“Étrangers” Opens October 24 at the Artizon Museum; More Than 100 Works Made in Europe by Kuroda Seiki, Tsuguharu Foujita and Others

“Étrangers: Japanese Western-Style Painters’ Experiences in Europe” opened at the Artizon Museum (Chuo-ku, Tokyo) on Saturday, October 24, 2026, and runs until Sunday, January 31, 2027. From the Ishibashi Foundation Collection, it presents more than 100 works made in Europe by Japanese artists who traveled there after the Meiji Restoration. Works by Kuroda Seiki, Fujishima Takeji, Sotaro Yasui, Tsuguharu Foujita and others are on display, and a single ticket also covers the concurrent exhibition by Hikaru Fujii.

What did the “étrangers” learn in Europe?

After the Meiji Restoration, many Japanese traveled to Europe to study Western culture. Artists, too, encountered classical painting and the latest art movements there and absorbed them eagerly. The works produced during their stays in Europe are diverse: figure paintings using models, nude drawings at private art academies, copies of masterpieces in museums and landscapes painted at sketching sites.

The museum explains that works made in Europe not only show what the artists saw and learned from, but also offer clues to how they built their own forms of expression through their experiences in Europe and what stimulus they brought to the Japanese art world. A press release dated September 24, 2026 calls them “étrangers” (foreigners) and says they created diverse works through their experiences abroad.

Six chapters: what works can be seen?

According to the list of works, the exhibition consists of the following six chapters.

• Chapter 1, “Figure Paintings”: Kuroda Seiki’s “Needlework” (1890) and “Girl of Bréhat” (1891), Fujishima Takeji’s “Black Fan” (1908–09), an Important Cultural Property, Shintaro Yamashita’s “Reading” (1908), Hanjiro Sakamoto’s “Woman Holding a Hat” (1923) and others

• Chapter 2, “Nudes”: Hyakutake Kaneyuki’s “Reclining Nude” (c. 1881), Sotaro Yasui’s “Bathing Nudes” (1914, 128.0 × 193.0 cm) and others

• Chapter 3, “Copies”: Eisaku Wada’s copy of Corot’s “Souvenir of Castel Gandolfo” (1903), Rikizo Takata’s copy of Ingres’s “The Source” (1938) and others

• Chapter 4, “Paris, Capital of the Arts”: Shintaro Yamashita’s “Bastille Day” (1906), Tsuguharu Foujita’s “Paris Landscape” (1918), Yuzo Saeki’s “Advertisements on the Terrace” (1927), Takanori Oguiss’s “The Corner Tavern” (1940) and others

• Chapter 5, “Sketching Trips: France”: Asai Chu’s “Washing Place at Grez” (1901), Inosuke Hazama’s newly acquired “Seaside Promenade, Nice” (1935) and others

• Chapter 6, “Longing for Antiquity: Italy, Greece and Elsewhere”: Asai Chu’s “Venice” (1902), Hiromitsu Nakazawa’s “Rome” (1922), Zenzaburo Kojima’s “Landscape of Toledo” (c. 1928), Yajuro Takashima’s newly acquired “Foggy Day” (1930–33), Rikizo Takata’s “Acropolis Remembered” (1939) and others

In 1908–09, the same years as “Black Fan,” Fujishima Takeji also painted “Ciociara” and “Roman Ruins,” which are also on display. Among landscapes of various parts of France, the official website lists Kunishiro Mitsutani’s “Landscape of Brittany” (c. 1913), Usaburo Ihara’s “Landscape of Arles” (1925) and Shizue Hayashi’s “Sainte-Victoire” (c. 1925–29). Works by Harada Naojiro, Tokusaburo Masamune and Takashi Shimizu, including Shimizu’s plaster “Mademoiselle Léa” (1926), are also exhibited. In part of the galleries, works from the museum’s collection are also on view, including Renoir’s “Mademoiselle Georgette Charpentier Seated” (1876) and Monet’s “Water-Lily Pond” (1907), along with works by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky and others. Kandinsky’s career can be traced through works in Japanese collections in “Kandinsky: The World Resounds,” which opens at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum on November 7.

Tickets, prices and reservations; free for students

The Artizon Museum uses a timed-entry reservation system. For adults, web reservation tickets cost 1,200 yen and tickets sold at the window cost 1,500 yen. University, vocational school and high school students are admitted free but must reserve online and show a student ID upon entry. Junior high school students and younger, and holders of a disability certificate with one companion, are admitted free without a reservation.

Web reservation tickets are limited for each entry time slot and are sold until 10 minutes before the end of each slot. Tickets can also be bought at the window if a slot has space, but the museum recommends buying web reservation tickets before visiting. One ticket gives access to all concurrent exhibitions.

Opening hours are 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 every Friday; last entry 30 minutes before closing). The museum is closed on Mondays (open on November 23 and January 11), November 24, December 28 – January 4 and January 12. It is located at 1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, a 5-minute walk from JR Tokyo Station (Yaesu Central Exit), Kyobashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line (Exits 6 and 7) and Nihombashi Station (Exit B1).

The concurrent Hikaru Fujii exhibition and Saturday lectures

In the 6th-floor gallery, “Jam Session: Ishibashi Foundation Collection × Hikaru Fujii WHOSE LIGHT?” runs for the same period. Taking the “Allegory of the Cave” in Plato’s “Republic” as a starting point, the exhibition asks who is shining the light. It is introduced in detail in our article on Hikaru Fujii’s “WHOSE LIGHT?” exhibition.

As related programs, two Saturday lectures will be held: “Étrangers: Japanese Western-Style Painters’ Experiences in Europe (tentative title)” by Natsuko Tadokoro on Saturday, October 31, and “Traveling Painters (tentative title)” by Eriko Ito on Saturday, November 21. Both run from 14:00 to 15:30 (doors open at 13:30) in the 3rd-floor Lecture Room, and applications for the November 21 lecture open at 11:00 on October 20, 2026.

Editor’s perspective

The exhibition builds its chapters around the very ways in which the painters learned in Europe. The chapters on figure paintings, nudes and copies correspond to learning from models, at private academies and in museums, while the chapters on Paris, sketching sites in France, and Italy and Greece show what they set out to see. Giving copies a chapter of their own offers a concrete way to trace how the painters looked at the great paintings at their source.

Asai Chu was also one of those who studied under the Italian landscape painter Antonio Fontanesi at the Technical Fine Arts School. The Fontanesi exhibition at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo includes works such as “Mausoleum of the Tokugawa Family I (Temple Entrance I)” (c. 1878), which Asai painted under his teacher. At these two museums on either side of Tokyo Station, you can compare the same painter’s works from his years of training and from his time in Europe. Other exhibitions this autumn and winter are compiled in our guide to autumn and winter exhibitions in Tokyo.

Overview

Name: Étrangers: Japanese Western-Style Painters’ Experiences in Europe
Dates: Saturday, October 24, 2026 – Sunday, January 31, 2027
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 every Friday; last entry 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (open on November 23 and January 11), November 24, December 28 – January 4, January 12
Venue: Artizon Museum, 5th- and 4th-floor galleries
Address: 1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Admission: Adults: web reservation ticket 1,200 yen, window ticket 1,500 yen. Free for university, vocational school and high school students (web reservation required). Free for junior high school students and younger, and for holders of a disability certificate and one companion (no reservation required)
Organizer: Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
Official website: https://www.artizon.museum/exhibition/detail/610
*Information as of October 19, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Kuroda Seiki, “Girl of Bréhat,” 1891, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on a press release from the Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation (September 24, 2026) and information on its official website.

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team