Japan’s Treasures Come to America

Washington’s National Gallery of Art has opened an exhibition of Japanese treasures said to be unprecedented in size, scope and quality. The show represents six years of collaboration--and good will--between Japanese and American cultural officials who organized it.

The exhibit is entitled “Japan: The Shaping of Daimyo Culture 1185-1868.” (Daimio is a more common spelling of the word, which means heredity feudal nobleman.)

Spanning 700 years with more than 400 objects, the show was designed to communicate both the prowess and the poetry of the mighty daimio, who ruled Japan from the late 12th through the mid-19th centuries.

Elaborate suits of armor and savage steel swords are displayed beside delicate lacquered tea sets and serene scroll paintings.

The daimio brutal warriors formed an elite class that served the shoguns exclusively; they also were devoted practitioners of Zen Buddhism, avid art collectors and often painters, calligraphers or poets themselves.

“They were the cream of the crop, not only exemplary in the martial arts but in the civilized arts,” said Yoshiaki Shimizu, professor of Japanese art at Princeton University, who conceived and curated the exhibit.

“An analogy would be Japanese baseball players,” he said. “After the game, some of them perform the ancient tea ceremony. They are not just great sportsmen--they also know other matters.”

Comprising arms and armor, sculpture, paintings, calligraphy, lacquer, ceramics, embroidered silk kimonos and Noh theater masks, the works on view include some of Japan’s greatest masterpieces, many never before seen outside the country.

Designated by the Japanese government as “national treasures,” “important cultural properties” and “important art objects,” chief among them is an anonymous 13th-Century portrait of the first Japanese shogun, a national artistic icon.

“There are works in the exhibit that were done by the warriors themselves and many that were owned by them,” Shimizu said.

Organized by the National Gallery of Art, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan and the Japan Foundation, the exhibit will be shown in Washington only, through Jan. 23.

Because of the complex logistics involved and the objects’ fragility, “it’s a show that probably cannot be repeated for the next 30 years,” the curator said.

San Francisco-based auctioneers Butterfield & Butterfield will christen a major Los Angeles auction house this week with a sale of English and continental furniture, decorative arts, American and European paintings, Oriental art and other items. The auction is scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 7601 Sunset Blvd. Previews will be held there today from noon to 5 p.m. and Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Future auctions are to be held once monthly.