This year Florence celebrates Japanese art and culture in the Pitti Palace, the Florentine palace that, as far back as 1585, welcomed the first Japanese ambassadors to reach Italy.
The sumptuous rooms and the most prestigious premises of the Palace, now divided into three museums, are involved in this magnificent event devoted to the arts and the culture of the archipelago of the Far East, suggestively entitled Japan. Land of enchantments.
On the ground floor of the Pitti Palace, the former summer quarters of the Grand Dukes, now the Museo degli Argenti, hosts the exhibition Of Line and of Colour. Japan, its arts and the encounter with the West; running at the Gallery of Modern Art is the exhibition Japonism. Evocations of the Far East from the Macchiaioli to the Thirties.

The Sala Bianca, in the Palatine Gallery on the first floor of the palace, hosts the exhibition The elegance of memory. The decorative arts in modern Japan, displaying works by the most famous Japanese artists of the twentieth century, especially from the second half of the century
Almost all the artists represented in the exhibition have been designated as “Living National Treasures”, a recognition assigned by the government from 1950 on to preserve artistic techniques and skills in danger of being lost through special forms of protection and support. This certification practice illustrates the importance that the Japanese assign to the preservation of their origins and artistic traditions.
Indeed, the works on display – mostly artefacts that are innovative in concept and design – demonstrate close links with the classical artistic tradition of Japan, in terms of both technique and the use of certain materials.
They are evidence of the conscious memory of a glorious artistic past that is not to be forgotten.
We can admire fabrics, kimonos, containers covered in superb Japanese lacquer, ceramics of the most sublime technical and formal perfection, metals showcasing the most superlative and elegant patinas, strikingly emphatic woven bamboo. Once again it is a phrase borrowed from Cristina Acidini that eloquently succeeds in encapsulating the aesthetic and cultural value of these works: “even at a time of rampant globalisation such as the present, a lavishing of loving care and a dense layering of masterful expertise render the arts and crafts phenomenon of modern-day Japan truly unique.”

Displayed alongside the 20th century works is a small but significant collection of ancient works, designed to facilitate the public’s appreciation of the comparison between the traditional and the contemporary.
The austere beauty of the Sala Bianca offers the perfect backdrop for the display of these modern Japanese masterpieces.