Resources

After 150 year of civil war, the Shogunate in Japan was determined to enforce and maintain a stable society. The Shogunate further extended its control of the people through a class system with social and economic constraints. The highest class was composed of the samurai, followed by farmers, craftsmen, and at the lowest level, merchants.

Farmers working and resting, 1955, by Fernando Amorsolo (Filipino, 1892 – 1972), Oil on canvas, Gift of Alexander and Cornelia Calhoun, 2005.99. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Fan-shaped box with the Eight Views of Omi (Lake Biwa), Meiji period (1868-1912)-Taisho period (1912-1926). Japan. Lacquered wood with makie (sprinkled metallic powder) decoration; silver. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60M255. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

A video tour of the Asian Art Museum’s collection galleries highlighting ceramics, jades, bronzes, paintings, and Buddhist arts representing some six thousand years of Chinese culture and tradition.

*Filmed in former museum location (prior to 2003) in Golden Gate Park. Presented by Brian Hogarth.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger! MATCHA kicks off the Lunar New Year and special exhibition Shanghai with dynamic tiger-style kung fu (martial art) demonstrated by Shaolin Temple USA monks.

Where is the line between history and mythology? In Extracted, artist Ranu Mukherjee eclipses the boundaries between the two, placing them in the same universe. Commissioned for the Asian Art Museum’s 50th anniversary, this exhibition drew inspiration from California’s Gold Rush, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the ancient text The Classic of Mountain and Seas, and the museum’s own collection.

Students explore the unique geogrraphical features through visual analysis of works of art. Then, they infer how these characteristics affected Japan’s culture and relationships with the mainland.