Time Travellers
March 11 - April 8, 2009
Time Travellers
March 11 – April 8, 2009
Kaikodo Journal XXV (Spring 2009)
The present theme, “Time Travellers,” is intended to emphasize the temporal journey of the various pieces included in the exhibition, which range in date from the 2nd millennium B.C. to the year 2009. Kaikodo is proud to have played some part in the conservation and elucidation of especially the early pieces in the show. The set of Han dynasty lacquer boxes, for example, would have been lost forever had we not had them restored, a process that required fifteen years after we acquired them in 1994. They stand today as splendid examples of luxury goods from two millennia ago. The painting entitled “Imperial Eagle” is back with us after a period of twenty years in a remounting studio in Tokyo. Other paintings have benefited from the careful attention of restorers and we are pleased that they also are back with us and presented here.
There are several works with very noteworthy provenance such as a classic example of Yaozhou celadon ware that was included in an important exhibition of the arts of the Song dynasty held in Osaka in 1978 and a large Warring States bronze bell also published in Japan. All of the pieces in the exhibition have experienced a transit through space, from the lands of their origin to New York, some via the Middle East and Europe. We firmly believe that these works carry with them the potential to expand and to enrich the lives of those who view them, a promise that would have remained unfulfilled had these works not made their journeys through time and space.
