Jewelry: Whose Dreams?

Before you go

An exhibition asking what jewelry truly suits you: not swayed by others' gazes or age, not expensive brands, but pieces expressing how you feel now and enriching your life. It introduces artists exploring that wish, re-examining jewelry as artistic expression from a postwar Japanese perspective.

• Some 350 works: the Hiko Mizuno Jewelry College collection shown at large scale, masterpieces from Germany after ~50 years, contemporary artists
• A historical thread from the 1964 JJDA founding to the 'International Jewellery Art Exhibition' (1970–1986)
• Exhibition design by architect Ryuji Nakamura
• The same ticket covers the 4th-floor collection gallery
• Related events: opening-day lecture (24 Oct), 7 Nov related talk, 'Finding jewelry in the town' (1 Nov), Family Day (19 Dec)

Getting there

Tozai Line, Higashiyama Station. Address: 26-1 Okazaki Enshoji-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8344 (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto).

Booking

General ¥2,000 (¥1,800), university ¥1,300 (¥1,100), high school ¥600 (¥400); figures in parentheses are advance and Friday-after-18:00 evening discounts. Wear your own jewelry to the ticket counter for the 'Jewelry Discount' — ¥100 off day tickets (counter purchase only, ticket holder only); the M4 mutual discount (with eligible exhibitions at Kyoto National Museum, The Museum of Kyoto, KYOCERA Museum) also gives ¥100 off. Free for junior high and under, disability-certificate holders plus one attendant, and single-parent households. No reservation system.

Crowds

No reservation needed. Weekends and the final weeks are usually busiest; the Friday evening discount after 18:00 is an option. 19 December is Family Day, popular with families with small children.

Good for

Anyone interested in contemporary jewelry, craft and design; jewelry makers and students (several student-oriented events); free for junior high and under, good with children.

How it differs

Unlike exhibitions centered on painting and sculpture, the protagonist here is something worn on the body — the possibility of expression 'invading' what we wear; unlike commercial jewelry fairs, its lens is postwar Japan's contemporary-jewelry history.

When jewelry was uncommon in Japan, the Japan Jewellery Designers Association (JJDA) was founded in 1964 around Yasuki Hiramatsu (1926–2012) and Yasuhiko Hishida (1927–1981); its 'International Jewellery Art Exhibition' (Seibu Shibuya, 1970–1986) introduced European and American developments and spread the concept of design beyond material value. From the late 1970s, conceptual jewelry in dialogue with contemporary art reached Japan — 'contemporary jewelry'. The show comprises some 350 works: a large-scale showing of the Hiko Mizuno Jewelry College collection, masterpieces returning from Germany after about 50 years, and contemporary artists. It then travels to the Iwami Art Museum, Shimane (20 March–14 June 2027) and the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art (3 July–29 August 2027).