The Spiritual World

Collection Exhibition 2014

May. 13—Jul. 13, 2014

• May. 13—Jul. 13, 2014
• Closed Monday(if Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday, it is the next day)
• Admission：Adults ￥500／College Students ￥400／High School and Junior High School Students, Over 65 ￥250

The Spiritual World is our theme for the 2014 edition of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography's annual collection exhibition. Each collection exhibition is an occasion for selecting photographs and other material from the museum's permanent collection of some 30,000 items. The Spiritual World presents works that span from the early 19th century to the present day and that evoke the subject of the exhibition title from diverse perspectives.

Characterizing the Japanese spirituality of old was the assumed existence of innumerable invisible deities that inhabited natural features. People were respectful of those deities and possessed a worldview in which life and death were complementary facets of a larger cycle of existence. Much of our nation's traditional spirituality succumbed to the rationality of modernization, but the time has surely come to re-examine the faith of our forebears. We might well discover in that faith valuable hints for coping with the increasingly complex issues of our day.

The Spiritual World brings together works from the museum collection that illuminate Japanese religion and folk beliefs. Simultaneously, these works reveal fascinating aspects of the spiritual orientation and aesthetic vision that have steered the artists. We hope that this exhibition will occasion for the visitors a renewed receptivity to invisible and transcendent possibilities.

left）Miyoshi Kozo, Yubune, Osorezan, Aomori, 2012
right）Kusakabe Kimbei, Album of Makie, Meiji Era landscape photo album,
Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kyoto, the middle of the Meiji period

left）Ishikawa Naoki, Mt. Fuji #28, 2008
right）Ishimoto Yasuhiro, Ise Jingu, Naiku Shoden, decoration of the building, 1995

left）Suzuki Risaku, Between the Sea and the Mountain - KUMANO 14, 2005
right）Fujiwara Shinya, Asia Road, India, 1979

left）Tomatsu Shomei, The Pencil of the Sun, Iriomotejima, 1972
right）Naito Masatoshi, Old Women in a Burst !, Old women spending night at the shrine,
Takayama-Inari, Aomori, 1970

left）Domon Ken, A Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples, Face of the Yumedono Avalokiteshvara
(bodhisattva of compassion), Horyuji Temple, 1972
right）Tsuchida Hiromi, ZOKUSHIN: Gods of the Earth, Continued, Ise Jingu Bugaku, Ise, Mie, 1987

artists
Watanabe Yoshio, Ishimoto Yasuhiro, Suzuki Risaku, Yamashiro Chikako, Tomatsu Shomei, Domon Ken, Tsuchida Hiromi, Ishikawa Naoki, Naito Masatoshi, Narahara Ikko, Fujiwara Shinya, Yokoo Tadanori, Miyoshi Kozo,　etc

■Organized by:Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
■Sponsored by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.

Events

Gallery tours in Japanese

May. 23 (Fri) 14:00～
Jun. 13 (Fri) 14:00～
Jun. 27 (Fri) 14:00～
Jul. 11 (Fri) 14:00～