Baron Sumitomo Art Collection: The Enjoyment of Japanese-style Beauty

Just like the Mitsui family with their own museum, fellow mega-enterprise Sumitomo owns a gigantic collection of artistic masterpieces, many of which are displayed at the twin Sen-oku Hakuko museums in Kyoto and Tokyo. The majority of these treasures were assembled by Baron Tomoito (Shunsui) Sumitomo (1865-1926), the 15th head of the family and one of the key overseers of Sumitomo's Meiji-era transformation into an industrial zaibatsu conglomerate. Check out the results of his work at the second part of this twin exhibition, centred on how Shunsui came to develop a liking for classical Japanese aesthetics in his later years. The pieces on display range from tea utensils to rare paintings from the Edo, Meiji and Taisho eras, giving visitors a taste of the wabi-sabi ('fleeting beauty') ideal treasured by the baron.