Sumitomo Collection: Paintings of the 19th-20th Centuries from France and Japan

The art collecting begun by Sumitomo Kichizaemon (pseudonym Shunsui, 1864–1926), the fifteenth head of the Sumitomo family, was carried on by his eldest son, Kan’ichi (1896–1956), and Tomonari (1909–1993), the sixteenth head of the family, resulting in the formation of a fine collection of both Western and Oriental art.
In particular, two oil paintings by Claude Monet, which Shunsui purchased in Paris in 1897 (Meiji 30) during a tour of Europe, are of monumental significance as examples of works by Monet brought to Japan at the earliest stage. The Sumitomos’ collection of Western-style paintings including those by Monet were hung in their villa in Suma, Kobe, where, at a time when there were still no facilities fit to be called art museums in Japan, Japanese painters were given chances to view them.
In this exhibition, approximately eighty paintings of French paintings by Claude Monet, Jean-Paul Laurens, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Roualt, Pablo Picasso, etc. and modern Japanese Western-style paintings by Asai Chu, Kanokogi Takeshiro, Fujishima Takeji, Kishida Ryusei, Umehara Ryuzaburo, etc. from the collection of Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum Tokyo are introduced.

Uraga Dock, the only extant brick-built dry dock in Japan, was taken over by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., and more than one thousand ships were built and repaired there until its closure in 2003. To mark the donation of the property including Uraga Dock and the surrounding area to Yokosuka City in 2021, this exhibition looks back on the history of Uraga and Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.