Tomo Collection at Musee Tomo, Tokyo

'It was twenty years ago today that the famous Kikuchi Collection of Modern Japanese Ceramics was shown to "smashing" reviews at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., and also at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The 300-piece collection sparked a great interest in modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics that continues to this day. The two exhibitions remain a milestone for 20th century Japanese ceramic art. For the past twenty years, though, the collection has been in storage or on display for Madame Kikuchi Tomo alone.

Well, that has all changed, as her fabulous new museum opened in Tokyo on April 20 (2003) and is appropriately named Musée Tomo. The inaugural exhibition is "Japanese Ceramics Today, Part 1" and it gives Japan its first look at the Kikuchi Collection. It's about time a museum opened in Tokyo devoted to modern and contemporary ceramic art, and I don't think anyone could have imagined a better venue than what Madam Kikuchi has created with her distinguished design team.'
These two paragraphs were taken from a Japan Times article I wrote some years back and now the Musee Tomo is showing works from the private collection of Madame Kikuchi Tomo, including many works in the exhibition from decades ago. The exhibition runs until Feb.25th, 2007 and a few photos are shown here; works by Kato Tokuro, Rosanjin, Itaya Hazan, Raku Kichizaemon, Tomimoto, Yagi, and Kamoda among other legends are shown. More about the museum can be read on www.e-yakimono.net and the museum's homepage in Japanese only is http://www.musee-tomo.or.jp/
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Photos by Robert Yellin and may not be used without permission/Copyright Musee Tomo and Robert Yellin