Zeniya Masami

Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

China and Japan, the two culturally alike countries, share a lot of things in common and their museums share common interests in collecting traditional Chinese cultural heritage, according to Zeniya Masami, the executive director of Tokyo National Museum (TNM).

After a parallel seminar held Thursday to introduce his museum’s experience with rekindling public interest, the director had an interview with the Shenzhen Daily and talked about how the TNM valued Chinese collections in particular.

“The Tokyo National Museum has the largest collection of Chinese cultural heritage in Japan,” said Masami after the seminar.

The director introduced that Japanese have loved collecting Chinese fine arts, cultural pieces and antiques since ancient times and have collections from every historical period. Chinese culture has deeply influenced Japanese culture, in fields such as painting, calligraphy and tea culture.

Since the establishment of the TNM, Japanese collectors have generously donated art pieces related to Chinese culture to the museum and some of the painting and calligraphy entries can’t even be found in China anymore, said the director.

“A lot of treasures that were lost in China can be found in Japan,” said Masami. The director said that the TNM has worked closely with many Chinese museums such as the Palace Museum and Shanghai Museum. As well, it has set up a good number of exhibitions in various museums in China.

Last year, the TNM negotiated with the Terracotta Warriors Museum in Shaanxi to borrow and exhibit some of the terracotta warriors in Tokyo to mark the 40th anniversary of the discovery of this great historical relic.

Editor: Jane Chen