Electives

This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the thematic scope and stylistic diversity of the Japanese painting tradition. A full range of formats brings to life the unique viewing experiences and aesthetic sensibilities of Japanese painting. Majestic folding screens, often used to decorate aristocratic homes and the castles of military rulers, explore a variety of auspicious themes. A wide selection of hanging scrolls depict such subjects as Buddhist devotional icons, Zen landscapes designed to challenge the imagination, Chinese inspired narratives, and even the ukiyo-Japan’s “floating world” of pleasure and entertainment. The delightful world of flower and bird themes is explored in both album and scroll formats. Colorfully painted hand scrolls, rendered in the indigenous yamato-e style, offer an especially intimate perspective of both scenes of everyday life and the Tale of Genji, Japan’s most well known classical narrative.