Japanese Art Collections In The Uk

[BIG]

Japan Foundation pdf..what do they have

 

http://www.jpf.org.uk/research_archive/JACUK_text.pdf

 

Best

[Brian]

Excellent read, well found Peter.
Still hard to get over the feeling that a lot of these "bequests" are the equivalent of throwing away valuable items. But at least some get shown. Maybe.

[IanB]

Greg Irvines paper is obviously a report based on a seminar and omits the Royal Armouries collection who for some reason was not represented. The collection, housed at Leeds, contains some 87 swords / blades, including the former collection of Deryk Ingham generously donated by his widow and sons. of which about 40 are recently polished blades, mostly papered, two of which are Juyo. Also in the collection are some 10 or so armours, two of which were diplomatic gifts to James I (and VI) in 1613 and more importantly an armour presented to King Philip II of Spain in 1585. There are numerous staff weapons, about 30 being presented, with a naginata to Queen Victoria. together with a horse harness on loan from the V&A. There is also a horse armour and harness belonging to RA. What the collection is very light on is tosogu, being represented by a few iron tsuba from the Ingham collection.

Ian Bottomley

[Gakusee]

I keep wondering how Peter keeps unearthing all these documents and sources. I had the UK paper beforehand but it was only because I had researched what Japanese collections there were in the UK and had painstakingly found that paper. It omits not only the Royal Armouries but probably 3-4 other Japanese (sub-) collections (but flagged up to me others, of which I was unaware).

 

In any case - Peter, thank you for your literary pursuit!

[Geraint]

Dear All.

 

I have to agree that there is no way I would leave any  collection to a local museum as all too often they have curatorial staff who are keen but have probably come into museology because of an altogether different passion.  As Gregory Irvine points out in the paper that Peter linked us to there are also problems of staff turn over where expertise that is being built is lost over night.  The end result of this is that objects remain buried in reserve collections and sometimes suffer some degree of neglect.  

 

However many museums are responsive to serious requests for detailed study of specific reserve collections.  More local museums are a little more hit and miss, if the person you get in contact with wants to be awkward they can find excuses to prevent you "wasting" their time.  I seem to recall a debate with the Museum in Boston where they were getting sniffy about allowing Nihonto enthusiast to see their reserve collections.  Perhaps they were victims of their own success in that they published that fantastic catalogue, (If you don't own it you are missing out on some seriously good scholarship!), and thereby made themselves a bit of a target for everyone with an interest anxious to get their hands on the goodies.  Sometimes it is who you ask that counts; I spent several years trying to get to visit a reserve collections of fittings in a regional museum and was always directed to one particular curator whose passion was rocks.  Somehow the Japanese collection had slipped into his remit but he had no interest in it and didn't want to waste time with those who did.  Eventually a new curator was appointed and wonder of wonders, suddenly my request was granted!  

 

In another thread we discussed this issue with someone who was intending to visit the UK and several recommendations were made.  It is always worth asking!  I shall never forget a visit to the Royal Armouries, wonderfully hosted by Ian B, and the swords I was able to study there.

 

All the best.

[ken kata]

How did you guys read and comprehend all that in this short time?? 

It is amazing, that there is that much more Items that are not seen, or, maybe not known to the people, and, most importantly, the top guys in the fields.

So, there is possibilities, that new, unseen, forgotten, or, even undocumented works will be discovered.

Something to look forward to.

 

" We have a collection of 5,000 tsuba" -    5000 !!!   - Sheees uncomprehendable amount..

[IanB]

Geraint, Ken, As a former curator at the Royal Armouries (and now a Curator Emeritus) I took the view that anyone wanting to see items in store were perfectly within their rights to do so - after all the collection is the property of the nation, NOT the museum's, and certainly NOT the curator's, who together are simply custodians. Sadly this is not the view held by others, but it is worthwhile pointing the fact out to them if they are uncooperative. I accept there may be difficulties for that to happen immediately the request is made, but in my view the difficulties should be genuine and valid ones. It is inappropriate to expect someone who has travelled to a museum to have to repeat the journey just because the curator can't be bothered rescheduling their programme for the day. Believe you me I have met some curators like this. By far the best example was a curator emulsion painting the back of a case about 2m high and 6m long. It took so long that the company making the paint had stopped making and selling that colour before the job was complete! 

Ian Bottomley