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Flora in Focus: Plant Life in Japanese Prints

Last Chance! Make sure you do not miss our May exhibition “Flora in Focus: Plant Life in Japanese Prints” We are open the last two weekends of May. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday this May: 12.00 – 17.00 hrs.

This spring Nihon no hanga will highlight twentieth century Japanese prints featuring the world of flowers. In a journey through the four seasons, Flora in Focus will explore over eighty prints that examine the diversity of Japanese plant life in a variety of styles and interpretations. Well known bird and flower print (kachō hanga) artists such as Ohara Koson (1885-1945) and Itō Sōzan (1884-?) are juxtaposed with works of sōsaku hanga makers like Kawanishi Hide (1894-1965) and Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960).

Flora in Focus surveys the seasonal and cultural functions of natural life in Japan represented in modern prints, alongside the visual impact from traditional Japanese painting and botanical illustration. In addition, the ‘language of flowers’, or hanakotoba, reflects the historical appreciation of plants in Japan and offers an insight into these fresh impressions of nature. From plum blossoms (ume) to camellia (tsubaki), Flora in Focus features a diverse selection of woodblock prints from the early twentieth century to contemporary designs.

Postcards

€5 | 6 designs

Don’t forget to grab a set of postcards when you visit us. We have chosen 6 designs from the exhibition:

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events exhibitions new

Echizen Lacquerware + Living Colour

Echizen:  A new era of lacquerware design

9 – 12 December

This month we will show an exclusive presentation of contemporary Japanese lacquerware from Echizen.


The Echizen region in Japan’s Fukui prefecture has been producing quality lacquerware for many hundreds of years. Contrary to the many production centres of Japan that struggle to adopt to modern times, Echizen boasts a thriving community that matches experienced masters with young, creative students who collaborate in future-proofing lacquerware intended for daily use. In addition to adopting new designs and a range of new pastel colours, Echizen seeks to promote lacquerware as a natural and sustainable alternative to the many plastic items that have come to dominate our lives. Starting in 2015, the region collaborated with foreign designers in order to push traditional lacquerware towards the realm of contemporary product design.


Living Colour:
Contemporary Prints by Fukami Gashū

open 9-12 december

With significant changes to our collection this year due to the gift to the Rijksmuseum, we take this opportunity to shift our focus to a vibrant and modern display of woodblock prints. Living Colour will show contemporary works of Fukami Gashū (born 1953), with over seventy prints and preliminary studies produced over the past forty years.

After discovering well known sōsaku hanga artists such as Asano Takeji and Azechi Umetarō, Fukami Gashū started his journey in woodblock printmaking. His distinctive style is formed by the use of bold colours and playful compositions. Drawing inspiration from his immediate surroundings, the prints feature numerous animals, insects and a surprising variety of cats


Lacquerware demonstrations

saturday 10 and sunday 11 december

For the Echizen project a group of Japanese lacquerware experts has travelled to the Netherlands. On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 December they will continuously give short lacquerware demonstrations.

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events exhibitions new outside NNH

New exhibition

Gift Rijksmuseum | Guided tours (in Dutch) | New merch!

Living Colour: 
Contemporary Prints by Fukami Gashū

from Friday 4 November

With significant changes to our collection this year due to the gift to the Rijksmuseum, we take this opportunity to shift our focus to a vibrant and modern display of woodblock prints. Living Colour will show contemporary works of Fukami Gashū (born 1953), with over seventy prints and preliminary studies produced over the past forty years.

After discovering well known sōsaku hanga artists such as Asano Takeji and Azechi Umetarō, Fukami Gashū started his journey in woodblock printmaking. His distinctive style is formed by the use of bold colours and playful compositions. Drawing inspiration from his immediate surroundings, the prints feature numerous animals, insects and a surprising variety of cats.


Guided tour (in Dutch)

€15 p.p. | FRIDAY 4 + 11 + 18 + 25 NOVEMBER

This november our curator will give a guided tour (in Dutch) of our latest exhibition Living Colour. For more information see:


New merch!

We have some great gifts fo the upcoming holidays. Check them our at our museum this November!

Living Colour postcards
€5 | 7 designs

Seven designs from our latest exhibition are available for purchase as a set.

desk calendar
€8

The size of this desk calendar fits perfectly on any desk (9,5 x 20 cm).

We have also added our open days for the months of May and November in 2023.

birthday calendar
€10

Enjoy our prints all year round with this birthday calender (20 x 20 cm), featuring a selection from our current collection!


Catalogue

€10 | available from Friday 4 November

The Living Colour catalogue contains information about the artist and a chronological overview of all the works featured in the exhibition.


Blackening the eyebrows, 1928

Gift to the Rijksmuseum

LARGEST-EVER GIFT OF JAPANESE PRINTS

Elise Wessels has gifted, through the Für Elise Foundation, a substantial part of her collection to the Rijksmuseum, comprising more than 1,100 Japanese prints. The Nihon no hanga collection is one of the most important collections of 20th century Japanese prints in the world. Thanks to the gifting, the Rijksmuseum will be able to offer for the first time a representative overview of Japanese work on paper from the 17th to the 20th century.

DONATING MY COLLECTION REPRESENTS THE FULFILMENT OF MY WISH TO ENSURE THAT IT REMAINS INTACT AND CAN BE SHARED WITH THE PUBLIC, NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE. GIFTING SUCH A LARGE PROPORTION OF MY COLLECTION TO THE RIJKSMUSEUM MEANS THESE BEAUTIFUL PRINTS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE TO ADMIRE, FOREVER.

Elise Wessels

More than 60 of the donated prints will be on display in the Rijksmuseum’s Asian Pavilion from 12 October 2022 to 16 April 2023. The selected works trace the origins and development of shin-hanga and sōsaku-hanga, and reflect the diversity of the gifted collection. The exhibition will include a number of Elise Wessels’ personal favourites, including Diving (1932) and Portrait of Hagiwara Sakutarō (1949) by Onchi Kōshirō, and Pencilling Her Eyebrows by Itō Shinsui (1928). The catalogue Japan Modern from 2016 is being reissued to mark the occasion.

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events exhibitions new

Last chance!

Elegance & Excellence:
Modern Women of Shin hanga

27-28-29 MAY

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the last open weekend for Elegance & Excellence: Modern Women of Shin hanga. Don’t miss this ‘beautiful’ exhibition!

The subject of women has been linked to Japanese woodblock prints since the 17th century. Bijin (beauties) are a popular theme in 20th century printmaking, and have continuously captivated audiences and collectors worldwide. Elegance & Excellence: Modern Women of Shin hanga, explores the numerous artists in the Nihon no hanga collection that devoted prints to refine the ideal image of Japanese female beauty. This exhibition examines the ‘elegant’ and modern appearance of women in bijin hanga (beauty prints) of the shin hanga (new print) tradition, known for its accomplished and ‘excellent’ technique within Japanese woodblock printmaking.

Over seventy iconic prints will be on display by, among others, Ishii Hakutei, Hashiguchi Goyō, Itō Shinsui, Kitano Tsunetomi, Yamakawa Shūhō, Torii Kotondo, Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, Hirano Hakuhō, Ishikawa Toraji, Taki Shūhō, and Shimura Tatsumi.


Opening hours

27-28-29 MAY

The exhibition Elegance & Excellence: Modern Women of Shin hanga is open to visitors in our museum on the Keizersgracht!

Friday 27 May until Sunday 29 May

12.00 – 17.00 hrs

Admission is free and in order of arrival. We do not take reservations.


Catalogue

available from 6 May

The Elegance & Excellence catalogue contains an introductory essay and all prints featured in the exhibition.

€ 12.50

Note: We can only accept international book orders, which will be processed in June.


Audio tour

free with every catalogue purchase

With every catalogue purchase, you can now listen to our audio tour (in Dutch) for free! Due to increased popularity, we will not be offering a guided tour in the museum. Good news is, visitors during the weekend are able to listen to the tour as well! You will receive a link our audio tour so you can listen to it on your own device.

Please do not forget to bring your earbuds or headphones!


New!

card wallets & posters

We have collaborated again with Bekking & Blitz to create a few new products. We have a new card wallet containing ten different beauties from this exhibition. The double cards are without text, perfect for your personal message.

€ 10.00

After a delay in delivery we our mini art posters (30 x 40 cm) have finally arrived! These fit in a standard frame. We printed a limited number of these, so they’ll go fast!

€ 10.00 each or three for € 25.00

Note: we are unable to ship these items.


Sōsaku hanga in Leiden

on view until 29 May

The exhibition ‘Sōsaku hanga’ with prints from our collection in Japan Museum SieboldHuis will also be on display until Sunday 29 May 2022. With more than 150 works from the sōsaku hanga movement on display, it shows the development of ‘creative prints’ in Japan. For the first time in Europe, an entire exhibition is dedicated to this movement, where the creative autonomy of Japanese print artists was most important.

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events exhibitions new

We’re open in May

Elegance & Excellence:
Modern Women of Shin hanga

from 6 May

The subject of women has been linked to Japanese woodblock prints since the 17th century. Bijin (beauties) are a popular theme in 20th century printmaking, and have continuously captivated audiences and collectors worldwide. Elegance & Excellence: Modern Women of Shin hanga, explores the numerous artists in the Nihon no hanga collection that devoted prints to refine the ideal image of Japanese female beauty. This exhibition examines the ‘elegant’ and modern appearance of women in bijin hanga (beauty prints) of the shin hanga (new print) tradition, known for its accomplished and ‘excellent’ technique within Japanese woodblock printmaking

Over seventy iconic prints will be on display by, among others, Ishii Hakutei, Hashiguchi Goyō, Itō Shinsui, Kitano Tsunetomi, Yamakawa Shūhō, Torii Kotondo, Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, Hirano Hakuhō, Ishikawa Toraji, Taki Shūhō, and Shimura Tatsumi.


Opening hours

weekends in May

From 6 May the exhibition Elegance & Excellence: Modern Women of Shin hanga will be open to visitors in our museum on the Keizersgracht!

Friday 6 May until Sunday 29 May

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 12.00 – 17.00 hrs

Admission is free and in order of arrival. We do not take reservations.


Catalogue

available from 6 May

The Elegance & Excellence catalogue contains an introductory essay and all prints featured in the exhibition.

€ 12.50

Note: We can only accept international book orders, which will be processed in June.


Audio tour

free with every catalogue purchase

With every catalogue purchase, you can now listen to our audio tour (in Dutch) for free! Due to increased popularity, we will not be offering a guided tour in the museum. Good news is, visitors during the weekend are able to listen to the tour as well! You will receive a link our audio tour so you can listen to it on your own device.

Please do not forget to bring your earbuds or headphones!


New!

card wallets & posters

We have collaborated again with Bekking & Blitz to create a few new products. We have a new card wallet containing ten different beauties from this exhibition. The double cards are without text, perfect for your personal message.

€ 10.00

And by popular demand, we will also be selling three different designs as mini art posters (30 x 40 xm). Come to our museum to see which designs we have chosen!

€ 10.00 each

Note: we are unable to ship these items.


About this exhibition

an ode to beauties

This exhibition was inspired by the recent reprint of  ‘Onnae Kindai bijin hanga zenshū – The female image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties’ originally published in 2002 and revised and released in 2022 in Japan by Abe Publishing as ‘Kindai bijin hangashūPrints of Japanese beauties in the 20th century’. In the original version six prints from our collection were featured. In the 2022 version, sixteen new artists were included. Nine of these new artists were chosen from the holdings of Nihon no hanga: Takehisa Yumeji, Nakazawa Hiromitsu, Ohira Kasen, Taki Shūho, Tachibana Sayume, Shimizu Miezō, Fuse Chōsun, Shimura Tatsumi, and Hirayama Rōkō. In total thirty prints from our collection were used in the revised edition. The original book played an important part in the shaping of our collection. We realised with this renewed publication it was the perfect opportunity to host an ode to the Japanese female figure in our 2022 spring exhibition.


Sōsaku hanga in Leiden

on view until 29 May

The exhibition ‘Sōsaku hanga’ with prints from our collection in Japan Museum SieboldHuis has been extended until 29 May 2022. With more than 150 works from the sōsaku hanga momevement on display, it shows the development of ‘creative prints’ in Japan. For the first time in Europe, an entire exhibition is dedicated to this movement, where the creative autonomy of Japanese print artists was most important.

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events exhibitions new outside NNH

Sōsaku hanga in Leiden

Creative prints in Japan Museum SieboldHuis

View the exhibition online!

The exhibition ‘Sōsaku hanga’ with prints from our collection in Japan Museum SieboldHuis can now be viewed online. With more than 150 works from the sōsaku hanga momevement on display, it shows the development of ‘creative prints’ in Japan. For the first time in Europe, an entire exhibition is dedicated to this movement, where the creative autonomy of Japanese print artists was most important.


Free digital guided tour (in Dutch): Sōsaku hanga – Part I

Tuesday 8 March

Our curator and guest curator of the exhibition, Maureen de Vries, will give a free online guided tour (in Dutch) of ‘Sōsaku hanga’ on Tuesday 8 March. Maureen will talk about the extraordinary prints in the exhibition and the birth of the creative print movement in Japan. Questions can be asked after the tour in the chat. In april a second part of this guided tour will be available.

Activitity: Guided tour: Sōsaku hanga. Creative Prints from Japan – Part 1
By Maureen de Vries
Language: Dutch
Date: Tuesday 8 March 2022, 14.00 – 14.45 hrs
Location: Online
Price: Free


Catalogue ‘Sōsaku hanga’

Available now

For this exhibition, a bilingual (Dutch and English) catalogue on this remarkable art movement was published by Japan Museum SieboldHuis. It includes more than 140 prints from the our collection, and even more prints are on display. The catalogue is now on sale at the museum for only € 29,50 and is available through online booksellers.

Title: Sōsaku hanga
Author : Maureen de Vries
Publisher: Japanmuseum SieboldHuis
ISBN : 9789082711196
Language : Dutch, English
Paperback: 120 pp
Publication date: December 2021
Weight: 450 gr.
Measurements: 215 x 140 x 27 mm
Price: € 29,50


‘Beautiful’ May exhibition

From 6 May: Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in May

While we will not share the exact title and theme of our upcoming Spring exhibition, we can announce we will be open again in our canal house on the Keizersgracht this May, with a ‘beautiful’ new exhibition!
We will be open from 6 May, on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, between 12.00-17.00 hrs. More information will follow soon!

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events exhibitions new

We are open in November!

Snow Country: Japanese Winter Landscapes

Our latest exhibition will focus on wintery landscape prints of the 20th century. In Japan snow has been a source of inspiration in art and literature for centuries. Poetic scenes of snowy cityscapes and serene winter beauties have been a well-known part of the Japanese woodblock print tradition but were also a beloved theme in modern shin and sōsaku hanga.

However, living with vast amounts of snow in the remote ‘snow country’, or yukiguni, came with certain challenges. Printmakers from these areas have earnestly depicted daily life in this somewhat concealed part of Japan. When snow country became more accessible with the advent of modern transportation links its representation changed. Seeking out snow leisure became a fashionable pastime for urbanites, including prolific writers and prints artists.

The various aspects of snow surrounding the city, countryside, and its people take centre stage in Snow Country: Japanese Winter Landscapes, with over one hundred works from our collection.


Opening times

NOVEMBER 2021

From Friday 5 November until Sunday 28 November

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: 12.00 hrs – 17.00 hrs

Free entrance, ticket only required for guided tour

COVID-GUIDELINES: QR CODE

From Saturday 6 November 2021 a corona entry pass (coronatoegangsbewijs) is required for a museum visit. You need to present a valid QR code upon entry.
Our open days are subject to current covid-guidelines and will be adjusted if necessary. For more information see www.rijksoverheid.nl


Guided tour

We are able to host guided tours again! Every Friday in November there will be two guided tours (in Dutch). As usual, you will need to buy a ticket in advance through Eventbrite.

Fridays: 13.00 hrs and 15.00 hrs

€ 15.00 (pp, incl. catalogue)

Buy tickets via Eventbrite or our Guided tour page.


Catalogue

The Snow Country catalogue contains an introductory essay and all prints featured in the exhibition (B5 format; 96 pages; softcover; glued binding).

€ 12.50

(for sale at our museum from 5 November 2021)


Postcards

We have collaborated with Bekking & Blitz to create a special postcard wallet with prints from Snow Country: Japanese Winter Landscapes. We have selected 10 of our favourite designs and it comes with envelopes. Great for your season’s greetings!

€ 10.00

(only for sale at our museum from 5 November 2021)

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events exhibitions new

We are open from 11 June – 4 July

Good news! We are able to open our brand-new exhibition: Memories of Shōwa: Impressions of Working Life by Wada Sanzō!

Tickets will be limited and only sold online through our website and Eventbrite page. Get your tickets now!

Opening times

From Friday 11 June until Sunday 4 July 2021

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: 12.00 hrs – 17.00 hrs

Tickets are only sold online through Eventbrite.

Tickets will be available in time slots of 10 minutes between 12.00 hrs and 16.30 hrs. You will have 45-50 minutes to visit the exhibition. The museum will close at 17.00 hrs.

Ticket price

Main ticket: € 15.00
(valid for 1 person for one time slot, includes Memories of Shōwa catalogue, RRP €12.50 )

Extra’s

Extra ticket: € 2.50
(for 1 person from the same household as the main ticket holder)

Catalogue: € 12.50
You will be able to order extra catalogues when you purchase your ticket. By pre-ordering your catalogue, we limit contact and improve the flow of visitors at our entrance.

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events exhibitions new

Coming soon: Memories of Shōwa

Even if we do not know when we will be able to open up to the public, we have been working hard on our next exhibition: Memories of Shōwa: Impressions of Working Life by Wada Sanzō. This exhibition consists of the impressive series ‘Japanese vocations of the Shōwa era in pictures’ by Wada Sanzō (1883-1967) and will feature all three volumes. These prints offer nostalgic and modern images of everyday life in Japan during the late 1930s through to the early 1950s. Together with Wada’s written observations, this exhibition provides a deeply personal account of the continuously changing professions during this complex era of modern Japanese history.

Keep an eye on our website and socials for any updates regarding our future opening times. Unfortunately we are unable to give any dates at this moment, but we hope to welcome you to Nihon no hanga very soon!

UPDATE

We know will have to implement a reservation and ticketing system through Eventbrite to ensure a safe visit for you and our staff. Please see our Tickets page for more detailed information on what to expect when we are able to open our doors again.

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events new

November exhibition postponed

After being unable to open our museum in May this year, we had hoped to open Nihon no hanga to the public this November with a snow-themed exhibition. After careful consideration we have come to the conclusion to not open the museum this November. We feel a responsibility towards our visitors and volunteers to guarantee a safe visit to our museum. Unfortunately we find ourselves in a difficult position with the current developments surrounding COVID-19. We therefore have decided to postpone our ‘Snow Country’ exhibition to November 2021.

Even though we will not be able to meet you in person, we hope to see you through our other channels. We have been more active on Instagram and Facebook, where we will share a number of prints from the Nihon no hanga collection on a regular basis. We are also still working on a digital museum environment where you will be able to view exhibitions from the past. 

We hope to welcome you to Nihon no hanga in Spring 2021 with a fresh exhibition.

Until then, stay safe.

Best wishes,

Elise Wessels
Director

Maureen de Vries
Curator