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Spring Season March 15 (Fri.) to June 9 (Sun.), 2002 |
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| Saturday, April 6 through Sunday, May 19, 2002 |
| Miho Museum will be celebrating
its fifth anniversary in the year 2002. For this special event, we are proud
to present the exhibition, The Treasures of the Eisei Bunko Museum. The Eisei Bunko Museum is known as a treasure house of art objects passed down for generations beginning in the Nanbokucho period in the Hosokawa clan of Higo, a daimyo family worth 500,000 koku. The collection is housed in the former Hosokawa estate, acquired during the late Edo to the postwar period and located in a corner of Mejirodai in Tokyo, covering an expansive property measuring 125,400 square meters. From the tea masterSen no Rikyu, the first-generation Hosokawa Fujitaka (Yusai), and the second-generation Tadaoki (Sansai) on, the heads of the Hosokawa excelled in the literary and military arts, and in spite of various hardships, they overcame the difficulties and were able to preserve their invaluable works of art to this day. The present exhibition focuses on tea utensils, which comprise the nucleus of this collection. This large-scale exhibition features approximately 190 objects including Chinese art, paintings,calligraphy, applied arts, several National Treasures, and Important Cultural Objects. |
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| Saddle with Mother-of-Pearl
Inlay Designated National Treasure |
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 Eisei Bunko Museum |
The Hosokawa clan-a ruling family of Muromachi
shogunate in the Middle Ages starting with its first-generation head, Fujitaka
(Yusai) in the Warring States period, reaching its apex in the time of the
third-generation head, Tadatoshi, who was bestowed 540,000 koku in Higo
Kumamoto-continued until the end of the Tokugawa period as an influential
non-Tokugawa daimyo family. The Eisei Bunko Museum has preserved, researched,
and publicly displayed the various historical records, art objects, and
cultural properties that have been handed down in this clan. The name, Eisei, derives from characters taken from two temples. Ei (“eternal”) comes from the Hosokawa family temple-from the time of the first generation Fujitaka’s adopted father Hosokawa Yoriari to the eighth-generation head-hoden Eigen-in, a subtemple of Kennin-ji Temple in Kyoto. Sei (“blue-green”) was taken from Seiryu-ji Temple, where Fujitaka had a residence. In 1972, the foundation started exhibiting their collection to the public, and in the following year, they officially registered as a museum and have continued in this capacity to this day. The present building was constructed in the early Showa Period as the office for the former marquis family of the Hosokawa clan. |
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