Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art

About this place

The small Ota Memorial Museum of Art features the private Ukiyo-e woodblock print & paintings collection of the late Ota Seizo V. Only around a 100 of the 12000 pieces in the collection are displayed at any given time in exhibitions that change monthly. Ukiyo-e, pictures of the floating world, is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, the theatre and pleasure quarters. Ukiyo-e was born at the beginning of the Tokugawa era as a unique branch of the fine arts of common people and gradually developed. However, during the late years of the Tokugawa and the early years of the Meiji eras, so many masterpieces streamed out to the West that it came to be said that Japanese could no longer see original Ukiyo-e paintings and prints unless they go to Europe or the United States of America. On the death of the owner, the bereaved family decided to carry out the wish of the deceased to exhibit works not yet shown to the public and ultimately to promote Japanese art.