ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukehide, Japanese, active ca. 1360, Wakizashi (Short Sword), Jūyo Token, Signed: Sukehide, 7th month, 18th year [of the Shōhei era], July 1363, Handmade and polished steel, 13 3/4 in. (35 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, acquired in memory of Robert R. Clemons with funds realized from his estate, 2022.11.1
Samurai Spirit: Swords, Accessories, and Paintings
January 6, 2024 – January 3, 2027
Asian Special Exhibitions Gallery, 2nd Floor West
Learn about the Japanese samurai and their appreciation of finely honed skills in forging and polishing steel to make weapons of lethal beauty.
First recounted by oral narratives, the stories of battles, heroic pursuits, and famous samurai warriors became popular subjects of literature, theater, and pictorial arts that have endured through the ages. And their swords, polished and decorated, were revered as treasured emblems of their honorable heritage.
This exhibit features two important fourteenth century swords, a wakizashi, a short sword signed by the maker, Yoshioka Ishimonji Sukehide, dated to July, 1363, and a katana, a longer sword typically wielded with two hands, that were purchased with funds realized from the sale of the late Robert Clemons’s bequest to SAMA. Japanese swords are admired for the strength of the steel, which comes from heating and folding the metal many times, and by shaping the steel to a fine, sharp blade.
Other samurai weapons and objects round out this introduction to a major aspect of traditional Japanese culture.
To view the exhibition, click here.
The Permanent Asian Art Collection
The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing
In 1990, museum trustees Walter F. and Lenora Brown began donating what has grown to over 500 Asian objects, mostly Chinese ceramics, which surveys the entire 5,000-year history of ceramics produced in China. With additional later acquisitions, the Museum’s collection of Asian art is now among the finest in the nation and is drawn from several cultures across the continent, including China, Japan, Korea, India, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.
The collection was installed in its new and dedicated space, the 15,000-square-foot Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing, in 2005. With the installation in 2019 on the museum’s grounds of a 12-foot-high, six-and-a-half ton Taihu Rock, gifted by San Antonio’s sister city Wuxi in China, the Asian art collection became part of SAMA’s riverview.
To view the collection, click here.
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Tomb Figure of a Woman, Chinese, Tang dynasty, 618–907, Painted earthenware, h. 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm); w. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm); d. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Lenora and Walter F. Brown, 2007.20.14.
Ancient Beauty and Body Art from Four Continents
November 21, 2026 – November 28, 2027
Ancient Beauty and Body Art from Four Continents explores how people from four cultures, distant in geography and history, altered and enhanced their appearances to conform to, or deviate from, their societies’ expectations. Portraits and other images of people from New Kingdom Egypt (16th–11th century BC), Early Imperial Rome (1st century BC–2nd century AD), Classic Maya (AD 250–950), Tang Dynasty China (AD 618–907) do not necessarily show us how real, historical people looked; instead, they show us how they wanted others to see them. Ancient beauty standards varied widely from one culture to another and were often strikingly different from what is idealized in popular media today.
Alongside ancient faces, Ancient Beauty displays the tools, accessories, and vessels used in antiquity as part of beauty and body modification practices, including hair styling and removal, piercing and tattooing, and applying makeup, skincare, and perfumes. The implements associated with these intimate rituals are often works of art in their own right. People from all four cultures were buried with precious objects related to self-care and personal adornment. In life and in the afterlife, the way a person crafted their appearance told their community who they were, communicating their power, taste, wealth, gender, ancestry, and age. Thousands of years later, we can try to understand some of those messages from the beautiful things left behind.
The exhibition highlights works of art from across SAMA’s ancient collections, many of which have not been on view in recent years, along with generous loans from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Brooklyn Museum, and The Witte Museum.
To learn more, click here.
