The Sen-Oku Hakukokan Museum in Kyoto, Japan, is known for its exquisite collection of Chinese bronzes, which are among the best in overseas in terms of quantity and quality. Among the about 500 pieces of Chinese bronzes and bronze mirrors in its collection are the world-famous Shang Dynasty "Gong Shen Drum" and "Tiger Gong" and other famous products. The surging news learned that the "Chinese Bronze Age" theme exhibition is its permanent exhibition, but it is not open for a long time, only for a limited period of time in each season, and the display of the new season will be carried out from March 26 to July 3.
The Sen-Oku Hakukokan Museum, part of one of Japan's four major consortiums, the Sumitomo family, has a collection of more than 3,000 pieces, with a core collection of about 500 Pieces of Chinese Bronze and Bronze Mirrors. Its name "Quanwu" is taken from the family business name, and "Bogu" is taken from the Chinese Song Dynasty bronze spectral record "Xuanhe Bogu Catalogue". The "Xuanhe Bogu Catalogue" records that the Song Dynasty royal family collected hundreds of bronzes in the Xuanhe Hall, and the Izumiya Bogu Museum was named after it, which shows the focus of his family's collection.
Izumiya Hirokokan
The collection of Izumiya Bokokan has more than 3,000 pieces, the most famous of which is the Chinese Shang Zhou bronzes collected by Sumitomo Chuncui, the 15th generation of the Sumitomo family, which is an overseas leader in both quantity and quality. Among them, the most valuable bronzes are recognized as the Shang Dynasty "Chu Shen Drum" and the Shang Dynasty "Tiger Hammer".
Late Shang Dynasty Drum Izumiya Bogu Collection
Sumitomo Chuncui 1864-1926
Sumitomo Haruti was born into the Tokudaiji family of the eunuch family, and since childhood, he not only studied traditional Japanese culture, learned tea ceremony, noh and other skills, but also familiarized himself with the Four Books and Five Classics of China. In 1893, the twenty-nine-year-old Chuncui entered the family as an adopted son, and the following year he inherited the family business and became the fifteenth generation of family owners. The Sumitomo family made their fortune by mining and operating a copper mine in Ehime Prefecture in the 17th century, the world's largest copper-producing mine, which has been an important pillar of Japan's exports for nearly three centuries, laying the foundation for today's Sumitomo Foundation.
Sumitomo Harukai lived in an era when Japan's economic development and wealth gathered after the Meiji Restoration, and in the early years of the Republic of China, Japan began to have a cultural relics fever, and Chuncui at this time was also keen to collect Chinese bronzes and ancient mirrors.
However, as a sencha lover, Chuncui was initially obsessed with collecting a variety of Chinese plays for sencha, and occasionally waded into small bronzes as sencha props.
Chuncui's first trip to Europe and the United States in 1897 changed his taste for collecting. After visiting first-class museums such as the Louvre museum and the British Museum, the aesthetic concept of art derived from pure appreciation of fine arts in Western society greatly touched Chuncui, giving him the opportunity to re-examine the old concept of art collection in Japan, and had an impact on the bronze collection that later turned away from tea sets to appreciate art.
1903 was the peak of the collection of Izumiya bronzes. Chuncui's twelve exquisite collections include not only the Drum of the Gods and the Tiger, which are recognized as masterpieces of Izumiya bronzes, but also phoenix-shaped axes, elephant-patterned daggers, fangzuns, and fangzuns. These bronzes initially laid the foundation for the collection of Chinese bronzes in the Izumiya Bokokan.
In the following years, Chuncui would purchase bronze ware every year, further supplementing the mane, 罍, 匜, plate and other instrument types, collecting many first-class famous products, and basically completing the overall structure of the Izumiya bronze collection.
In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, tiger hammer Quanwu Bogu collection
In 1917, Chuncui purchased ten of Chen Jieqi's eleven chimes, filling the gap in the collection of musical instruments. The Ten Bells was originally purchased from Weixian County, China (present-day Weifang, Shandong Province), purchased by the Japanese Inobu or Jiuyuan, and was acquired by Sumitomo Chuncui after returning to Japan.
In addition, bronzes with long inscriptions have also entered the field of view of Chuncui from this year, and the collection of many fine works such as Zai tangjiao and Yan Gui has greatly enhanced the academic value of the Izumiya bronze collection. Since then, Izumiya bronze ware has also firmly occupied a place in the field of epigraphy research.
During the Xianfeng period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, seven bronzes were excavated from Liangshan in Shouzhang County, Shandong Province, which became a major event in the field of epigraphy in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty due to its special shape and inscription, known as the "Seven Instruments of Liangshan". Today, these seven artifacts have been scattered all over the world, and one of them, the Great Shi Yujin, has been preserved in the Izumiya Bokokan. The Great Shi You Yong is 52.2 centimeters high, the mouth edge is decorated with a dragon pattern, the three bags of feet are decorated with high relief bull horn animal faces, the bottom of the koshi has five cross holes to permeate steam, and the inner wall is cast with the nine-character inscription "Da Shi You Cha Zhao Gong Bao Zun Yi" is the standard instrument of the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is also one of the important artifacts of the late Collection of Sumitomo Chuncui.
In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the Great Shi Youyi Collection of Izumiya Bogu Collection
In addition to collecting, Chuncui attaches great importance to the research, display and dissemination of bronze collections, and he has successively published and distributed "Spring House Reward" and "Updated Spring House Reward", in which the Chinese bronzes published are the collection of Chuncui's lifelong collection, which introduced Chinese bronzes to the world stage.
Sumitomo Haruti's collection of Chinese bronzes led Japan and even Europe in the early twentieth century. According to some researchers, "For modern Japanese, the style of Shang Zhou bronze is too strong, and only those who have a deep understanding of Chinese civilization can appreciate it, and Chuncui is one of them." In this sense, Chuncui's concept was at least a decade earlier, showing a forerunner that far surpassed that of its contemporaries. ”
Izumiya Hirokokan Kyoto Pavilion
In 1960, the Sumitomo family decided to establish a museum dedicated to the family's collection of about 500 bronzes and bronze mirrors. In 1970, the Izumiya Hirokokan Bronze Museum was opened in Shika-no-dani, Kyoto. In 1986, the museum built a new museum next to the Bronze Museum as a temporary exhibition hall. In 2002, Hiroko Izumiya established a branch in Roppongi, Tokyo.
The theme exhibition "Chinese Bronze Age" is a permanent exhibition item of Izumiya Bokokan, relying on the collection of about 500 Chinese bronzes and bronze mirrors, setting up a total of 3 permanent exhibition halls with bronze masterpieces, types and uses of bronzes, cultural narratives and patterns of bronzes, and a temporary exhibition hall that changes the theme every year, so as to introduce the history, types and uses of bronze and present the charm of bronze art.
The new season will be showcased from March 26 to July 3.
Shang Gluttony Pattern Square Silk House Bogu Collection
Bronze masterpieces exhibit masterpieces of Bronze from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in China, such as the Shang Dynasty "Chu Shen Drum" and "Gluttonous Pattern Fang Wei" in the Shang Dynasty. The "Chu Shen Drum" is one of the two bronze drums of the Shang Dynasty known to exist, named after the ornament of the legendary music official "夔神" cast on the drum body. This drum is green lacquered throughout, the drum head is cast with a pair of phoenix birds, both sides are pasted with crocodile skin, and the thickness of the wall is only 3 to 5 mm, which is a high-level bronze work of the Shang Dynasty.
The types and uses of bronzes mainly show the extensive use of bronzes in scenes such as sacrifices, feasts and ceremonies from the Shang Zhou to the Warring States period in China, such as the musical instrument "Qiang Bell" in this exhibition, the wine vessel "Zai Tang Jiao", "Wu Qiao" and so on.
Late Shang Dynasty Zaisangjiao Izumiya Bogu Collection
Early Western Zhou Dynasty Collection of Quanwu Bogu
The cultural narrative of bronze uses modeling and ornamentation as the starting point to explore the ancient Chinese thought and culture reflected in bronzes and bronze mirrors. Exhibits include the important Cultural Property of Japan, the "Sacred Beast Mirror with The Same Direction in the Painting Pattern", as well as the Shang Dynasty "Tiger Blade", "Ge Ji", and the Tang Dynasty "Moon Rabbit Eight Prisms".
Late Shang Dynasty Ge Ji Izumiya Bogu Collection
Late Shang Dynasty Tiger Ji Izumiya Bogu Collection
The shape of the "Tiger Dagger" takes the posture of the tiger hugging the person, and the intention is peculiar. The tiger's feet and tail form an equilateral triangle to support the body. This vessel is a kind of wine carrier.
The head of the tiger is covered with a round carved deer button. The watch is decorated with gluttony and various dragon-shaped ornaments. The man held by the tiger's front paws is decorated with an animal face on its back and a snake pattern on its waist. This bronze vessel was once found in Luo Zhenyu's "Servant Lu Rizha", which was originally stored in the home of Sheng Yu, a high-ranking official in the late Qing Dynasty. After Sheng Yu's death in 1899, it flowed into Japan. In 1903, Sumitomo Harukachi bought it for a huge sum of 4,000 yen from Yasushi Fujita's assistant.
Tiger Cubs Collection of the Chinucci Museum in France
There are only two tigers with roughly the same shape, the other is now in the Musee Cernuschi Museum in France, originally owned by the German merchant Edgar Worch, the First World War between France and Germany, the French government confiscated and auctioned the tiger quarry, and the French Senusky Museum was purchased in 1920, seventeen years later than the Japanese Sumitomo Haruka. Some scholars have speculated that the two pieces came from the same bronze casting workshop and were cast at the same time; regarding the source of the two pieces of tiger cannibalism, the current academic community generally believes that they came from the mountain at the junction of Ningxiang and Anhua in Hunan.
Early Tang Dynasty Renshou Fox Mirror Quanwu Bogu Collection
The exhibition hall focuses on the display of bronze mirrors to introduce the development of Chinese bronze culture since the Qin and Han Dynasties. Important exhibits include the Tang Dynasty", the Tang Dynasty "Renshou Fox Mirror", the Northern Song Dynasty "Wrong Gold and Silver Beast Zun" and so on.
Northern Song Dynasty Wrong Gold and Silver Beast Zun Quanwu Bogu Collection
Han Dynasty ear cup
Two pieces of Han Dynasty chronological lacquerware, which were funded by the Sumitomo Foundation and restored, were unearthed from the Tomb of the Mongol Xiongnu and are regarded as important materials for understanding the production of Chinese Han Dynasty handicrafts. The two pieces of lacquerware will be on display from March 26 to May 15, 2022.
(This article is a synthesis of relevant information from the official website of Izumiya Bokokan, the Forbidden City magazine "Sumitomo Chuncui and Izumiya Bokokan Chinese Bronzes", and previous reports by The Paper)