Sixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial Displays

Sixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial Displays

Furuya Kōrin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lavishly illustrated book in deluxe format captures the appearance of how elite residences of premodern times would decorate public rooms for special occasions. The artist Furuya Kōrin took his art name from the great eighteenth-century Kyoto artist Ogata Kōrin, who is famous for revitalizing imagery of the classical literary world as imagined by Tawaraya Sōtatsu of the seventeenth century. This early twentieth-century fascination with Japan’s past is a response to the unbridled modernization of the country and the loss of a sense of tradition. Furuya Kōrin’s illustrated books drawing on Rinpa and courtly culture were widely popular in his day.


Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial DisplaysSixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial DisplaysSixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial DisplaysSixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial DisplaysSixteen Illustrations of Ancient Ceremonial Displays

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.