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.