Introduction: About the Collection

The Mie Prefectural Art Museum first opened its doors in 1982, and in 2002, it celebrated its twentieth anniversary. Because collecting artwork is the most important of any museum's tasks, we have put a great deal of energy into building our collection over the last two decades. In fact, we have been collecting artwork since 1980, two years before the museum opened. There were three major types of art that especially interested us: (1) Art from the Edo period onward by artists who were either natives of Mie or had a close relationship with Mie, (2) Paintings from the Meiji period onward that show the development of modern oil painting in Japan, or paintings by foreign artists who exerted a strong influence over modern Japanese art, and (3) Sketches, studies, watercolors, and other documents that give insight into the creative undertakings of certain key artists. After Mie Prefecture became the sister state of Valencia, Spain, the museum also began in 1992 collecting works by important Spanish artists.

When the museum first opened, there were approximately 360 pieces in the collection, but each year, the number of pieces has grown, thanks to donations and staff purchases. At present, there are more than five thousand works housed in the museum. Some works were purchased with money from the prefecture, but a large number were donations from artists, art lovers and their estates, or local organizations. The Cultural Foundation of Okada has been instrumental in building our collection with its many generous contributions, beginning with Chagall's La branche 〔68〕, which it donated when our museum first opened. The contributions of the Foundation represent a special collection within our holdings. We have also been lucky to obtain several important works to celebrate our anniversaries. On our tenth anniversary, financial support from the prefecture allowed us to purchase Santa Catarina de Alejandria 〔57〕by the Spanish artist Murillo. Also, the Mie Prefectural Public Utilities Agency gave us a deposition of La bohémienne 〔76〕 by Picasso. On our fifteenth anniversary, special financial support from the prefecture allowed us to buy Dali's El pasillo Talia de Palladio 〔83〕. Each of these pieces is now one of the masterpieces of the collection. Even though the works in our collection came to us through different routes, our collecting has always been driven by research. Research has allowed us to build our museum and to keep building our collection over time.

One of the unique strengths of our collection is the large number of modern Japanese oil paintings (youga) made from the Meiji period onward. The collection includes works a number of works by people with connections to Mie Prefecture, such as Fujishima Takeji 〔32〕, Kanokogi Takeshirou 〔6〕, and Akamatsu Rinsaku, all of whom came to Mie as art teachers. It also includes works by natives of Mie, such as Iwahashi Noriaki 〔1〕. The collection provides a broad survey of modern Japanese painting in all of its facets, and because of this, it has been praised highly throughout the country. In fact, various museums around the country have held special exhibitions to display the highlights of our collection.

The museum also has an impressive, high quality collection of Japanese-style paintings (nihonga), including many pieces by the Edo-period artist Soga Shouhaku. One of his pieces in our collection, a painting on a sliding door from the home of the Nagashima family 〔89〕, is registered as an Important Cultural Asset. Another highlight of our collection of Japanese-style paintings is a large number of pieces and studies by Uda Tekison, an important nihonga artist of the twentieth century.

In conjunction with our twentieth anniversary celebrations, we received two large contributions. The first was from the Cultural Foundation of Okada, which had in the past donated large numbers of paintings by European artists and artists with close ties to Mie. The piece they contributed was Monet's Le Bassin d'Argenteuil vu depuis le pont routier〔63〕. This painting is important in the history of impressionism and has helped round out our collection of European art.

The other contribution was a large number of pieces by Yanagihara Yoshitatsu, an important modern sculptor who works in a representational vein. Yanagihara himself gave us over seventy sculptures and several hundred sketches. These valuable works allow us to see his artistic activities over the entire course of his career. He has also expressed his eagerness for us to have later sketches in the future, thus helping to build our collection even further.

Thanks to the gracious help of many people, including those listed above, our collection has grown little by little over the course of these twenty-some years. Still, there are many places where our collection is lacking in quality or quantity. We must continue striving to create an even better collection so that we can fulfill the expectations and hopes of the citizens of our prefecture.

Shiraishi Masami, Director
Mie Prefectural Art Museum