Japanese Art from the Collection

This exhibition highlights both iconic and lesser-known aspects of Japanese culture through paintings and ceramics from the Freer Gallery of Art Collection. Learn about Japanese art with a focus on the environment, notions of the body, historical crises, and new research findings.

Japan’s changing landscapes and local ecologies affected both imagery in paintings and how ceramics were made. Meanwhile, historic crises gave rise to art unique to Japan, such as stoneware repaired with gold (kintsugi) or visual retellings of national stories. Human bodies in art tell us about the emotions an artist wanted to express or the beauty standards of an era. Lastly, analysis of both broken and whole ceramics can give us new insights into how these works were designed, used, and valued.

The works in this exhibition come exclusively from the Freer Gallery of Art Collection, which houses Japanese paintings and ceramics from 3000 BCE to the twentieth century. Our museum’s founder, Charles Lang Freer, donated his collection to the nation in 1906 with the stipulation that the works not be loaned to other institutions or displayed among art from other collections. His gift established our museum and gave the public access to works from across Asia.