大阪市の中心部にある藤田美術館は、国宝9件、重要文化財53件を含む世界屈指の日本・東洋美術のコレクションを所蔵する美術館です。明治期に活躍した実業家・藤田傳三郎（1841～1912）とその息子平太郎、徳次郎兄弟の二代3人によって収集された美術工芸品を公開するため、昭和29年（1954）に開館しました。約2千点におよぶコレクションは、茶道具、水墨画、墨蹟、能装束、絵巻、仏像、仏画、経典、仏教工芸、考古資料など多岐にわたり、その中には奈良にゆかりのある仏教美術が数多く含まれています。このたびの展覧会は、2022年春に予定されるリニューアルオープンの準備に向けて現在休館している藤田美術館の名品を奈良国立博物館新館の全展示室を使用して紹介するかつてない規模の展示となります。世界に三碗しか存在しないと言われる国宝「曜変天目茶碗」をはじめ「玄奘三蔵絵」「両部大経感得図」「仏功徳蒔絵経箱」などの仏教美術を中心に、館外初公開を含む多彩なコレクションを紹介します。 膨大な私財を投じて、近代以降散逸の危機にあった文化財を収集し、国宝の殿堂と呼ぶにふさわしいコレクションを築いた藤田傳三郎らの功績にも光を当てていきます。

The Fujita Museum, located in the heart of Osaka, is an art museum with one of the world’s most distinguished collections of Japanese and other Asian art, including 9 works designated National Treasures and 53 Important Cultural Properties. The museum was opened in 1954 (Shōwa 29) to make available to the public works of the fine and applied arts collected over two generations beginning with Meiji-era entrepreneur Fujita Denzaburō (1841-1912), and followed by his sons Heitarō and Tokujirō. The collection, which contains roughly 2,000 works, spans various genres such as tea-ceremony utensils, ink paintings, calligraphy, Noh costumes, picture scrolls, Buddhist icons, scriptures and ritual implements and archaeological artifacts. Included among these are many works of Buddhist art that have a close association with Nara. The exhibition on this occasion is unprecedented in scope with all galleries in the new wings of the Nara National Museum being employed to display the masterpieces of the Fujita Museum collection while the presently shuttered museum prepares for re-opening scheduled for spring 2022.Being introduced at this time is one of only three extant National Treasure Yōhen-Tenmoku Tea Bowls, a number of chiefly Buddhist works such as the “Illustrated Life of Tripitaka Master Xuanzang” (Genjō Sanzō’e), “Divinely Inspired Reception of the Two Great Sutras” (Ryōbu Daikyō kantoku zu), and the “Sutra Box with Design of Buddhist Virtues in Makie Lacquer” (Butsu kudoku maki’e kyōbako), as well as a variety of items that have never been displayed outside the museum. We are highlighting the achievements of Fujita Denzaburō and his offspring, who by investing their extensive private fortune in collecting precious cultural assets that were in danger of being lost and dispersed during the crisis at the start of the modern period, built a collection that truly deserves to be called a “Palace of National Treasures”.