In the 1950s and ’60s, many female artists garnered attention for their activities in the Japanese avant-garde. However, with the rise of the dynamic and powerful genre of action painting, female artists were no longer viewed as a topic of discussion. In this exhibition, we reassess the women’s antagonistic attitude toward action painting as “anti-action,” and trace the trajectory of their responses and challenges to the genre. Works by 14 artists, including KUSAMA Yayoi (b.1929), TANAKA Atsuko (1932–2005), and FUKUSHIMA Hideko (1927–1997), will be on view.

The word “mystery” evokes images of the mystical, wondrous, enigmatic, and strange. With mystery as a starting point, this exhibition explores the collections of seven prefectural museums: the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History; the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo; the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Archaeology; the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Ancient Bronze Mirrors; the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo; the Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art, and our museum including pieces from our own collection such as works by HIGASHIYAMA Kaii (1908–1999), YOKOO Tadanori (b.1936), and Odilon REDON (1840–1916). Why not delve into the mystery of the museums this summer?

MATSUKATA Kojiro and YAMAMURA Tokutaro strove to provide people with an opportunity to appreciate superb works through their respective collections of modern Western and Japanese contemporary art. In an effort to carry on their wishes, this exhibition assembles works from the two men’s collections, located in Tokyo and Kobe. This collaboration draws on the sculptures of Auguste RODIN contained in the Matsukata Collection, housed in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, and the Yamamura Collection, contained in this museum. *This exhibition is presented as part of a National Center for Art Research (NCAR) project to utilize the works in the National Museums of Art Collection.

Some 150 years ago, just as the Edo era (1603–1868) was transitioning into the Meiji era (1868–1912), ukiyo-e artists began exploring new forms of expression by dealing with subjects such as the social changes that came with technological developments (railroads, industrialization, etc.), and incorporating Western art techniques. This exhibition, realized with the cooperation of the 120-year- old Asai Collection, presents masterpieces by artists such as UTAGAWA Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) and TSUKIOKA Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) in order to shed light on various aspects of ukiyo-e in the late 19th and early 20th century.