To the people of Japan, art adds beauty and color to life. From interior decor to personal accessories, every aspect of everyday life is an opportunity to express an aesthetic, art in life, which we hope more people can experience and enjoy. That fundamental principle has guided the Suntory Museum of Art since its founding in 1961.
The lifestyles that have given rise to Japan’s arts are, however, changing significantly. Shōji sliding doors, tatami, and tokonoma are vanishing from homes and today, when classical Japanese seems like a foreign language, many struggles with the question of how to enjoy classic art.
This exhibition, therefore, focuses on how to enjoy art in life, introducing works rooted in a distinctive Japanese aesthetic from the highly individual works in our collection. Learning how people long ago enjoyed them and learning how to share that experience might be called a deep secret, a necessary skill for appreciating art, one increasingly unknown to people today.
This exhibition, going Deep and Deeper, invites you not only to explore what is not readily visible but to uncover hidden depths. To enjoy Japanese art more deeply, we introduce just some of its fascinating aspects that textbooks do not cover. Take a deeper look, exploring what is not visible to the eye, and you may uncover hidden enchantments.