The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

Picking out some special treats from its plentiful MOMAT collection to celebrate the onset of spring, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo displays sakura-themed art from March 13 to April 12. You’ll get to see Kawai Gyokudo’s folding-screen masterpiece Parting Spring and classics such as Kikuchi Hobun’s Fine Rain on Mt Yoshino at this seasonal exhibition. A visit here is best combined with cherry blossom-viewing at the nearby Imperial Palace, the Chidorigafuchi promenade and Kitanomaru Park. Make sure to stop by the museum shop on the first floor to pick up some seasonal trinkets decorated with floral motifs. Special tours in English are also offered for free on March 19, 25-26, April 1-2 and 9, showcasing several spring-themed works. Reservations are not required. The exhibition is closed on Mondays (except March 30).

Kanzan Shimomura (1873–1930) was a pivotal figure in the development of modern Japanese painting. Born into a family of Noh performers who served the Kii Tokugawa samurai family for generations, he inherited a deep sensitivity to classical aesthetics from an early age. He entered the newly established Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (now Tokyo University of the Arts) as part of its inaugural class. Later teaching there himself, Kanzan, as he was known, resigned alongside fellow luminary Tenshin Okakura and helped found the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute), positioning himself at the forefront of efforts to redefine Japanese painting in the modern era. ‘Life, Art and Society’ at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo brings together some 150 of Kanzan’s works, tracing his artistic evolution from his mastery of classical techniques and yamato-e traditions to the broadened perspective he gained during two formative years in Britain. Working closely with contemporaries such as Taikan Yokoyama and Shunso Hishida, Kanzan sought a pictorial language suited to a modernising Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912). The exhibition examines his research into classical Japanese and Chinese painting, his Noh-inspired works, and his connections with political and financial elites. Together, these facets reveal an artist striving to create paintings that would live in dialogue with individuals and society, going beyond mere self-expression.

Hiroshi Sugimoto is one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, whose practice spans photography, architecture and stage production. At the core of his work lies a profound engagement with analogue silver gelatin photography, a medium he has elevated through rigorous conceptual frameworks and extraordinary technical mastery, even as it faces obsolescence in the digital age. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo now offers a major survey that traces the evolution of Sugimoto’s photographic practice from the late 1970s to the present. Featuring approximately 60 silver gelatin prints, the exhibition brings into focus a medium the artist recognises as endangered, while asking broader questions about truth, memory and time. Structured into three chapters, the exhibition spans 13 series, from early works that established Sugimoto’s reputation to later bodies of work that probe abstraction, perception and the limits of representation. Newly unveiled pieces, including additions to the Diorama series, offer fresh insight into themes Sugimoto has pursued for more than half a century. The exhibition’s title refers to a deeper meditation on what is disappearing from contemporary visual culture. As digital images become infinitely mutable, Sugimoto reasserts photography’s original power as a medium of evidence and presence. Through its breadth and philosophical depth, ‘Extinction’ is set to offer a rare opportunity to reflect on photography’s past, and its...