Current Artists at Their Best: The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten)

Cultural News, 2008 November Issue

An exhibition hall of Nitten 2007 (Courtesy of Nitten)

The National Art Center in Tokyo was opened in January 2007 (Courtesy of the National Art Center, Tokyo).

 

By Yuko Itatsu

 

TOKYO - It’s the Academy Awards of Japanese fine arts, if you will. The 40th Annual Nitten (The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) is being held from Oct. 31 to Dec. 7 at the National Art Center in Tokyo (Kokuritsu Shin Bijutsukan). They claim to be the largest combined art exhibit in the nation, if not the world. A remarkable 2,349 pieces of art are exhibited out of the 14,519 items submitted for competition.

 

  The exhibit constitutes of five categories of competition: Japanese Style and Western Style Painting, Sculpture, Craft as Art and Calligraphy. The exhibit is highly competitive.

 

  This year only 16% of the art submitted are in the exhibit. The calligraphy category was especially competitive given that merely 9% of submissions made it through. There are 17 judges for each category, and a different panel of judges is appointed every year.  

 

  Just like the Oscars, there are artists who do not subscribe to the criteria of fine art as the Nitten organization defines it. Nitten is known for being the most prestigious among the public art competitions in Japan, as well as for their conservatism, due to its history of having been a government-led competition. The competition has since been privatized in 1958.

 

   The seed for a public arts exhibit was planted by Nobuaki Makino in 1900, who was the ambassador to Austria when he suggested that a cultured nation should facilitate the advancement in the standards of fine arts. In 1907, he realized his dream as the Minister of Education when the first public arts exhibit was held. On a side note, Makino attended middle school in Philadelphia as a teenager, and is the great grandfather of the current Prime Minister Taro Aso.

 

   The venue of the Tokyo exhibit is equally worth noting. World-renown architect Kisho Kurokawa, who studied under Kenzo Tange, designed the four-story serpentine building. It was opened in January 2007, and is unique for not having a permanent collection but used solely as a gallery space for art.

 

   After Tokyo, the exhibit will be shown from Dec. 13-Jan. 16, 2009 at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Jan. 21-Feb. 15, Aichi Prefecture Museum of Art Gallery (Nagoya); Feb. 21-Mar. 22, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art; April 25-May 17, Toyama Kenminkaikan Museum of Art; June 27-July 20, Fukuoka Art Museum; and Aug. 8-31, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum.

 

   The National Art Center in Roppongi, Tokyo, and is directly connected to Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda subway line. Admissions are 1200yen for adults, 700yen for high school and college students. Open Wed-Mon 10-6 (Fri open till 8). For more on the exhibit, see www.nitten.or.jp. For more on the museum, see www.nact.jp.

 

     Yuko Itatsu is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of Southern California and also Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo.