TAB Event - "The Smile in Japanese Art: From the Jomon Period to the Early 20th Century" Exhibition

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At Mori Art Museum
Media: Painting, Sculpture, Crafts, Ceramics

From ancient times, Japanese art has included many different aspects of laughter and humor. Sometimes this is deliberate, and sometimes the observer just happens to find them funny. This exhibition presents about 100 such works, ranging from the neolithic Jomon period to the early 20th Century, many of which have not been exhibited before.

In the Japanese Middle Ages, the rise of Zen Buddhism led to a reverence for paradoxical questions or riddles based on humorous themes and these became an enduring part of Japanese art. The many pictures of Kanzan and Jittoku are classical examples of this genre and, from the Middle Ages to modern times, hanging and hand scrolls in great numbers were produced. Many of these, while more or less keeping to Buddhist conventions, had the effect of making observers burst out laughing. For this exhibition, some of these stories are presented both in the original and through digital media, providing a rare opportunity to examine the whole work in detail.

[Image: Clay Mask (Excavated from Butsunami site) Late Jomon Period Osaka Center for Cultural Heritage]

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