Kotobuki
Japan Society, New York City, 2025
Curated by: Miyeko Murase, Michele Bambling
Research: Naomi Kuromiya
Exhibition logistics: Stefani Oh
Gallery Interns: Yeeun Joo, Grace Kim, Stephanie Wang
Lighting Design: Takaaki Ando, Ayako Moriyama
Fabrication: Miles Huston, Sebastijan Jemec McKeever Donovan, Davide Balula
Installation & art handling: WittsART
Vinyl installation: DaSign Guy
Photo credits:
Exhibition: Andrew Romer
Opening Reception: Zhen Qin
Curtesy: Japan Society
Kotobuki: Auspicious Celebrations of Japanese Art from New York Private Collections explores the theme of kotobuki—“celebration” or “long life”—through an exceptional selection of paintings, calligraphy, surimono prints, textiles, ceramics, and baskets spanning from the 12th to the 21st century. Curated by Dr. Miyeko Murase, Takeo and Itsuko Atsumi Professor Emerita of Japanese Art History at Columbia University, and Michele Bambling, the exhibition offers a rare glimpse into significant yet seldom-seen works from private collections in the New York City area.
The exhibition design unfolds as a journey through a sequence of distinct spatial environments. Visitors move through a landscape of private collections—assemblies of heterogeneous objects varying in material, scale, and content—brought together under the unifying theme of auspicious celebration.
The design takes inspiration from traditional Japanese bridges, whose forms often include recesses, unexpected turns, and an intrinsic dialogue with their surroundings. Similarly, the exhibition is structured around an elevated path that weaves through the galleries, threading its way among the works—some monumental, such as folding screens—while creating a choreography of movement and pause. This irregular progression evokes the meandering bends of a river, where the flow slows and stills, encouraging moments of quiet reflection.
The form of the exhibition is dictated by its content. Each object is housed in its own alcove—a carefully composed niche that invites the viewer to pause and engage. Protection of the artworks is a central concern: the raised pathway creates a subtle but deliberate physical separation between visitors and the displayed pieces. This distancing is further emphasized by architectural elements that double as interpretive tools—text panels and graphic supports conceived as folded planes, like origami, emerging from the floor itself. These structures simultaneously offer protection and convey contextual information.
Material and chromatic continuity play a key role in the experience. Given the high level of customization required to accommodate such diverse objects, the installation is unified through a disciplined palette: a single material—raw MDF—and a limited color scheme of beige and dark gray. The result is a kind of architectural palimpsest—a continuous surface that winds through the galleries of the Japan Society, offering both cohesion and calm, while allowing the artworks to emerge in quiet dialogue with their surroundings.
