You are invited to enjoy the final weekend of Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork at the Dallas Museum of Art
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Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth
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You are invited to enjoy the final weekend of Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork at the Dallas Museum of Art
Before the 2:00 p.m. lecture, join us for a casual networking reception with a cash bar.
***All tour participants are required to purchase their exhibition ticket AND / OR a separate lecture ticket should they want to attend.
You are invited to enjoy the final weekend of Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork at the Dallas Museum of Art, with a guest lecture and a special limited capacity exhibition tour with the exhibition curator and the DMA’s Curator of Asian Art Jacqueline Chao, and the Director of The Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum: The Samurai Collection, Dallas, Jessica Beasley.
Marvel at the artistry and beauty of Japan’s metalworking tradition across five centuries in Samurai to the Imperial Court: Japanese Metalwork. Through more than 90 works of art drawn from the DMA’s significant holdings and other leading collections, including The Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum: The Samurai Collection, Dallas, the exhibition celebrates the technical mastery, innovative spirit, and aesthetic brilliance of Japanese metal artists. From samurai arms and armor to imperial court commissions, from luminous enameled vessels to sculptures of fantastical animals and figures, Samurai to the Imperial Court showcases a dazzling array of objects shaped by centuries of imagination and craftsmanship.
Joe Earle is the Bonhams Global Senior Consultant for Japanese Art. He has worked in the East Asian art field for the last 50 years. He has held leadership positions in Asian art departments at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was Director of Japan Society Gallery in New York from 2007 to 2012. Joe has organized more than two dozen exhibitions in Britain, Japan, Italy, and the United States and written, translated, or edited books and catalogs on aspects of Japanese culture ranging from contemporary art and design through to samurai sword-fittings, netsuke, bamboo art, flower-arrangement bronzes, lacquer, and the art of the Meiji era.
Chao will provide an overview of the exhibition and elucidate the fine details of the many sculptures of this remarkable exhibition. Beasley will discuss samurai culture and introduce the history of Date Masamune, the “one-eyed dragon” samurai lord of Sendai, Japan, a Sister City of Dallas.
Space is limited to 15 guests, so sign up early
Unable to attend the JASDFW-exclusive event? Experience the exhibition by purchasing general admission tickets.
Tradition Transformed: Arts of the Meiji Era
After the political earthquake of the Meiji Restoration (1867–68), Japanese metalworkers confronted a sudden collapse of samurai and Buddhist patronage, forcing a radical reinvention of liturgical craft and sword‑fitting traditions. At international exhibitions, Japan’s bronze casters quickly astonished Western audiences with works of remarkable technical brilliance, while former sword‑fitting specialists reimagined their alloys and engraving skills to produce pictorial compositions that offered foreign collectors an alluring blend of the familiar and the exotic.
Government officials supported these master craftsmen with design expertise, commercial guidance, and Imperial backing. As a result, within scarcely a quarter century, Japanese metalworkers—together with innovators in cloisonné enameling—had created entirely new artistic styles, firmly rooted in native traditions yet boldly refashioned for global markets. Placing earlier metalwork alongside masterpieces from the “Samurai to the Imperial Court” exhibition, Joe Earle will trace this remarkable process of transformation through the achievements of some of the era’s greatest Japanese artist‑entrepreneurs.
