Hosomi Museum (細見美術館)
Hosomi Museum is a private art museum mainly devoted to Japanese antiquities, located in Okazaki, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City.
Hosomi Museum was established to exhibit collections of Oriental antiquities collected by the wealthy businessman, Ryoichi HOSOMI (1901-1978: also known by the name of Ryo HOSOMI and the pseudonym Kokoan), who amassed his fortune through the trade of woollen textiles, and his eldest son, Minoru HOSOMI (1922-2006). In 1994, the Hosomi Art Foundation was established, and the museum was opened in 1998.
The Hosomi collection includes almost all areas of Japanese art: paintings by Rinpa (a school of Japanese painting originated by KORIN Ogata early in Edo Period), Jakuchu ITO and other painters of the Edo Period; Buddhist paintings, Buddha images and {Buddhist altar fittings} from the Heian Period; artifacts unearthed from ancient tumuli; and it also includes around two dozen Important Cultural Properties, plus many items certified as important art works. It is said that Ryoichi HOSOMI claimed that 'Buddhist paintings of Fujiwara Period Japan are the greatest in the world,' and 'Because I learned about metal crafts before collecting works of art, I can tell superior from things of inferior design,' and certainly those Buddhist paintings, and metal works, such as {Buddhist altar fittings} and Dokyo (bronze mirrors), within his collection are outstanding.
The museum is located next to Okazaki-koen Park, and the area boasts many cultural facilities, such as Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. The building, designed by Tadasu OE, is in a modern style of architecture using a motif of the traditional Kyoto machiya, and its internal atmosphere is very comfortable with a courtyard surrounded by buildings with two stories below and three above ground, a coffee shop, a restaurant, a tearoom, and a rooftop garden.
The Koraimon gate of Zeze-jo Castle, which is owned by the foundation, has been moved and reconstructed at Matsunohama, Izumiotsu City, Osaka Prefecture.
Important Cultural Properties
Paintings:
Aizen-Myoo, color on silk
Sanno Reikenki, color painting on paper(Sanno: Mt. Hiei)
Picture Scroll Biography of Kumarajiva, color painting on paper (Kumarajiva: an Indian scholar-monk)
Cherry-Blossom Viewing at Yoshino: a six-panel screen; ink, color, and gold on paper
Sculptures:
Wooden Image of the Sacred Kannon (formerly owned by Denko-ji Temple in Nara)
Wooden Image of Standing Bodhisattva
Craftworks:
Gilt Bronze True Figure of the Sacred Deer of Kasuga
Mirror with Inscribed Twelve Saints (線刻十二尊鏡像) (Octagonal Bronze Mirror with Design of Auspicious Flowersand Felicitious Birds)
Gilt Bronze Thousand Images of Amida Buddha, a hanging plate (金銅千躰阿弥陀懸仏)
Gilt Bronze Fretwork of Two Long Tailed Birds and Arabesque, a hanging plate
Gilt Bronze Lotus Kei (Buddhist ritual gong)
Votive Plaque of Avatars of the Twelve Shrines at Kumano
Gilt-bronze Five-pronged Vajra Bell
Gilt-bronze Five-pronged Vajra Bell (four symbols of Buddha in Mandala)
Gilt-bronze Bell with Sacred Gem: Gilt-bronze Single-pronged Vajra Bell : Gilt-bronze Three-pronged Vajra Bell
Hand Mirror with a Pine Tree, Two Peacocks, and Reeds (松竹双雀葦手鏡)
Buddhist Ritual Gong with Flowers and Peacock Relief
Mirror with a Pine Tree, Wisteria Flowers, and Two Cranes
Mirror with a Pattern of Paulownia, Bamboos, and Phoenix (桐竹鳳凰鏡)
Kokuzo Bosatsu (Bodhisattva), wood plate painting (an image for esoteric prayers for memory power (求聞持根本像))
Ashiya Rounded Iron Tea Pot with Maple Leaves, Deer, and a dotted pattern.
Dainichi Nyorai Buddha Hanging Scroll of Embroidery
Ancient writings:
Letter in Kana by Priest Myoe (for Iue (井上尼) Nun)
Archaeological materials:
Clay Pot (unearthed at Joto, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture; Yayoi Period)
Clay Pot (unearthed at an unknown location; Yayoi Period)
Gilt Bronze Sword with Head Ornaments (Tumulus Period)
Forty mirrors of Dokyo (Bronze Mirror) unearthed at Mitarashinoike, Haguroyama