Image: Ebara Hatakeyama Museum of Art, Tokyo
The Ebara Hatakeyama Museum of Art in Tokyo will open two exhibitions simultaneously for its 2026 summer season II, pairing a study of tea utensils and their names with a memorial presentation devoted to painter Kaoru Ueda. The museum’s exhibition page says the pair of shows will run from August 28 to September 27, with online ticket sales scheduled to begin on August 21 at 1 p.m.
The museum says the two exhibitions will be installed in separate parts of the building. In the main building’s second floor, the Hatakeyama Collection exhibition 'The Story of Tea Utensils and Meimei' will focus on how prized tea implements acquired names, or mei, from tea practitioners who sought to express respect and affection for one-of-a-kind objects. The museum frames the exhibition around the question of why particular names were attached to the pieces, using those titles to trace the ideas and feelings that have been passed down with them over time.
The same exhibition will also feature a special display of an Important Cultural Property, 'Portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi', attributed to Kano Sanraku with a dedication by Konoe Nobutada. The museum identifies the work as one of the representative portrait images of Hideyoshi and says it will be shown in response to renewed interest in the Sengoku period.
In the new building’s second floor and basement level, the museum will present 'One Year in Remembrance: Kaoru Ueda’s Super Realism—Jam, Ice Cream, and Raw Egg'. The museum describes the exhibition as a memorial marking one year since Ueda’s death and says it will explore his hyperrealist practice alongside the wider theme of “abstraction to realism” in a summer series that contrasts two opposing modes of expression.
Ueda, born in Tokyo in 1928, studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts and later worked as a graphic designer before resuming painting around 1968. The museum notes that he gained attention for works made by projecting photographs onto canvas, including images of a raw egg in motion and ice cream scooped on a spoon. It also says his approach resonated with international photorealism and that he served as professor at Ibaraki University and Yamano College of Aesthetics.
The memorial exhibition will include more than 60 works, from early pieces to major examples and late works in which Ueda moved away from realism into new territory. The museum also says it will present quilt works by his wife, Yoko, as a special feature. The exhibition is being organized by the Ebara Hatakeyama Museum of Art in cooperation with Nagoya Gallery.
The museum lists the exhibition period as August 28 to September 27, 2026, with opening hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until September 21 and with the final admission at 4:30 p.m. Mondays are closed, except September 21, which is a holiday Monday and will be open, and September 24. Admission is cashless only, with online tickets priced at 1,300 yen for general admission and 900 yen for students, and on-the-day tickets at 1,500 yen and 1,000 yen respectively.
