Blogging Museum Visit: 6.9

A Visit to the National Museum of Asian Art

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

I recently virtually visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art that is physically located in Washington, D.C. This museum is made up of two combined galleries, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, whom are dedicated to preserving, exhibiting and interpreting all works of art. Both of these galleries combined hold more than 40,000 pieces of art dated from the Neolithic period and today. These objects are found to be originating from ancient East China, Japan, Korea, Southern Asia, and the Islamic world. 

The Museum's History 

Freer Gallery of Art

In 1905, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, Charles Lang Freer, wrote to the Smithsonian Institution with an offer to donate his precious collection. At the time, the institution's main focus was natural history rather than its art, and as words of Freer's offer began to spread, a supporter and friend of the institution, President Theodore Roosevelt, believed his art collection could benefit our nation due to the intercultural relations between the United States and Eastern Asia at the time (Cohen, 8). Afterwards, Freer and Roosevelt worked closely together to develop the museum in hopes of Smithsonian to accept. In 1987, years after the establishment of Freer's Gallery, came the addition of the Sackler Gallery, by whom was another passionate Asian arts collector named Arthur M. Sackler. 

Asian Art from the 18th Century

After I made my rounds through their countless collections of Asian Art, I decided to acknowledge two pieces from the Edo Period (1600 - 1868): The Buddhist Temple Asakusa Kinryuzan and The Suruga District in Edo, both from Japanese landscape artist Utagawa Hiroshige.

As I began my researching process using JSTOR, I discovered Sherry Fowler's article "Japanese Temples and Shrines from Near and Far: Precinct Prints of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" by using the keywords: Edo Period, Buddhist Temple, and Kinryuzan, while narrowing down the results to only view sources of articles, books and research reports, which lead me to 10 search results. Fowler's main focus of the article was to inform her audience of the Western techniques that were adopted by Japanese art culture in eighteenth and nineteenth century, touching on the origin of the types of styles used and their historical background. 

Utagawa Hiroshige (1786 - 1864)

The Buddhist Temple Kinryuzan (1826 - 1869)
by Utagawa Hiroshige
Displayed by Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

The Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige specialized in colorful woodblock prints of landscapes. The root of his creative style was ukiyo or 'floating world', the term is used to describe Japan's urban lifestyle and culture during the Edo Period.

Hiroshige's The Buddhist Temple Asakusa Kinryuzan is held in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and is one of the most favorable sites to see. In this woodblock print we see a Buddhist temple with an active marketplace with many visitors, and due to the surrounding environment homed to blossomed cherry blossom trees, we can assume that this photograph takes place during spring. We also noticed that Hiroshige focuses on a group of Western men and a Chinese assistant in the front of the photo. 

In comparison to Hiroshige's work of the Buddhist temple and my research done using Fowler's article, I noticed that Hiroshige used a printed art style called keidaizu, a term that is translated as photos of the surrounding environment of shrine and temples. This art style is typically known to show buildings of prominent Buddhist temples and shrines within a landscape background. "The word keidai literally means 'within the boundary', in reference to the physical space of a religious institution" (Fowler, 1). From 1790 to 1830, religious goods were sold outside of temples and held up to twenty percent of a temple's income. Some of these goods included souvenirs, talismans, prayer beads and printed images, and "commonly offer[ed] pamphlets to visitors that included an illustrated guide map and pictures when administration fees [were] paid" (Fowler, 8). As I examined Hiroshige's art of a Buddhist temple, the group of Western men I mentioned before can no doubt be interpreted as visitors who are holding their pamphlets while being attended by a tour-guide.

The Suruga District in Edo (1858)
by Utagawa Hiroshige
Housed by Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Another one of Hiroshige's pieces named The Suruga District in Edo, is also being housed by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery but is currently not on display. In this woodblock print we see the Suruga District with a view of Mount Fuji in the background, including people underneath the shade covered in blue and green colored clothing. 

In the mid-eighteenth hundreds as woodblock print was advancing due to Western technology, artists such as Hiroshige were able to apply their art with smaller dimension and fine detail without losing any clarity. Although woodblocks were usually printed with monochrome black ink, with the occasional blue or brown, artist would "rely on sharp lines and dense texture instead of bright colors to impress viewers" (Fowler, 10). This use of Western technology helped artists to advance their workspace with a more scientific view of reality. Another method to entice their audience was to exaggerate their space with several perspectives. "Interest in new modes of viewing, including various types of optical devices that could enhance depth in two-dimensional pictures" (Fowler, 10). As we study the photo of the Suruga district, we notice Hiroshige added Mount Fuji in the background to give this two-dimensional photo more depth by making the view of the people appear closer to us. 

About Utagawa Hiroshige's Life

My Takeaways from the National Museum of Asian Art

After virtually touring the National Museum of Asian Art and reading the depths of Sherry Fowler's article, I discovered a new profound interest in exploring more museums that harvest around our world today. Museums provide an effective way of learning about our world's history with the bonus of experiencing the atmosphere of past cultures and environments. "As pictures of temples and shrines were treated like images of famous places, their association with the numinous nature of the sites and the devotional aspect of the pilgrimage experience grew ever more remote" (Fowler, 7). This shows that having museums within our communities can positively impact our environment by functioning similar to a hangout spot or a community center, which will bring more foot traffic into our cities, and in return of that foot traffic, means opportunity for more development that will then bring more families and people into our neighborhoods to revolutionize our environment to grow. 

Work Cited

Cohen, Warren I. “Art Collecting as International Relations: Chinese Art and American Culture.” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, vol. 1, no. 4, 1992, pp. 409–434. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23613355. Accessed 9 May 2021.

FOWLER, SHERRY. “VIEWS OF JAPANESE TEMPLES AND SHRINES FROM NEAR AND FAR: PRECINCT PRINTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 68, no. 2, 2008, pp. 247–285. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40599601. Accessed 9 May 2021.

Fthenakis, Lisa. “This Day in Freer History: May 5, 1906.” Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2021.