2017 Tokyo Art & Antiques event review

The 2017 Tokyo Art & Antiques Festival was held for 2 days in Nihonbashi and Kyobashi area where the cherry blossoms still bloomed in a great spring weather. 

This year, the participating galleries reached 86 galleries, which is 7 more than last year, and 56 galleries held exhibitions to welcome visitors. The number of visitors varied from gallery to gallery, but there were around 250 visitors a day at the most in some of the galleries (based on participating store questionnaire results). According to the visitor surveys, quite a few people were first time visitors. 

Since the festival was held for 2days, which is one day shorter than usual, the programs were fully colorful with many visitors.

For the first day, there were three talk events. A gallery talk by Mr. Shoichiro Watanabe at Maruzen, Nihonbashi, 3rd Floor Gallery, Mr. Tadashi Kawashima at MAYUYAMA & CO.,LTD, and Mr. Teruhisa Kitahara at Kyobashi Edogran.

Maruzen, Nihonbashi, 3rd Floor Gallery, Gallery Talk by Shoichiro Watanabe of S. WATANABE COLOR PRINT Co.

Gallery Talk by Tadashi Kawashima “Chinese Arts of Pre-era”

Kyobashi Edogran Special Talk Event view

On the second say, Mr.Ryunosuke Nagai and Mr.Yoshiki Ato at Kyobashi Edogran, talked about collecting art and how art works were priced.

Kyobashi Edogran Special Talk Event answering questions from audience.

All of the talk events were focused on how to deepen your understanding and enjoyment for art.

Another program we had put our effort on is the charity auction. This is our 2nd challenge and 11 galleries have participated. The galleries exhibited art works that could be bided with fun especially for beginners. The purpose of this auction is of course to make donation to charity organizations, but moreover, to be able to know each other, learn more about art, and be able to do something together for the society by enjoying.

56 galleries held exhibitions and every year, they have been putting more effort into making unique exhibition. For instance, there were a few exhibition of ko-sometsuke (old blue painted ceramics) and ko-Imari wares (old imari ware). Although some of them are expensive, many of them could be reasonable priced and have unique paintings, as they are a only-one item, not a mass production. It seems that traditional items of Japan are being looked over by young people and becoming popular these days.

This is an exhibition of 77 collections of 7 *sun dishes, which were collected for many years. *sun is a traditional unit of size used in japan. 7 sun is about 21 cm.

This is another exhibition of 50 dishes of 5 sun dishes. A selected pieces of unique diagram and design. *5 sun is about 15 cm.

Moreover, there were many exhibition held with the theme of animals. 

"Love Animals" exhibited young artists contemporary art works based on animals.

Event List of 2017 (will be on website until around January 2018) 

We and other participating galleries continue to make efforts so that more and more people can enjoy our event. We are looking forward to meeting you at our next Tokyo Art & Antiques.