journal
25 / 11 / 2015
Since Edmund de Waal wrote "The Hare with Amber Eyes" (almost) everyone knows what Japanese Netsuke are: small objects in lacquer, with the form of animals, plants and faces, that represent our world in miniature with an artistic finishing.
The exhibition aims to bring closer the remote Japan through visual graphics of Japanese prints and Hokusai drawings (from the museum's collection) which, articulated with costume accessories and Japanese daily life objects - inro, tobacco pouches, netsuke, writing tools - evoke, subtly, the memory of the Portuguese presence, the excellence of traditional decorative techniques of lacquer and the virtuosity of the details.
The museum's own assembly draws our attention for the miniature details and seems to tell us a story - full of exoticism, it takes us to a culture that has inspired us since the Portuguese arrival in Japan by the fifteenth century. A presentation of the museum's works as well as a large number of loans that reveal the excellent quality of Portuguese private collections.
Curators:
Maria da Conceição Borges de Sousa
Alexandra Markl
Yukari Yoshida
Momoko Onodera
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA), Lisbon
Until 31st January 2016
The exhibition aims to bring closer the remote Japan through visual graphics of Japanese prints and Hokusai drawings (from the museum's collection) which, articulated with costume accessories and Japanese daily life objects - inro, tobacco pouches, netsuke, writing tools - evoke, subtly, the memory of the Portuguese presence, the excellence of traditional decorative techniques of lacquer and the virtuosity of the details.
The museum's own assembly draws our attention for the miniature details and seems to tell us a story - full of exoticism, it takes us to a culture that has inspired us since the Portuguese arrival in Japan by the fifteenth century. A presentation of the museum's works as well as a large number of loans that reveal the excellent quality of Portuguese private collections.
Curators:
Maria da Conceição Borges de Sousa
Alexandra Markl
Yukari Yoshida
Momoko Onodera
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA), Lisbon
Until 31st January 2016


Photos:
Horizontal: Antonio Pedro Mendes
Vertical: MNAA
Horizontal: Antonio Pedro Mendes
Vertical: MNAA