The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai is to headline a new exhibition starting at the end of this month at the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum.
The masterpiece, on loan from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, is to be displayed from May 30 to June 29 as part of the museum’s three-month exhibition “The Beauty of the Floating World in Edo.”
The woodblock print captures towering waves “almost swallowing up” fishing boats beneath the serene Mount Fuji in the background, creating a “harmony between movement and stillness” in one of the most recognizable images in Japanese art, said Chu Lung-hsing (朱龍興), an associate researcher and curator of the exhibition at the museum.
Photo: CNA
The iconic print, which was created between 1831 and 1833, was selected as the main image for a new ¥1,000 banknote (US$7) issued by the Bank of Japan last year, Chu said.
The exhibition is to highlight the “vibrant delights of Edo-period urban life” through the 218 works on display, including folding screens, hand scrolls, prints and illustrated books, Chu said.
Most of the artworks are to come from prestigious Japanese institutions, including the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Tokyo Metropolitan Library, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and the National Museum of Japanese History.
The exhibition is to be organized into four sections: River Prosperity, Urban Times, Travel Fun and Cross-cultural Exchange, Chu said.
The Great Wave will only be on display until June 29, but the whole exhibition is to run until Aug. 31, with the works rotated during this period to offer fresh visitor experiences, Chu said.
Regular admission to the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum in Taibao City (太保) in Chiayi County is NT$150 for visitors of all nationalities, information on the museum’s Web site says.
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