Jewelry: Whose Dreams?

Before you go

When did something worn on the body become art?

The exhibition's title asks, "Jewellery, who does it dream of?" Its question is what jewellery truly suits a person: something that expresses how you feel right now and makes life richer — that, rather than the gaze of others, age, or an expensive brand. The show presents artists exploring that wish, looking at jewellery as artistic expression from the standpoint of post-war Japan.

Japanese jewellery design has a starting point. In 1964, around Hiramatsu Yasukuni and Hishida Yasuhiko, the Japan Jewellery Designers' Association was founded, at a time when jewellery was still uncommon in Japan. The association's International Jewellery Art Exhibition, held at the Seibu department store in Shibuya from 1970 to 1986, introduced European and American trends to Japan — and with them the idea of design: that the value of a piece is not in its material. From the late 1970s, Japanese work began to appear that answered contemporary art on its own terms; this became known as contemporary jewellery, turning jewellery's role as wealth and symbol, and the relationship between wearer and viewer, back on itself.

In 1993, Ito Kazuhiro and the German artist Otto Künzli launched a joint exhibition between schools in Tokyo, Munich and Amsterdam, and that conceptual exchange has continued since. Today Japanese artists carry real weight in art jewellery, and they also use conceptual jewellery as a way of asking again who they are. The show brings together about 350 pieces, including a large-scale showing of the collection of Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, and masterpieces arriving from Germany for the first time in about fifty years. Künzli's 1983 brooch Swiss Gold is made of cardboard and acrylic, and his 1993 pendant Sunrise, Sunset is acrylic too — no gold or silver involved.

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.

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).