ASIA WEEK NEW YORK EXHIBITION
Kawai Kanjirō, Dish with motif of hand and flower on white ground, 1951. Collection of Kawai Kanjirō House. Photo courtesy of Kawai Kanjirō House
Kawai Kanjirō: House to House
March 10 – May 10, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 18 at 5pm (kindly RSVP)
Kawai Kanjirō’s Way of Tea Talk & Tea Ceremony: Thursday, March 19 at 10am, 11:30am, 1pm
JASA Annual Lecture: Sunday, March 22 at 11am
Gallery After Hours: Tuesday, March 31 at 6pm
We are pleased to present Kawai Kanjirō: House to House, a solo exhibition celebrating the remarkable life and career of folk potter, poet, and artist Kawai Kanjirō (1890–1966) for the first time in the United States. Kawai is best known for his influential role in the mingei (folk art) movement in Japan, which he founded in the mid-1920s with his friends, the philosopher Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961) and the potter Hamada Shōji (1894–1978). Showcasing representative works from Kawai’s personal collection that are rarely seen outside his former home (now a museum known as the Kawai Kanjirō House), the exhibition traces the evolution from the artist’s early functional ceramic ware to his late-career modernist wood sculptures. From the Kawai Kanjirō House in Kyoto to Japan House in NYC, House to House explores Kawai’s profound impact on modern art in Japan and beyond.
We look forward to welcoming you to our exhibition and related programs soon during Asia Week New York!
To learn more, click here.
PAST EXHIBITION
Installation view, Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries
Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries
September 12, 2025 – January 11, 2026
Japan Society Gallery presents the first New York solo museum exhibition of contemporary artist Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972). Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries centers on a newly commissioned, site-specific installation that explores wartime experiences and memories. Placing the original installation in dialogue with other works from Shiota’s oeuvre, the exhibition creates parallels between the humanitarian tragedy of war and the artist’s personal struggles, including confronting her mortality and her bicultural identity living between two home countries. By drawing connections between collective and personal experience and memory, the exhibition contemplates universal issues such as history, humanity, loss, time, space, the body, and national identity.
The exhibition also documents the conceptualization and creative process behind Shiota’s stage set designed for Japan Society’s theater commission KINKAKUJI (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), which will premiere on the opening night of the exhibition. Based on the novel by legendary Japanese author Yukio Mishima (1925–1970), the performance celebrates the centennial year of his birth. This new work brings Shiota’s innovative and deeply intimate stage design to American audiences for the first time.
To learn more, click here.
