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The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama currently houses a collection of about 16,000 works. Through its activities since 1951, the Museum has built close relationships with artists, their families, collectors and art enthusiasts, who have graciously helped to build what is today one of the finest collections housed in a public art museum in Japan.

Collection Highlights

Western-Style Paintings

Our collection of Western-style paintings, focused mainly on oils but including also acrylics, watercolours and sketches, comprises around 3,000 works from important Japanese painters who helped carve out the Japanese tradition of Western-style painting from the late nineteenth through to the late twentieth century, including Yuichi Takahashi, Tetsugoro Yorozu, Ryusei Kishida, Harue Koga, Shunsuke Matsumoto, and Saburo Aso, as well as those active on an international stage such as Yasukazu Tabuchi and Shimpei Sakakura.

  • Yuichi Takahashi Enoshima

    Yuichi Takahashi
    Enoshima
    1976-77

  • Ryūsei Kishida Young Girl (Reiko Standing)

    Ryūsei Kishida
    Young Girl (Reiko Standing)
    1923

  • Harue Koga Make-up outside the Window

    Harue Koga
    Make-up outside the Window
    1930

Japanese-Style Paintings

Our collection of Japanese-style works is based around nihon-ga, a genre which originated in the late nineteenth century as a modern form of painting, produced with with nikawa resin on paper or silk fabric. The collection focuses particularly around post-war artists who pursued a unique form of expression, such as Tamako Kataoka, Makoto Mikami, Masayoshi Nakamura, Hoshun Yamaguchi, and Fuku Shoji. Together with also our ancient mandalas and suiboku-ga (monochrome ink paintings) works, the collection numbers around 350.

  • Kiyokata Kaburagi The story of Onatsu-seijūrō

    Kiyokata Kaburagi
    The story of Onatsu-seijūrō
    1907

  • Tamako Kataoka Tsuragamae: Katsushika Hokusai

    Tamako Kataoka
    Tsuragamae: Katsushika Hokusai
    1971

  • Fuku Shoji Time

    Fuku Shoji
    Time
    1985

Sculptures

Our 600-strong collection of sculptures runs the gamut from traditional cast bronze pieces and stone and wooden carvings, through to contemporary works using a myriad of different materials. As well as a fantastic line-up of Japanese sculptors working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries such as Teijiro Nakahara and Kozaburo Takeishi, and post-war figures such as Masakazu Horiuchi, Yoshitatsu Yanagihara, Isamu Wakabayashi, Masaaki Nishi, Kazuo Yuhara and Haruhiko Yasuda, we also have works from renowned Western sculptors of the likes of Auguste Rodin and Antony Gormley.

  • Auguste Rodin Mask of Hanako

    Auguste Rodin
    Mask of Hanako
    1908, cast 1974

  • Teijiro Nakahara Young Caucasian

    Teijiro Nakahara
    Young Caucasian
    1919

  • Masakazu Horiuchi(Horiuti) Mr.D's Boned Dice

    Masakazu Horiuchi(Horiuti)
    Mr.D's Boned Dice
    1964, cast 1993

Prints

Our print collection numbering around 5,800 pieces comprises an impressive selection of work from Japanese artists involved with the creative printing movement in the 1930s such as Yasunori Taninaka and Yoshio Fujimaki, key post-war printers such as Shiko Munakata, Chimei Hamada and Yozo Hamaguchi, and contemporary printmakers like Hitoshi Karasawa. As far as overseas artists go, we have works by Francisco Goya and Max Klinger, a number Chinese woodblock prints, and artists principally known for their painting and sculpture works including Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall.

  • Yoshio Fujimaki The Moon: From Shinhanga, no.12

    Yoshio Fujimaki
    The Moon: From Shinhanga, no.12
    1934

  • Henri Matisse The Knife Thrower (Le Lanceur de couteaux)

    Henri Matisse
    The Knife Thrower (Le Lanceur de couteaux) from "Jazz" 15
    1947

  • Arinori Ichihara Drop (1)

    -->Arinori Ichihara
    Drop (1)
    1981

Photographs

Our photograph section, which is a recent addition to our collection, is still not particularly extensive. We are in the process of building up a collection of works that can also be put to use as research materials, including works by photographers such as Shigeo Anzai and Naoya Hatakeyama who have been the subject of Special Exhibitions at the museum, not to mention work by artists involved with the Experimental Workshop and a series by Kijuro Yahagi.

  • Naoya Hatakeyama/Untitled Montréal

    Naoya Hatakeyama
    Untitled/Montréal
    2005

  • Yukio Nakagawa Flower is the Mystic Mountain

    Yukio Nakagawa
    Flower is the Mystic Mountain
    1989

  • Kanji Wakae My Town

    Kanji Wakae
    My Town
    2002

Crafts

Our crafts collection contains work by Rosanjin Kitaojia and Shoji Hamada, ceramics by Pablo Picasso, kimono and textiles by Rikizo Munehiro, dyed textiles by Samiro Yunoki, and glass items by Toshichi Iwata and Hisatoshi Iwata. The collection bequeathed by Shoko Kinoshita is introduced under ‘Former private collections’.

  • Tōshichi Iwata<br>Glass Bowl Memory of Nagasaki

    Tōshichi Iwata
    Glass Bowl "Memory of Nagasaki"
    1971

  • Machiko Ogawa 2002-WA-BLUE 6

    Machiko Ogawa
    2002-WA-BLUE 6
    2002

  • Rosanjin Kitaōji Large Shigaraki Jar (Shigaraki Otsubo)

    Rosanjin Kitaōji
    Large Shigaraki Jar (Shigaraki Otsubo)
    1957

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