Today I wanted to do something relatively easy, so I whipped out the stack of flyers I've been collected throughout the city and set out to find something to do today. After a bit, I found a flyer for the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum's Newly Restored Masterpieces special exhibition which has this description
On the occasion of the Osaka/Kansai Expo 2025, this exhibition brings together 3 national treasure, 16 important cultural properties (eight of them on show for the first time since restoration), and 20-odd pieces that were previously shown at an expo at the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as artworks that will surely become national treasures in the future [...]
This is a bit funny since just yesterday I was talking about how I should start documenting Important Cultural Properties that I've personally seen, because I had felt like it was a lot. Well I decided to put together a page to document that but it became really tedious really fast since the names the items are called by individual museums don't usually seem to match what they are called in the national database. I had only included ones I've seen recently (including today!) and then started on ones I had seen in the past but gave up because it was super tedious to remember if I'd seen a specific urn without a picture (for example). So now I'm adding another arbitraty rule that I have to remember seeing something specifically to add it to the list (I make the rules here!). Anyway if you're interested, you can see the list here. TBH, I don't know if I'll commit to updating it in the future when I go to more museums but we'll see.
Getting to the museum was actually an easy and pleasant experience for me since it's right on the Chiyoda Line and even better one of the station exits is directly into the museum's building. Although I was tricked at first into thinking it wasn't because the interior of the building almost looks like an outdoor area
Not sure why this is the only angle I decided to photograph
Fortunately, photos were allowed in this museum but unfortunately, I only took a couple and they also have insane angles/cropping/etc. like the one below
Geisha by Watanabe Kazan
Out of all of the works on display, I think I liked Geisha, one other piece called Swimming Fish by Watanabe Kazan, and The Court Lady Feng Zhaoyi Confronting an Escaped Bear by Kikuchi Yōsai the most.
 |  Above: The Court Lady Feng Zhaoyi Confronting an Escaped Bear by Kikuchi Yōsai. Originally from the museum's website
Left: Geisha by Watanabe Kazan. Originally from the museum's Twitter |
There was also a national treasure on display: Tea Bowl with Black Glaze, Yōhen Tenmoku Type, Known as “Inaba Tenmoku”. It was pretty small but the design looked cool and it's always surprising to me when objects like this last for nearly 1000 years and still look vibrant. Apparently there are only three bowls of this kind left in the world and they are all designated as Japanese National Treasures.
I left and wandered the area for a bit and then took a bit of an aimless stroll. While passing through the Tokyo International Forum, I looked into the exhibition area and saw that some some of flower arrangement event going on. After a quick check, it turned out that it was a free event so I went in to check it out
It turned out that this was the "Autumn Sun Flowers" Ikenobo Tokyo Bamboo Branch 100th Anniversary and Youth Division 30th Anniversary Flower Exhibition.
I'm not knowledgeable about flowers or flower language at all (spider lilies mean death is my limit), but I do like looking at pretty things so I felt it would be worthwhile to pop in. Actually a tangent before looking at the flowers. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement and throughout the centuries there have been changes to what style of arrangement has been popular, whether the arrangement should look more natural, etc. I had never considered before now but there are various "schools" that act both as an institution but also that have distinct philosophies on Ikebana. The oldest and largest school is the Ikenobō school, and their Tokyo Bamboo Branch was putting on the exhibit. Interestingly, it seems this school has over 400 domestic branches and over 100 internationally. What a behemoth!! If you're interested, look up a group near you and join the juggernaut!!
Anyway, while I had expected to see 'pretty' or 'serene' arrangements, there were also some that might potentially be described as 'cool' or 'intense' as well. Below are a few of my favorites
The last one was especially interesting to me because I had no idea you could use such blatantly non-natural stuff in Ikebana. Acctually, in the first place, I had assumed it was only about flowers so I dind't really expect the non-flowering plants, sticks, or just plain logs either. I mean it makes sense though, like even though momiji leaves aren't flowers they are pleasant to look at, especially in the fall. I guess if I even thought about it for an instant before hand, I would have realized that things other than the actual flowers are allowed since otherwise they'd all need to have standardized vases or something, right? I digress.
After such a culture-filled day, I headed to Royal Host for a light dinner (and heavy dessert!) and then walked around Akihabara a bit before finally heading home.