More NPM treasures on display in Tokyo

2014-08-06

The second batch of artworks from Taipei City-based National Palace Museum went on display at Tokyo National Museum Aug. 5 to Sept. 15, attracting widespread interest from Japanese art lovers.

Reviewed the day before by ROC first lady Chow Mei-ching, the artworks are part of a special NPM special exhibition promoting cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Japan. Chow was invited to attend the preview by TNM Director Masami Zeniya.

Vox Nativa Children’s Choir from Nantou County in central Taiwan also performed at the event. Their traditional Bunun aboriginal numbers and Taiwan folk songs were dedicated to those killed and injured in the Kaohsiung City explosions and Penghu County TransAsia Airways plane crash, as well as survivors of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

According to the NPM, the artworks comprise six calligraphies and paintings mostly from the Song dynasty (960-1279). Highlights include the scroll “The Cold Food Observance” by Su Shih, as well as paintings “Listening to the Whispering Pines” by Ma Lin and “Red Cliff” by Wu Yuanzhi.

Su’s scroll, which once belonging to a Japanese businessman, was kept in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo during the 1920s before being bought back to the ROC by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after World War II. Widely considered his best calligraphic work, the piece is on loan at the TNM’s special request.

Viewed as having a profound influence on Japan’s Buddhist paintings and literature, the ancient Chinese personality is deeply respected among the country’s devotees of calligraphy.

The artworks replace “Jadeite Cabbage with Insects,” which displayed June 24 to July 7 at the TNM. During the iconic piece’s two-week showing in Tokyo, more than 200,000 people queued for up to three hours to gaze upon the treasure, according to NPM.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=220309&CtNode=413)