Captivated by Detail
Edo and Meiji Era Craft to Contemporary Art

Yokohama, an open port with a foreign settlement, became a major producer of ceramics in the Meiji period. “Yokohama ware,” exemplified by Makuzu ware, astonished people from Europe and America with its exquisite workmanship and novel designs and was extremely well received. Yokohama also produced rather sculptural furniture[1] for export. These chairs, tables, and other pieces of furniture were a blend of Japanese and Western elements, based on Western furniture but with precisely carved dragon, pine, bamboo, and plum, phoenix, and other Japanese motifs. In recent years, Yokohama ware has been coming home to Japan, and the creativity of the rare sculptural furniture produced there, of which almost none survives in Japan, has been gathering new attention.
Over changing times, works made with superb techniques and filled with powerful individuality and artistic qualities have continued to fascinate. In the modern period, paintings and sculptures were created with true-to-life power, in the realistic style that originated in the West. Today, striking experiments by contemporary artists probing their own styles can be seen.
This exhibition takes the detailed style from Japan’s Edo and Meiji periods to the present as its key word in introducing a carefully selected group of works of many genres—crafts, paintings, contemporary art. Please enjoy exploring their diverse styles.