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-- The 70th Anniversary Celebration --
January 7th through March 25th, 2007
Yanagi Soetsu & Old Tamba Pottery
Yanagi Soetsu, founder of the Nihon Mingeikan, highly regarded Tamba pottery. He stated that Tamba pottery is uniquely Japanese and that it expresses an extreme quality of austerity in form, color and richness, all within a humble environment. In his very last years, Yanagi collected Tamba pottery and devoted a considerable time to writing many essays about it. Because of him, Tamba pottery gained an esteemed place in the long history of pottery in Japan.
At the Nihon Mingeikan, to commemorate the 70th year, Maestro Yanagi's great Tamba collection of approximately 200 works will be on display. There are large vases from the Medieval Period, as well as works from the Edo Period produced in a great variety of techniques including ash glaze, terracotta, drip glaze, and white splash glaze. The Tamba collection shows one of Yanagi's great pioneering discoveries.
Tamba Pottery
A large jar (tsubo) in the collection of
The Japan Folk Crafts Museum
 Pictorial Banners in the Edo Era
Banners & Streamers (Nobori)
April 3 through June 24, 2007
The use of banners (Nobori) are universally popular, but there is no other country that uses them as extensively as Japan. Even today, banners are used for business advertisement, show business, festivals at temples and shrines. Iris banners with carp streamers are used for Boy's Day (now Children's Day) Festival, the fifth of May.
The charm of the pictorial banners lies in their bold composition of vigorous strokes and strong colors. But this is merely the beginning. Appreciation of the eye catching banner is enhanced if one understands the historical background surrounding the banner or the meaning behind the painted pictures.
In Edo Period, the root of the banner's charm was prayer. The banner served to express people's prayers by portraying the central theme of the prayer in pictorial form. When people saw the banner, it symbolized the prayer and moved their hearts. For people of Edo Period Japan, there were no utilities, such as electricity or gas. It was pitch black at night. There was no penicillin to cure an epidemic. People were stricken with drought, hit by earthquake, and there were often fires. Emotional security and peace of mind were best secured by having a talisman and praying at shrines or temples.
A banner was given to a baby boy in celebration of his first Boy's Day. It was a joint effort from all of his relatives. Female relatives got together and sewed loops on the banner through which a line could be run to tie it onto a pole. While making the loops, the women prayed for the boy's good health and happiness. Embroidered on each loop, were auspicious words wishing good luck. In this way the iris banner conveyed prayers and wishes of "be strong, be wise, be great, be happy in life".
Votive banners to be placed at shrines or temples concerned prayers for the village and the families living there, and for good harvests were boldly drawn. Banners that had been made with hand woven cotton and hand painted with natural pigments gradually gave way to machine-made textile with stenciled design and cheap, but pretty, chemical paint. Over time, people almost stopped praying. The prayers on the Iris Banner for Boy's Day became more superficial, and the meaning diminished. The charm of the pictorial banners faded away as an object of appreciation. With this exhibition, people will be able to look again at banners with heart.
Segment of mid Edo-period Nobori (Crane Motif)
(R) Castle textile (Tsutsugaki Technique), Late Edo Period, Akita Pref..
Summer Special Exhibition:
White Porcelain and Blue and White
July 3 through September 24, 2007
 White porcelain refers to ceramic ware from white clay which is covered with transparent glaze and fired to a high temperature. During the latter half of the 6th century, more advanced methods of kiln construction in a region of China led to the development of the first white porcelains. In time, the technology spread throughout the countries of Eastern Asia.
The first firing of white porcelain on the Korean Peninsula was recorded in the early Koryo Dynasty (918-1392). At the beginning of the Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910), white porcelain was adapted for Imperial wares under a system of government-imported kilns from China. In the middle of the 15th century, government kilns in southern Korea were mass producing white porcelain ware.
 In Japan, white porcelain was first fired in the early Edo Period by the Korean potter Ri Sampei in Imari, Saga Prefecture, Kyushu. Pure white porcelain ware was not very popular in Japan, but provided the foundation for the blue and white ware. Meanwhile, production of blue and white porcelain wares from the Jingdezhen kilns of early 14th-century China (late Yuan Dynasty) was in progress. The new blue and white technique was very popular and brought great change to the history of ceramics in China. Jingdezhen became the Imperial kiln location during the Ming Dynasty. The people's kilns were also located nearby, possibly mass producing inexpensive blue and white wares for other markets. Those produced at the end of the Ming Dynasty and exported to Japan were known as ko-sometsuke, which were greatly appreciated by Japanese tea masters of the Edo Period.
 Porcelain ware of blue and white became popular not only in the countries of East Asia such as Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, but also Islamic countries such as Turkey and Iran, and European countries such as Holland, Germany, Austria, and Russia. Blue and white wares, produced mainly in Imari kilns, in Japan, were especially popular in the Edo Period. Ordinary people, as well as the upper class, used them in their daily life.
In this Summer Special Exhibition, The Nihon Mingeikan has selected 200 works from the museum's collection, representing Japanese, Korean, and Chinese white, and blue and white, porcelain. From the Imari kilns of Kyushu, you can enjoy a great variety of designs in cobalt, plus graceful and big-hearted wares from Joeson Dynasty, Korea, and a collection of unrefined, yet friendly works from China.
 We at the Mingeikan hope you will enjoy the excellent works selected for this exhibit. Each kiln area expresses different characteristic forms and patterns; all works are produced by nameless artisans.
List of Porcelain Works
Appearing in Above Photos
- Edo Period, 19th Century, White Porcelain
- Edo Period, 17th Century, Blue and White
- Korea, 18th Century, Blue and White
- China, 17th Century, Blue and White
Textiles: The Soul of India
October 3 through Decmeber 20, 2007
With the support of the Embassy of India, the assistance of the Japan Foundation, and the cooperation of Ms. Hiroko Iwatate.
A renowned collection of traditional Indian textiles, which has long inspired international and Japanese designers, will be exhibited at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo this autumn. A series of lectures will be given as part of the event. Two additional shows will be given next year, one at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Osaka (from March 20 to July 13, 2008) and another at the Toyota Folk Craft Museum from September 9 through December 7, 2008.
Some 400 pieces from the collection of Hiroko Iwatate, known internationally for her collection of Indian folk and traditional textiles, will include garments, textiles for the home, work clothes, ceremonial objects and animal cloths as well as other hand-dyed, woven, embroidered and patched textiles used in daily life which she collected over a period of 30 years while visiting Indian villages throughout the country. Kantha from Bengal, works from Gujarat and Rajasthan, and woollen weavings from the Northern Himalayas will be seen in the display.
During the exhibition, Indian textile authority Jasleen Dhamija and U.K. author John Gillow will lecture at the museum. Iwatate also is publishing a large format book with numerous colorplates in which she describes her personal encounters and observations. While weaving and dyeing traditions still thrive, modernization and mechanization are beginning to erode the traditions once taken for granted. Textile designer Junichi Arai of Nuno, wrote in his foreward to her book: "We are extremely fortunate to be able to see her unique collection, which has been selected and assembled with such a fine aesthetic sense and now given a new life. It has taught us the meaning of devotion."
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