Japanomania! Japanese Art Goes Global

Peabody Essex Museum

East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

Discover the beauty and complex stories behind PEM’s celebrated Japanese export art collection. The new installation takes visitors on a journey through time — from the arrival of Portuguese merchants in the 1500s through Japan’s emergence on the world stage in the late 19th century and beyond. Throughout, the story is punctuated with stunning works of art, including extraordinary loans from a private collection and many objects on view for the first time since PEM’s 2016 exhibition Asia in Amsterdam.

Japanomania! Japanese Art Goes Global is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor, the late Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland and The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund.

Image credit: Sanrio Company, Ltd., Hello Kitty rotary telephone, 1980s. Plastic, metal and electrical components. Museum purchase. 2018.4.1. Artists in Arita, Japan, Incense holder, about 1690. Porcelain and lacquered silver. Gift of the estate of Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, 2001. AE85878.A. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.