Stockholm - Östasiatiska Museet

We only just made it to the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities before the rain hit. Lucky! Time to explore some more!

Once again, the base of the collections of this museum come from a Swedish archeological excavation. These objects were discovered during a 1920s excavation headed up by expert Johan Gunnar, who was granted permission to bring them back to Sweden. The exhibition shows a larger number of objects from Neolithic China than anyone else outside of China.

I really liked this time line of different Chinese dynasties that we could follow on the floor, I took so many notes (well, photos)!

We got to experience the Chinese history through 3,500 years of arts and crafts. Tomb figurines from the early imperial dynasties of China for example.

Under the Song dynasty, glazes became an art in themselves.

Examples of porcelain mingling West and Central Asian design with native Chinese shapes and patterns.

During the Ming period (1368-1644) the Europeans discovered the sea route to China and India, opening up a whole new market for Chinese products. Underglazed blue Ming pottery achieved the very peak of its excellence.

Glass was also produced at an early stage of Chinese history. Glass blowing was developed in the 5th century. The Chinese always appreciated the translucence of glass.

Fish-tub in porcelain with turquoise glaze, Ming dynasty, 17th century.

This exhibition also explored the relationship between Sweden and China throughout history.
The Swedish East India Company was founded in 1731 and turned out to be a supremely lucrative venture. Foreign interests invested a great deal of capital in Sweden's China trade. Sweden exported iron, timber and tar with were exchanged for silver in the Spanish port of Cadiz; the silver then served as legal tender in the Orient trade.
The imported goods from the China trade helped to create a "Chinese" style which became extremely fashionable and popular in Sweden.

Dish in porcelain with decor in gold and sepia of the national coat of arms of Sweden and Stockholm scenes. Qing dynasty, ca 1730.

The Gripsholm Service is one of the most magnificent every imported to Sweden, a fine example of the many new shapes and articles ordered from China in accordance with European stylistic ideals.

Below some objects from early Swedish collections of Chinese items. Mass imports during the Company period had given Sweden a surplus of chinoiseries, so interest only revived at the end of the 19th century. At that time antique porcelain was more sought after as it was rare.
The photo show Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf) who was one of Sweden's early collectors.

The document collection:

We continued to the Japan part:

We had a good look in their current temporary exhibition Juxtaposting Craft. It explored handmade and contemporary objects from the Nordic countries and Japan, all placed side by side.
Here Hakozen boxes, each with their unique features and scents.

I liked this sign - rather unusal for a museum!

Mirage, 2022 by Yonezawa Jiro in dialogue with Anna Senno.

The Tower, 2022 by Masaru Kawai, Anna Senno. You were allowed to touch this too, this impermanent sculpture. It was described as a tactile symbol in dialogue with the endless variables of memory. Imagined to function as a connection between life and death, as it is an interpretation of a gorinto. A gorinto is a Buddhist symbol, uniquely Japanese, often found in memorial and funeral sites. It expresses the idea that after death the physical body will return to its elemental and original form.

In this project Water Rituals, the collaborative design project 1+1+1 (comprising of artists from Iceland, Finland and Sweden) has invited and worked together with the Japanese designer Aoi Yoshizawa to examine the cultural heritage and the artefacts of their respective countries' rituals relating to water. For example you find bathing rituals all over the world, with striking similarities despite local variations due to geographic and climatic conditions.