Thursday 12 July 2012

Tokyo Nezu Museum - From Flowers to Tea


If you are in Tokyo this week this exhibition on flower and tea gatherings is a must. I've only visited the website of this fabulous museum, but will definitely treat myself to a visit on my next trip to Japan.

The exhibition From Flowers to Tea: The Art of the Elegant Muromachi Gathering runs until Monday July 16th. Here is a presentation from the museum website:

"During the Muromachi period, tea ceremony and flower arrangement displays were two popular forms of socializing. This exhibition features the utensils used in such Muromachi period social events. 
Muromachi period tea and flower aficionados collected superb examples of these different utensils, and used tea and flower events as opportunities to display and enjoy their collections. Many of the objects used in these social gatherings first came to Japan in the 13th and 14th centuries for use in Buddhist temples for both tea drinking and flower arrangements to adorn ritual spaces. These practices led to the import of a wide variety of tea and flower utensils into Japan from China, the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia. Later these imported tea and flower utensils were dispersed to members of the aristocracy and the military ruling class who each collected them for use in tea, flower and linked-verse gatherings. Many of the finest examples have been treasured over the centuries and remain with us today."
 Read more on the Nezu Museum website.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, this looks like an amazing exhibit! I wish I could go, but am not in Japan. If anyone ends up going and has taken some pictures, I would love to see them!
Thank you for sharing!

nordic lotus said...

Let's hope. I would also love to see the pictures!

Related Posts with Thumbnails