Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan

Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan offers an extraordinary look at Japan’s Meiji era (1868–1912), when the country emerged from near-total isolation to enter a modern, global period. Over these pivotal decades, Japan experienced radical social and political shifts. The exhibition brings together nearly 200 remarkable works of Meiji art from more than 70 public and private collections.

Through the objects on view, Meiji Modern reveals the profound cross-cultural impact of Japan’s developing relationships with the wider world. Paintings, sculpture, prints, posters, and fine examples of enamel, lacquer, and textiles reflect a blending of cultures and techniques as well as the innovative interchange of old and new.

Among the themes in the exhibition are the role of the sea in Japanese culture; changing gender roles; the nation’s religion, traditions, and myths; and plants and animals embraced internationally as motifs for export. Not to be missed: the newly acquired MFAH work Tigers, an exceptional pair of gold-leaf folding screens. The exhibition also features several recently discovered masterpieces of Japanese art, many of which have never been shown publicly.