haft, but also one of its featured lenders, U.S. Hiroshige-print collector Alan Medaugh.

To learn more and register, click here.

In-Person Tour of The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Painting and Calligraphy
Tuesday, July 29, 2025 at 3pm (EST)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave.
Tickets: $20, advance registration required

JASA members will have another opportunity for an in-person tour of the current Met exhibition The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Painting, and Calligraphy, led by curator John T. Carpenter. The majority of the works are among the more than 250 examples of Japanese painting and calligraphy donated or promised to The Met by Mary and Cheney Cowles, whose collection is one of the finest and most comprehensive assemblages of Japanese art outside Japan.

Please note that after The Three Perfections closes on August 3, the Arts of Japan Galleries will be undergoing renovation and won’t reopen until December.

The deadline to sign up is July 22.  Group size is limited to 20 members.  Please contact Cheryl Gall, membership coordinator, at [email protected] or (978) 600-8128 with any questions.

To learn more and register, click here.

Installation view, Nakamura Tomonori and Watanabe Chiaki

Nakamura Tomonori & Watanabe Chiaki
Closing Saturday, July 19, 2025
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM

There’s still time to experience the living traditions and contemporary innovations of the Sado Island sculptural legacy through the striking bamboo works of Nakamura Tomonori and Watanabe Chiaki at TAI Modern—on view through July 19!

Both men attended the SADO School of Bamboo Art on Sado Island in the Niigata Prefecture in Japan in 2010, where they were taught by noted TAI Modern artist, Honma Hideaki. Drawn together by their explorations of transparency and linearity, both Nakamura and Watanabe are proudly carrying on the Sado Island bamboo tradition.

Nakamura Tomonori was a former IT engineer before he chose to pursue an artistic career. Enrolling at the SADO School in 2010, he studied under Honma Hideaki. While he was a student, he showed his work locally and regionally and won seven awards before he had even graduated. After graduating, Nakamura began to show on a national scale and was accepted into the prestigious 45^th Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition).

Ever the engineer, he would often use paper maquettes to plan the composition of a piece before even touching any bamboo. However, he has recently moved toward an improvisational conversation between the artist and material, creating his new series with only a general sense of premeditated scale and movement. Nakamura continues his explorations of geometric balance, taking his forms to new heights in this body of work. He says, “Compared to when I first started bamboo craft, I now focus on enjoying the creation process and feeling that sense of excitement.”

Watanabe Chiaki worked as a social worker for fourteen years before quitting his job and setting out to Sado Island. There, he studied under both Honma Hideaki and Kawano Shoko. Like his teachers, he finds inspiration in the natural world and extrapolates on that with his idiosyncratic lightness and precise angles. Most recently, Watanabe was the recipient of the award for Excellence in Sculpture Prize from The Next Generation Bamboo Art Prizes in 2024. He says, “The various forms of lines that I use as the source of my inspiration include wormholes that connected to various places that may exist in the universe, magnetic lines that represent magnetic fields, spirals, intersecting lines, lines that are made up of a series of spheres or circles, and lines that curl up into a ball.”

Be sure to catch this fascinating exploration of bamboo before it closes this week!

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

Sakaegi Masatoshi 栄木正敏 (1944-2019), No.8 IWASHIMZU plate 石清水プレート (detail), 2019, celadon glazed porcelain, H2 5/8 × W13 3/4 × D13 3/4 in. (H6.6 × W34.8 × D34.8 cm), signed M. Sakaegi at the back

Notes on Blue: The Art of Blue in Japanese Ceramics
July 15 – August 15, 2025
18 East 64th St, Ste 1F, NYC

Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. is pleased to present Notes on Blue, an exhibition exploring the soothing and diverse expressions of blue in Japanese ceramics opening July 15!

In Japanese art history, the color blue (ao) has an enduring legacy in both cultural significance and visual expression. As an island nation, nearly every region of Japan is bordered by the sea, making blue a deep source of inspiration in the physical landscape and the collective imagination. In the world of ceramics, the color blue offers a vast oasis of potential in visual expression, achieved through innovative and technically demanding glazes: most notably celadon and sometsuke (blue-and-white ware). Beyond these glazes, blue also emerges through other techniques such as neriage (marbelized clay), or in sculptural forms where color becomes structural rather than surface.

This summer exhibition explores the diverse ways in which contemporary and modern ceramic artists engage with the color blue in visually compelling and innovative ways, celebrating its beauty, material complexity, and legacy in Japanese contemporary art and art history.

Escape the summer heat and find tranquility in these works of art today!

To learn more, click here.

Wang Mengsha, Elegant Pavilion (detail), 2019, Chinese ink & acrylic on rice paper, 176 x 80cm

Wang Mengsha: Borrowed Shadows
July 10 – August 22, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10, 6-8pm
120 East 65th St, NYC

Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to present the first U.S. solo exhibition of Beijing-based artist Wang Mengsha opening July 10. Known for her ability to blend traditional Chinese painting with a contemporary sensibility, Wang reinterprets the classic ‘xieyi’ style with bold colors, playful imagery, and a touch of humor. Her work often draws on everyday objects, elegant figures, historical Chinese garden settings and scenes from nature, echoing the landscapes and culture of southeastern China.

Wang describes her paintings as dreamlike and fluctuating—like shadows that flicker in and out of view. Rather than aiming for realism, she creates imagined spaces where objects and figures change in scale and perspective. Her concept of “Borrowing Shadow” reflects this approach: using recognizable forms to build a personal, poetic world inspired by Eastern philosophy.

Using a technique from traditional Chinese painting known as scatter-point perspective, Wang builds her compositions in a flowing, intuitive way. This approach allows her to move freely through memories, emotions, and ideas—rather than following a strict or linear story. Hibiscus Garden is a tondo filled with symbols of good fortune – birds, flowers, deer, scholar rocks and other dreamlike objects to invite viewers into a playful world full of curiosity and wonder. Enchanted Purple Gourd is similar, although in this piece there is a pair of bathing maidens as its central subject, surrounded by recurring characters and objects: a cartoon-like tiger, giant birds, roses, and as the title suggests, a vibrant purple gourd. Her art gently questions how we hold on to imagination in a world that often asks us to let it go.

Alisan Fine Arts looks forward to welcoming you to the evening opening reception!

To learn more, click here.

(L): Lark E. Mason Jr.; (R): Chinese-Subject Court Screen, Korean, 18th century (detail)

Discovering America’s Treasures With Lark E. Mason Jr.
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Lecture, 6-7pm & Reception, 7-8pm
Tickets: $45 Non-Member | $35 Member 
Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI

The Preservation Society of Newport County is delighted to present a captivating lecture featuring one of our own Asia Week New York members, Lark E. Mason Jr., on July 17! Part of the Society’s esteemed Lecture Series, Discovering America’s Treasures with Lark E. Mason Jr. will explore how remarkable objects journey from the forgotten corners of private homes—walls, attics, and closets—to prominent museums and auction houses.

One of the nation’s foremost experts in Asian art and antiquities, Lark will offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the rediscovery and authentication of extraordinary works of art.  Drawing on his over 30 years experience as an appraiser with Sotheby’s, New York and his involvement with PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” he will share the stories of discovery that delight and inform about art, history and the human tendency to collect.

Be sure to join them for this enriching and insightful event!

To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.

(Top): Ochiai Yoshiiku, Picture of Men and Women from Many Countries (Bankoku danjo jinbutsu zue) (detail), 1861, Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne; (Bottom): Pixy Liao, Little Door Stopper (detail), courtesy of the artist, © Pixy Liao

Celebrate Asia’s rich artistry from early modern printmaking and feminist photography to timeless poetic traditions at the Art Institute of Chicago this summer!  Opening next week, The Dawn of Modernity: Japanese Prints, 1850–1900 traces Japan’s transformation during the Meiji era through vibrant woodblock prints that capture a nation in flux. Also debuting is Pixy Liao: Relationship Material, a bold and humorous look at modern intimacy and gender roles through photography, video, and sculpture. And don’t miss the final days of Japan’s Great Female Poets, on view through July 14, which celebrates the enduring legacy of Heian-era poets through exquisite Edo and Meiji prints.

The Dawn of Modernity: Japanese Prints, 1850–1900
July 15 – October 13, 2025

After almost 250 years of near-total isolation, Japan opened to international trade in 1859, following the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and his steam-powered fleet in 1853. Foreign ideas and technologies quickly poured in, transforming cities like Yokohama into hubs of global exchange. Japanese printmakers documented these watershed events—often in panoramic triptychs influenced by photography and Western illustrations—depicting steam trains, modern architecture, and bustling streets while promoting the image of a modern nation in ascent. With the fall of the shogunate in 1868 and the start of the Meiji era, Japan embraced rapid modernization under the ideals of “civilization and enlightenment.” The prints in this gallery reflect Japan’s attempts to define itself between Eastern and Western influences and to become Asia’s modern empire.

To learn more, click here.

Pixy Liao: Relationship Material
July 26 – December 8, 2025
Artist Conversation and Performance: Saturday, July 26, 1-2pm

For the past 18 years, artist Pixy Liao (廖逸君) has collaborated with her partner, Takahiro Morooka (諸岡高裕, nicknamed Moro), on a series of staged self-portraits. These often funny photographs document the evolution of the couple’s relationship, examine the power dynamics between artist and muse, play with expressions of physical intimacy, and prod at conservative gender roles. Their collaborations have expanded over the years to include sculptures and installations as well as music, which they perform as the duo PIMO.

To celebrate the opening of Pixy Liao: Relationship Material, Pixy and Moro will join assistant curator Yechen Zhao in a conversation about the evolution of this artistic and romantic partnership. The conversation will be followed by a musical performance by PIMO.

To learn more, click here.

Japan’s Great Female Poets
Closing Monday, July 14, 2025

Japan has long celebrated the talents of its great female poets, especially from the Heian period (794–1185), a golden age of literature. Writers like Murasaki Shikibu and Ono no Komachi inspired legends that later became subjects of Nō and Kabuki plays, as well as woodblock prints. This exhibition features Edo- and Meiji-period interpretations of their stories—often using mitate-e, a playful device that reimagines historical figures through contemporary imagery—by artists including the renowned Hokusai.

To learn more, click here.