THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, KYOTO Enshoji-cho, Okazaki, Sakyoto-ku, Kyoto 606-8344 tel:(075) 761-4111; (075) 761-9900 internet: www.momak.go.jp/menu_e.html
		•Exhibition of Maeda Seison April 24 - June 3, 2001
			Maeda Seison (1885-1977) was born in Nakatsugawa, a small town in Gifu Prefecture. At the age of sixteen, Seison went to Tokyo determined to be a painter and enrolled in the private working atelier of Kajita Hanko, a painter widely known for his illustrations of novels. Seison joined the Reorganized Japan Art Institute (Saiko Nihon Bijutsu-in) in 1914, exhibiting clear and dynamic paintings of historical figures and birds and flowers, utilizing the tradition of Yamato-e.as well as arts of the East and the West, old and new. He was conferred a Cultural Medal in 1955 as one of the most outstanding modern Nihonga (Japanese-style painting) painters. He had thorough knowledge of ancient court and military practices and usage and he headed the projects for the reproduction of the Horyuji murals and for the study of the murals of the Takamatsuzuka tumulus, deeply involved with Japanese culture in general. The current exhibition features 80 masterpieces ranging from the early period to the final years, which includes some paintings discovered in recent years, an overview of the entire scope of his significant achievements.
		•Crafts in Kyoto 1945 - 2000 August 28 - October 21, 2001
			"Crafts Reforming in Kyoto: 1910 -1940 - A Struggle between Tradition and Renovation," presented in 1998, dealt with the dawn to the cradle of crafts in Kyoto and the current exhibition focuses on the development of arts and crafts after World War II The current exhibition, with 200 works of ceramics, lacquers and textiles, verifies the various aspects of Kyoto crafts in the latter half of the twentieth century with avant-garde movements in the 1950s, creative works which destroyed the confines of tradition and pursued new expression, movements of traditional crafts deeply rooted in traditional skills, a movement which advocated the creation and diffusion of daily goods with excellence in craftsmanship and design as well as the activity of a giant art organization, Nitten (Japan Art Exhibition).
		•Exhibition of Komatsu Hitoshi October 30 - December 16, 2001
			Komatsu Hitoshi (1902-1989) was born in Yamagata Prefecture. Hitoshi went to Tokyo in 1920 to be a painter but when his painting won a prize at the fourth Exhibition of the Association for the Creation of National Painting (Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai) in 1924 he moved to Kyoto the following year and studied under Tsuchida Bakusen. After the dissolution of the Association in 1928 Hitoshi exhibited at Inten (the exhibition of the Japan Art Institute) and was active as one of the few Inten painters in Kyoto. He was honored as a contributor to culture in 1986. Because of his self-supportive lifestyle he led in Ohara, Kyoto, and his unique appearance with a white beard, he was endearingly called a hermit painter. The current exhibition features sixty major works where Hitoshi expressed nature with his individualistic, rustic style, including the series of panoramic screens such as Mogami River, Mt. Fuji and Ohara, and introduces the essence of the art of Komatsu Hitoshi.
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