Reflections on the Grand 'Exhibition of National Treasures of Japan'

When you hear the term 'National Treasure,' what comes to mind?

Many people likely imagine, quite literally, the treasures of the nation—the magnificent and brilliant works of art owned by our country.

But who decides what a National Treasure is and how? Under what restrictions and by whom are they managed? To begin with, what kinds of things are there, how many are there, and where are they usually kept?

Once you start thinking about it, there is no end to the questions, and above all, it is quite complicated for those who are not familiar with the subject.

In conjunction with the Osaka Expo, large-scale exhibitions featuring 'National Treasures' were held throughout the Kansai region, providing an opportunity for many to learn about Japan's cultural properties.

Along with this, the opportunities to hear the term 'National Treasure' and encounter discussions about them may have increased compared to everyday life.

In this review, I will cover the 'Exhibition of National Treasures of Japan' held by the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts.
This is a commemorative exhibition, being the first in Osaka and the first at a public museum to bring together such a large number of National Treasures. Additionally, the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts had been undergoing renovation work since 2023.
The fact that it is being held in an environment renewed after about two and a half years is also one of its attractions.

This exhibition was held from April 26 (Sat) to June 15 (Sun), 2025, and was divided into five periods in total.
Furthermore, it successfully closed on June 15, much to the regret of the many people who enjoyed it.
I would like to proceed with this review by looking back at the exhibition while highlighting the works that left an impression on me.

First, I would like to introduce an overview of the exhibition.
True to its name, the Exhibition of National Treasures of Japan displayed 135 National Treasures throughout its entire run, and excluding special exhibits and reference items, almost all of the exhibits were National Treasures.
How rare a situation is this?

Comparing it to large-scale exhibitions held at the same time, the number of National Treasures at the 'Japan, Crucible of Beauty' exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum was 18, and the number at the 'Super National Treasure Exhibition' at the Nara National Museum was 112.

Surprisingly, the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts had the highest number of National Treasures.

The Exhibition of National Treasures of Japan is broadly divided into the following four parts.

Part 1: National Treasures of Japan - Tracing the History of Beauty
Part 2: National Treasures Related to Osaka - History and Culture of Osaka
Part 3: Japanese Beauty for the Future - The Tsumugu Project
Part 4: Special Exhibition - The Era of the Expo as Seen in the Collection of the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan

In Part 1, you can come face-to-face with familiar National Treasures that appear in textbooks and confirm the position of National Treasures in Japanese culture. From there, in Part 2, you can encounter various National Treasures focusing on the land of Osaka, and in Part 3, you can consider how these National Treasures are currently being cherished from the perspective of conservation and restoration. Part 4 features an exhibition focused on the Expo.

Now that we understand the main structure, let's take a look at the exhibited works.

1. Group of Chickens

The first things that catch your eye upon entering the exhibition room are the numerous magnificent paintings and folding screens.
True to the subtitle 'Masters of Japanese Art,' works by artists whose names everyone has heard at least once, such as Sesshu, Ogata Korin, and Ito Jakuchu, are lined up, and the luxurious exhibition room is exciting from the very start.
What personally caught my eye in this exhibition was Ito Jakuchu's 'Group of Chickens'.
This is the first time I have seen the actual 'Group of Chickens,' and it is very interesting to appreciate it while following the faces and eyes of the chickens.

This is a simple diagram I drew, but as shown here, you are drawn into the painting as if making eye contact with the chicken at the bottom, and you move upward in order from 1, following the gaze of the chickens. Even if you feel like you might accidentally jump out of the frame, it's okay. As indicated by the chicken at 5 and the green line, chickens are placed on the edges to guide your gaze back into the frame. As you can see by following the blue arrow rising from 6 to the chicken at the top, the fact that it intentionally does not guide you to the top through the chickens' own gazes prevents it from feeling clunky. It is a brilliant composition that invites the eye to every corner of the screen by leading the gaze upward in an S-shape.

2. Flame-Style Earthenware Vessel

As you walk further, you are greeted by a number of works that have suddenly turned back the clock.
Standing prominently among them is the Flame-Style Earthenware Vessel.
Personally, I was surprised because something I had seen many times in textbooks and books suddenly appeared in my field of vision.
The intricate, winding patterns and the unique shape, which looks symmetrical at first glance but is actually not, seem like a highly creative work of art, but I would like you to remember here that this vessel was originally created as a tool, not as a work of art. (There is a theory that flame-style vessels were for ritual use, but details are unknown.)
If so, when did we start having the eye to see this vessel as a work of art?
In fact, it was quite recently that the Jomon period was added to art history.
It was not until Taro Okamoto took up the earthenware in an article in a magazine called 'Mizue' in 1952 that artistic consideration began, and since then, the artistic value residing in the earthenware has been studied.
It was none other than Taro Okamoto who shone the spotlight of art on the Jomon period.

The situation of Jomon earthenware lined up in a museum space is quite profound.

3. Shoju Raigoji Temple Version: Paintings of the Six Realms

Moving further, exhibitions related to Buddhist art from ancient times to the Middle Ages occupy the majority.
It is from this exhibition room that the forms of faith, from animism to religion, begin to emerge clearly.
Since the introduction of Buddhism in 538 (there is also a theory that it was 552), Buddhism has developed in various forms in Japan and has been an object of worship.
All of them are wonderful items, but my recommendation is the 'Upasaka-sila Sutra's Explanation of the Merits of Reciting the Buddha's Name' from the 'Paintings of the Six Realms' at Shoju Raigoji Temple, which is said to have been created in the Kamakura period.
This painting, which uses the method of depicting different times in the same picture, unfolds scenes from top to bottom, but at first glance, it is a work that is difficult to understand what kind of scene is being depicted. However, as you decipher it one by one, you will be amazed by the artist's abundant education and high level of skill.

First, what is Buddhist narrative painting?
To explain it simply, it is the pictorial representation of Buddhist texts (such as sutras, narratives, and legends).
Therefore, the key to deciphering the story of the painting lies in knowing which text it is based on; conversely, if you do not know the text, it may appear to your eyes as a bizarre painting that makes no sense.
It would likely be difficult to imagine what scene is being depicted in the 'Ubasoku-kai-gyo-sho-setsu-nenbutsu-kudoku' (Merits of Reciting the Buddha's Name as Explained in the Upasaka-sila Sutra) without knowing the text.

The 'Ubasoku-kai-gyo-sho-setsu-nenbutsu-kudoku' is based on a sermon book called the 'Upasaka-sila Sutra'.
The content written there is roughly as follows.

"A wealthy man always indulged in food and drink, relying on his riches, and lived a dissolute life. His wife, worried about her husband's laziness, advised him to recite the Nembutsu every time he heard the sound of a bell. Before long, the man died and fell into hell due to his lifestyle while alive, but thanks to the habit of reciting the Nembutsu he had acquired, he recited it while suffering the torments of hell. At that moment, the kiln of hell cracked, and the man escaped his torments and was reborn in the Pure Land."

If you look at the painting, you can see that the scene where the kiln cracks is depicted prominently at the bottom of the screen.

Two other scrolls from the 'Rokudo-e' (Paintings of the Six Realms) are on display, representing the Heavenly Realm and the Hungry Ghost Realm, respectively. As a fan of the 'Rokudo-e', my heart leaps to see such a diverse world featured in the exhibition.

4. Jigoku Zoshi (Scroll of Hells) from the Rokudo-e scrolls

Personally, the exhibit I was most looking forward to was this 'Jigoku Zoshi'.
The 'Jigoku Zoshi' is referred to as part of the 'Rokudo-e' scrolls, and it is considered to be part of a series of scrolls including the 'Gaki Zoshi' (Scroll of Hungry Ghosts), 'Yamai Zoshi' (Scroll of Diseases), 'Jigoku Zoshi' (Scroll of Hells), and 'Hekija-e' (Scroll of Exorcism), which are said to have been created around the time of the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the late Heian period.
Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa had a side as a collector of picture scrolls and had various scrolls made. After his passing, the management of the collection became lax and it gradually scattered; the works seen today are likely just a portion of that collection.

As the name suggests, the 'Jigoku Zoshi' is a picture scroll depicting the state of hell, and it takes the state of hell as described in the 'Saddharma-smrty-upasthana Sutra' as its source (or, simply put, its original material).

Four scenes were on display this time, and I would like to introduce the 'Rain of Fire and Stones' among them.
When you read the 'kotobagaki' (explanatory text written in characters) that accompanies the scroll, it says something roughly like this.

"This is the hell where those who made travelers drink alcohol to get them drunk, and then stole from or murdered them, fall. They are struck by fiery stones and washed away in a boiling river."

It is a terrifying hell.
While the screen, faithful to the 'kotobagaki', has a coldness that seems to calmly explain the horror of hell, ingenuity has been used to provide a rich image to those who view the painting.
For example, this screen adopts a nearly square format. The screen is divided into two by a diagonal line from the bottom left to the top right; the lower part depicts the state of the damned being washed away in the river, and the upper part depicts the damned being struck by the falling fire stones.
Although it is a simple screen at first glance, when I saw it, I was reminded of the 'Amida Twenty-five Bodhisattvas Welcoming Descent' from Chion-in Temple, commonly known as the 'Hayaraigo' (Swift Welcoming Descent), which was exhibited at the 'Honen and the Pure Land' exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum last autumn.

There is no doubt that the reason this work is called 'Hayaraigo' is the sense of speed that appears on the screen.
As you can see from the plate, the screen is almost square, just like the 'Rain of Fire and Stones'. It is a scene where Amida Nyorai comes to welcome the person who is about to die, sitting in a hermitage at the bottom right of the screen, drawing a diagonal line from the top left.

This painting is a National Treasure that is highly regarded for the Amida Nyorai coming to welcome the person quickly, which was effectively brought about by the composition of drawing a diagonal line across a square.

The 'Rain of Fire and Stones' shares the same composition as this 'Hayaraigo', and perhaps that is why one can feel the great speed of the flying fire stones and the violent torrent of the boiling river.
It should be noted that regarding the production period, the 'Hayaraigo' is from around the 14th century of the Kamakura period, making it a later work than the 'Rain of Fire and Stones'.

Although it is not certain whether the painters of the time were consciously creating this effect, the unexpected commonality that appears and disappears in these two National Treasures is truly interesting.

So far, I have introduced the works that left a particularly strong impression on me, although they are only a small part.
If I have been able to convey to the readers even a little bit of what the vague image of a 'National Treasure' looks like in reality, there is no greater joy than this.

National Treasures can be seen at any time, depending on the item, even without a special occasion.
If you visit the Japan National Treasure Exhibition and find a National Treasure you love, please check if you can meet it again. You might find that it is on public display at any time.

For those who did not go to the National Treasures of Japan exhibition but have national treasures they would like to see, or for those who have become interested in national treasures, I encourage you to look them up. You might find that they are closer than you think and that you can go see them right away.

For reference, I have included the page for the Database of Cultural Properties designated by the Japanese government, which is published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

Database of Cultural Properties

I hope you all have a wonderful encounter with cultural properties.

Osaka/Kansai Expo Commemorative and Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts Renewal Commemorative Special Exhibition
'National Treasures of Japan'
April 26 (Sat) – June 15 (Sun), 2025. The exhibition period has ended.

Second-year student, Ando