Suntory Museum of Art

Nabeshima Ware-Designs that Inspire Pride
Suntory Museum of Art
11 August – 11 October 2010
The Nabeshima kiln, run by the Nabeshima family for Kyushu’s Saga Clan, was Japan’s preeminent kiln in the service of a feudal domain, producing ceramic work for more than 200 years during the Edo period. Its high quality tableware, which was presented as gifts to the Tokugawa Shogunate household and to feudal lords, consisted primarily of blue-on-white underglaze porcelains, stylish overglaze polychrome enamels, and Celadon ware; these still charm viewers today with their elegant, attractive designs.The pieces produced, whilst continually striving for novel designs, always retained the sense of nobility and clarity associated with Nabeshima.

Japanese glass
Stylish vessels, playful shape
Suntory Museum of Art
27 March – 23 May, 2010
Glass vessels made their appearance in Japanese daily life a little after the middle of the 17th century. Glass is transparent, but resonates with the light it lets through, giving glass vessels a unique, slightly mysterious, essence not found in other materials.