Katarium is a word coined from katari, “speaking, telling a story,” and -arium, a suffix indicating a space. A place for storytelling, a katarium, is the exhibition’s theme.

Listen to the person who conceived a certain work announcing the thoughts put into it, or to a soliloquy of a painter contemplating in the studio. Alternatively, lend an ear to the narratives unfolding in front of the works such as the reactions of the viewers having seen how a work has been completed, and imagine the scene depicted.
There are folding screens considered to have been commissioned by a daimyo in the Edo period, Meiji- and Taisho-era oil paintings and nihonga depicting mythological themes, and a collection of prints by Ben Shahn. Sister segments of “the Deeds of the Zen Masters” by Yin Tuoluo and “Caricatures of Animals”, which once respectively formed a single work as a scroll, will be on view too. Enjoy lively narratives from different periods and genres.

This exhibition is composed of 56 works including 2 National Treasures, 7 Important Cultural Properties, and 5 Important Art Objects.