Exhibition Schedule
Current Exhibition
25th Anniversary Exhibition
Hand-Painted Ukiyo-e
─The Competition among Moronobu, Shunshō, Hokusai and Others
- April 12 (Sat) - May 25 (Sun), 2025
＊The museum is closed on Mondays except May 5, 2025
The exhibition features representative works of hand-painted Ukiyo-e paintings, carefully selected from the Idemitsu collection. Although woodblock prints are generally known as Ukiyo-e, almost all Ukiyo-e artists from the 17th to the 19th century were vigorously engaged in the production of nikuhitsu-ga (hand-painted Ukiyo-e painting), in which they completed the entire work themselves whereas they only created the preparatory sketches for the prints. Ukiyo-e works are the result of the artists' unrelenting concentration of their techniques. We hope that you will enjoy the richness of the expression of these works to your heart's content.
Exhibition Schedule
2025.4～2026.3
April 12 (Sat) - May 25 (Sun), 2025
25th Anniversary Exhibition
Hand-Painted Ukiyo-e－The Competition among Moronobu, Shunshō, Hokusai and Others
The exhibition features representative works of hand-painted Ukiyo-e paintings, carefully selected from the Idemitsu collection. Although woodblock prints are generally known as Ukiyo-e, almost all Ukiyo-e artists from the 17th to the 19th century were vigorously engaged in the production of nikuhitsu-ga (hand-painted Ukiyo-e painting), in which they completed the entire work themselves whereas they only created the preparatory sketches for the prints. Ukiyo-e works are the result of the artists' unrelenting concentration of their techniques. We hope that you will enjoy the richness of the expression of these works to your heart’s content.
June 7 (Sat) - July 21 (Mon), 2025
25th Anniversary Exhibition
Rare, Auspicious, and Monstrous Creatures! －The Beauty of Symbolic Forms
Japanese art is filled with a wealth of flora and fauna, from familiar and adorable birds and beasts to awe-inspiring imaginary creatures. These creatures, which live and breathe in the depths of Japanese culture, were depicted not only as forms that adorn works of art, but also as symbols of peace, wealth, authority, and protection from evil, embodying the thoughts and feelings of the people. This exhibition focuses on animals and plants that originated in Chinese culture and were nurtured in Japan and examines their shapes and true meanings through masterpieces of paintings and ceramics in the Idemitsu collection.
August 2 (Sat) - September 15 (Mon), 2025
25th Anniversary Exhibition
Image Chaining in Japanese Art
The exhibition is a summer holiday season project that invites you to look around at works that transcend time and genre and enjoy the discoveries that emerge through careful viewing. The word ‘shiritori,’ in the Japanese exhibition title, refers to finding ‘commonalities in images’ between works, not in the sense of wordplay as usually been used. The image depicted in the work you saw is connected to the work next to it. As you search for similarities, you will notice that there are themes and designs that appear over and over in Japanese art works. We hope you will have fun in the re-discovery in Japanese art and enjoy such viewing experience observed through a slightly different perspective.
September 27 (Sat) - December 14 (Sun), 2025
Closed for Rotation of Exhibits : November 4 (Tue) – 7 (Fri)
25th Anniversary Exhibition
The Genealogy of Rimpa School－Sōtatsu, Kōrin and Edo Rimpa
The art of the Rimpa school continues to fascinate viewers with its elegance and bold decorativeness. The refined esthetic trend created by Tawaraya Sōtatsu in the city of Kyoto at the beginning of the Edo period was greatly developed by Ogata Kōrin and culminated in the Edo Rimpa style of Sakai Hōitsu and Suzuki Kiitsu in the 19th century. This exhibition introduces a lineage that was inherited by those who admired and respected their predecessors and created works imitating the major themes and developing new innovative works from time to time from the Idemitsu Museum of Arts’ Rimpa collection. We hope you will enjoy this splendid show with the works of representative Rimpa artists.
January 17 (Sat) - March 22 (Sun), 2026
25th Anniversary Exhibition
Masterpieces of Ceramics from the Idemitsu Collection
The core of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts‘ collection lies in the ceramics. In addition to Japanese ceramics, the museum is well known for its collection of world-class Chinese and Korean ceramics of high quality, as well as European ceramics, which often represent the exchange between East and West. This exhibition features a selection of works from the Museum’s most extensive collection by region and period. Included are Ko-Garatsu (old Karatsu) ceramics and important cultural property pieces such as works of Nonomura Ninsei and Kakiemon decorated with colorful overglazing from Japan, Tang sansai (three-color glazed ware), Song and Yuan celadon, and Ming and Qing dynasty guanyao (official vessels) from Jingdezhen kiln from China, Goryeo celadon and Joseon dynasty white porcelain from Korea, and others, representing an interesting and fascinating collection of ceramics.