Image: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum is presenting 'How to Walk in Asian Art - East Asia Edition' as part of its collection series, framing the display as an introduction to Asian art for visitors encountering the field for the first time. The museum says the exhibition brings together approximately 60 works from Japan, Korea, North Korea, China, Taiwan and Mongolia, and organizes them around the themes of landscape, relations between regions, and individual stories.
The exhibition is part of the museum’s 2026 series 'How to Walk in Asian Art', which the institution describes as a year-long project introducing works from East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia in sequence. According to the museum, the series is designed to present the distinctive features of each region in an accessible form while showing how art can reflect local environments, histories, cultures and the lives of the people who made and used it.
For this first chapter, the museum places East Asia at the center and emphasizes both shared cultural elements and regional differences. The source material notes long histories of exchange among these places, including shared references such as Chinese characters, Confucianism, Buddhism and food culture, while also stressing that each region developed its own historical path and social conditions. The exhibition uses that tension between commonality and difference as its main curatorial frame.
The museum says the works are presented from three perspectives: 'landscape and history', 'inter-regional relations', and 'individuals living in each society'. Rather than treating East Asia as a single cultural unit, the exhibition asks how place, history and social experience shape artistic expression, how relations across the region have intersected over time, and what people have felt while living in their own environments. The presentation is intended to deepen understanding of East Asian societies and their interconnected histories.
Among the works identified on the exhibition page are an early 19th-century work attributed to an unknown artist, 'Guangdong consulate house #1' by China Trade; 'Tea Blue 337-75 #203' by Yoon Hyong-keun from 1975; 'DIALOGUE' by Nariaki Iwai from 1996-99; and 'Others - Good Night, and Good Morning' by Candy Bird and Choi Youngli from 2019. The page also lists 'Landscape of Zuoying' by Lee Ming-tse from 2001.
'How to Walk in Asian Art - East Asia Edition' is on view in the Asia Gallery from April 18, 2026, to August 30, 2026. Admission is 200 yen for general visitors, 150 yen for high school and university students, and free for junior high school students and younger; group rates are listed in parentheses on the museum page. The museum also says an annual passport is available for the 'How to Walk in Asian Art' series, priced at 1,000 yen for adults and 800 yen for high school and university students.
