In celebration of the anniversary of the opening of the Shusui Museum of Art, we are proud to present this exhibition of iconic items from the museum's collection. The 2F Exhibition Room features a focus on swords, with a collection of outstanding Japanese swords and sword fittings, while the 3F Exhibition Room features a selection of paintings and craft items by some of the leading Japanese artists of the modern era, as well as folk crafts, antique pottery, and more.

Japanese swords have roughly a thousand years of history, dating back to the mid Heian period (10th and 11th c.) and continuing to today. Over the past millennium, countless swordmakers throughout Japan have worked to create these swords, and while some of these swords were owned by famous figures, known even centuries later, many more have been forgotten - nameless swords that were nonetheless an important part of life for people whose names have likewise been lost to time. This exhibition focuses on swords from the museum collection that have inscriptions clearly indicating when they were made, presented alongside background information about events and culture from when each sword was produced. We hope that visitors appreciate the many years of history possessed by each of these swords, and that this might serve as an opportunity to consider the cultural and historical contexts that these swords came from.

The contemporary artist Tetsuya Noguchi combines modern materials like resin and plastic with techniques such as carving and painting. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of his work is that the people depicted in his art all wear armor. His art inhabits a mysterious world, with sculptures small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and curious interminglings of old Japanese paintings and modern society, playing with and defying the modern stereotypes of the samurai.

Long ago, Kibi Province once spanned the entirety of modern-day Okayama Prefecture, the eastern part of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the western part of Hyogo Prefecture, and since ancient times, the region was known for its iron. During the Nara period (8th c.), Kibi was divided into the four provinces of Bizen, Bitchu, Bingo, and Mimasaka, and Bizen in particular went on to flourish as a center of swordmaking. From the mid to late Heian period (10th to 12th c.), Japanese swords developed the iconic form they would come to be known for, and Bizen Province produced such swordmakers as Tomonari and Masatsune. Starting around that era, numerous smiths took up residence in the Yoshii River basin in particular, and Bizen became medieval Japan’s largest producer of swords. The Bizen swords that still remain today tell us, through the inscriptions mentioning years on many of them, about the various ups and downs experienced by these smiths and their various schools of swordmaking over some 500 years, making them incredibly valuable as historical research materials. This exhibition features Bizen swords belonging to the museum’s collection, organized by era and by school to show the changes over time by swordmakers and their work,...

Prince Shotoku by Chikuha Otake