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Collection: Asian Art

HIGHLIGHTS

FULL COLLECTION

View From Massaki of Suijin Shrine, Uchigawa Inlet, and Sekiya, No. 36 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Suijin Shrine and Massaki on the Sumida River (Sumidagawa Suijin no Mori Massaki), No. 35 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Flower Pavilion, Dango Slope, Sendagi, No. 16 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Ryogoku Ekoin and Moto-Yanagibashi Bridge, No. 5 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Yanagishima, No. 32 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Temple Gardens, Nippori, No. 14 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Gotenyama, Shinagawa, No. 28 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Plum Estate, Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), No. 30 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Armor-Hanging Pine, Hakkeisaka, No. 26 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Dawn Inside the Yoshiwara, No. 38 in One Hundred Views of Edo Oumayagashi, No. 105 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo New Fuji, Meguro, No. 24 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Night View of the Matsuchiyama and Samya Canal (Matsuchiyama Sanyabori Yakei), No. 34 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Tile Kilns and Hashiba Ferry, Sumida River (Sumidagawa Hashiba no Watashi Kawaragawa), No. 37 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo The Kawaguchi Ferry and Zenkoji Temple, No. 20 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo View to the North From Asukayama, No. 17 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Moto-Hachiman Shrine, Sumamura, No. 29 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Suwa Bluff, Nippori, No. 15 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Towboats Along the Yotsugi-dori Canal, No. 33 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Cotton-Goods Lane, Odenma-cho, No. 7 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Tsukudajima From Eitai Bridge, No. 4 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Asuma Shrine and the Entwined Camphor, No. 31 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Plum Garden, Kamata (Kamata no Umezono), No. 27 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Hatsune Riding Grounds, Bakuro-cho, No. 6 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Oji Inari Shrine, No. 18 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Suruga-cho, No. 8 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Nihonbashi: Daimyō Procession Setting Out, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road Ueno Yamashita, No. 12 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada From Yamashita-Cho, No. 3 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Kinryuzan Temple, Asakusa (Asakusa Kinryuzan), No. 99 from One Hundred Famous View of Edo Kasumigaseki, No. 2 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Ryogoku Bridge and the Great Riverbank, No 59 from One Hundred Views of Edo

COLLECTION HISTORY

We house one of America's foremost collections of Asian art, representing Japan, Korea, China, India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas.

Japanese art comprises the largest area of our Asian collection. More than eight thousand Japanese objects represent a wide range of media and styles, featuring the sacred, imperial, urban, and folk arts from the J?mon period (10,000–300 B.C.E.) to the present day. Celebrated objects in this collection include Buddhist painting and sculpture, early painted screens, woodblock prints, Mingei folk art, and contemporary ceramics. In addition, the Museum holds one of North America's largest and finest collections of indigenous art of the Ainu people of Northern Japan. A recent gift from the estate of Dr. and Mrs. Roger Gerry of nearly three hundred Japanese export ceramics places the entire collection among the most comprehensive in the country.

We hold one of the earliest collections of Korean objects in the United States, making the Museum premier venue for the presentation of Korean art and culture. The collection consists of ceramics, painting, textiles, costumes, furniture, sculpture, metalwork, glass, arms and armor, and other decorative arts from the Neolithic period to the early twentieth century. Highlights include Kory?-dynasty celadons and Korean folk arts. A recent gift from the estate of Dr. and Mrs. Roger Gerry of outstanding celadons and other fine ceramics increased the Museum's collection to about five hundred and fifty objects, making it one of the largest collections of Korean art in the country.

The Chinese holdings include nearly one thousand objects covering more than five thousand years of culture and civilization, from the Neolithic period to the present. A variety of media are represented, including sculpture, painting, textiles, metalwork, and lacquer, with ceramics and decorative arts as particular strengths. Our holdings of cloisonné enamels—many from the Chinese imperial collection—are unparalleled in any institution outside Asia. Key subjects represented include funerary arts related to early Chinese tombs and burials; ritual objects related to ancestor worship, Buddhism, and Daoism; and the arts of the imperial courts and scholar-elites. Our holdings encompass China's rich internal diversity as well as external artistic and cultural connections.

Our vast array of objects from South and Southeast Asia spans more than five thousand years. The collection largely reflects the wide reach of Hinduism and Buddhism, the two religions that originated in the region. Particular strengths include religious figural sculpture from India, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Secular artistic traditions are also strongly represented in objects from the court of the Islamic Mughal Dynasty of India (1526–1756) as well as terracottas and Kalighat paintings from eastern India. The depth of this collection provides a full sense of the societies, cultures, and artistic traditions in South and Southeast Asia.