Exhibition Outlines

No.18 Paintings and Calligraphy of Imperialist (1998/1/10 - 1998/3/8)

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Paintings and Calligraphy of Imperialist

In the Edo period, the Tokugawa Shogunate created a system to govern the lords of the fuedal clans throughout the country, who ruled over the people within their territories, and also adopted a policy to isolate the nation from relations with foreign countries. This system continued for about 260 years, but towards the last 100 years, a transition in the economic basis and various other situations occured to threaten the government system, gradually leading towards the disturbed last days of the Shogunate, which was ended by the Restoration of the Imperia1 Rule in 1867. In this era of the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate, appeared many Imperialists who expressed their thoughts, expounded of the crisis of the era, or sacrificed themselves for their causes.

This exhibition focuses on the period from about 1789 to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, selecting works of famous people of this era such as royalists, feudal lords and vassals of the Shogunate, the court, or scholars, not necessarily with outstanding handwriting. Listening to their voices and reviewing their lives through their handwritten works of calligraphy or paintings, we hope you may spend a moment to think about this period not so long ago, right before the modern era.