Return to
What's New

Recent Development News
(May 2006)

Pacific Asia Museum Membership

This page includes:
• Member Opening Reception
• Associates Update
• Collection Spotlight
• Save the Date!

Models in Tadashi gowns with Acting Consul General Masahiro Kohara

Member Opening Reception
The opening reception for our new exhibition Reflections of Beauty: Women from Japan’s Floating World was held on Thursday March 9, 2006. More than 300 members and guests enjoyed the delicious food provided by Japon Bistro and tasted sake which was generously supplied by Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co. The event was sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles.

Acting Consul General Masahiro Kohara was on hand to give a few words of welcome and Ken Brown, curator of the new exhibition, introduced the show. The evening was made even more memorable by the presentation of three models wearing the kimono-inspired gowns created by world renowned designer, Tadashi. The models acted as “walking art” as they moved through the exhibition and interacted with the crowd, representing real life reflections of beauty.

Associates Update
The museum Associates are proud to welcome the newest members Susan and Robert Bishop, Virginia Cobey, Margaret Jagels, Bob Ray and Kathleen Offenhauser, Sid and Betsey Tyler, and Tana Wong. We are equally pleased to announce the charter members of a new group of enthusiastic under-40 supporters of the museum, the Junior Associates. Cecil Ho and Sian Leong have joined the Associates Board to bring a fresh, young perspective to our events and activities. The Junior Associates will also be hosting their own programs at the museum and other exciting venues in Southern California.

On April 15, thirty Associates visited the exquisitely renewed Getty Villa and were treated to a private tour. Guests viewed the remarkable collection, strolled through the gardens, and admired the beautiful architecture and surroundings. Sincere thanks go to the Getty for arranging the visit.

The next Associates event will feature a stimulating presentation by Dr. Kendall H. Brown, curator of the museum’s current exhibition Reflections of Beauty, about the enduring fascination with the image of geisha in both Japan and the West. Associates and Junior Associates will receive a special invitation to this exclusive event. For more information about the Associates, Junior Associates, and our programs, please call Michelle Horn Davis, Membership Manager, at ext. 37.

Our rich and diverse holdings include a 20th-century Syrian bedouin’s cloak, a blue and white 16th-century porcelain bowl from the Chinese Ming dynasty, and a 19th-century carved wood canoe prow from the Asmat peoples of New Guinea.

Collection Spotlight
One of the most charming Japanese paintings in the museum’s collection is an ukiyo-e painting entitled Courtesan and Boy Dancing at New Year, formerly in the renowned Ralph Harari Collection. The image is currently on view in the museum’s exhibition Reflections of Beauty: Women of Japan’s Floating World. It depicts a slim young courtesan swaying gracefully with a fan in one hand. At her side is a young boy who also dances with a fan. Both figures are painted with extremely fine yet confident brushwork, and the details of their clothing are painstakingly rendered. The artist, Shishin (fl. 1760-70), is not very well known, but his few paintings of beautiful women echo the sweetness and delicacy of his more famous contemporary Suzuki Harunobu (1724-70).

Courtesan and Boy Dancing at New Year Shishin (fl. 1760-70)

This delightful image is all the more interesting for the information its many details provide for us. In the background is a dwarf pine (kadomatsu), which suggests that the occasion for the dance is a New Year’s Day celebration. Beside the pine is a bamboo plant. Typically, these two plants are grouped with a third, the plum, to form the “Three Friends of Winter” (shochikubai). At first glance it appears that the plum is missing, until we search the painting carefully and spot a sprig of plum blossom depicted on the woman’s fan. Upon further investigation we notice a horse portrayed on the boy’s fan, which tells us that the specific year being celebrated is the Year of the Horse. This information actually helps us to date the work itself, since it would have been painted as a New Year’s image. The only occurrence of the Year of the Horse during the period when the artist Shishin flourished was 1762.

Such visual games in which reality and play are blended together with great artistry are an important element of ukiyo-e paintings.

Meher McArthur
Curator of East Asian Art

Pacific Asia Museum Membership

Recent Development News (March 2006)
(January 2006)
(November 2005)
(September 2005)
(July 2005)
(May 2005)
(March 2005)
(January 2005)

Return to What's New page