Image: Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Nara
A special exhibition now on view at Yamato Bunkakan in Nara turns to East Asian flower imagery and the appeal of the past. Titled 'Medering Flowers, Esteeming the Old' in Japanese, the exhibition gathers works centered on floral and tree motifs from East Asia and gives particular attention to a distinctive type of painting known as 'Huabo Gutu'. The show runs through Aug. 23 and includes 44 works in total.
According to the source material, 'Huabo Gutu' refers to an unusual pictorial form that combines rubbings taken from ancient vessels with added depictions of flowers and other plants. The format evokes antiquity through bronze objects and other old artifacts, giving the images a scholarly, elevated character. The genre became popular among epigraphers and with painters active in Shanghai from the late 19th century into the early 20th century, and the exhibition brings several examples together to present that tradition more clearly.
Among the featured works is Zhao Yungu's 'Bunbo Seikyō Zu' ('Scholar’s Studio with Elegant Offerings'), held in the collection of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art as part of the Umeshiteki Collection. In the painting, a rubbing of a bronze vessel is combined with red plum blossoms and narcissus, while lychees are shown on the ground. The exhibition also includes a domestic work attributed to Kano Yasunobu, 'Karae Tegami' ('Album of Chinese Paintings'), from the Edo period.
That album brings together 56 copied images of Chinese paintings that had been transmitted over time. Its 51st image shows a winter arrangement of narcissus, plum blossoms and camellias. The museum's presentation places such works alongside other pieces that draw on flowers and historic forms, creating a concise overview of how artists used plant imagery to recall earlier cultures and visual traditions.
The exhibition is being held at Yamato Bunkakan, which is in the Gakuenminami area of Nara City. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is 630 yen for adults, 420 yen for high school and university students, and free for elementary and junior high school students. Inquiries can be made to Yamato Bunkakan at 0742-45-0544.
