The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka Collection: The Eternal Beauty and Luster of Oriental Ceramics

Saturday 28 January to Sunday 1 April 2012

Opening in November 1982, the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka was built by Osaka city to house the Ataka Collection of oriental ceramics, which was donated by twenty-one Sumitomo Group companies and included two national treasures and twelve important cultural properties. Having since added many works donated by individual collectors, the Museum now boasts Japan’s largest most comprehensive, and highest quality collection of oriental ceramics, focusing principally on Chinese and Korean ceramics. To celebrate the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka’s 30th anniversary in 2012, this exhibition presents 140 oriental ceramics carefully selected from the approximately 4,000 items in the collection, including both of its national treasures and all thirteen of its important cultural properties. To the Japanese people, Chinese and Korean ceramics are the most familiar foreign ceramics from ancient times, and they have long exerted a major influence on Japanese ceramics. At times, Japanese lovers of ancient ceramics have become so transfixed by these works as to discover character or spirituality within them. From well-known masterpieces to rare gems made public for the first time in many years, this exhibition displays the beauty of oriental ceramics for all to discover.