A new exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art explores an era of Japan that showed how art responded to social change.
“Transformation: Modern Japanese Art” will feature paintings, ceramics and lacquerware produced between the 1870s and 1950s.
Japan had sealed its borders from the rest of the world for more than 200 years during the Edo period.
Shawn Eichman, who is curating the event at HoMA, told HPR about the modernity that came with Japan's shift from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji government nearly two centuries ago.
“In the 1850s, Japan opened to the rest of the world, and the last shogunate came to an end and the Meiji emperor was restored to power,” Eichman said. “At the time Japan found itself in a position where it needed to modernize to become part of the international community and develop a new identity for itself."
The four themes of the modern period within the exhibit include “Modernity and Nostalgia,” “Art Education,” “National Standards” and "Continental Influence.”
“The exhibition is in part about how the arts responded to social changes during that time but also how they actively shaped the social changes that were happening,” he continued. “ Japan came up with a new modern identity for itself and coming up with a new modern identity for Japanese art was a big part of that."
The art was a gift from collector Terry Welch, who contributed over 125 pieces to the exhibit.
The art exhibit will be on display at the Honolulu Museum of Art from July 28 to October 15.
