Silk Road-themed exhibition to be held in Japan

A Silk Road-themed exhibition, organized by the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and The Asahi Shimbun Company, will be held in Japan starting from mid-September this year.

The exhibition is the first large-scale exhibition outside of China with the Silk Road as its theme since the Chang'an-Tianshan Silk Road Corridor, one of the major arteries of the historic Silk Roads, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014.

The exhibition will feature a selection of 240 precious artifacts related to the Silk Road from 27 major museums and research institutes in China, including those in Luoyang, Henan province; Xi'an, Shaanxi province; Lanzhou and Dunhuang, Gansu province; and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The exhibited items will include gold and silver ornaments, bronze artifacts, murals, paintings, textiles and Buddhist statues, among others. Many of these items will be publicly displayed in Japan for the first time.

Akira Gokita, director of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, said during a news conference on Wednesday that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the museum's establishment and the 45th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. The exhibition is planned to commemorate this important historical milestone.

He said it has been 18 years since Japan last hosted a large-scale Silk Road-themed exhibition, and he hopes that everyone will have the opportunity to personally appreciate these precious historical treasures.

The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum expressed gratitude for the generosity of China, which allowed the organization of this unprecedented large-scale exhibition in Japan and brought the valuable cultural artifacts of the Silk Road to Japan. The museum said in a press release, "We would be honored if, through the Silk Road, you (visitors to the exhibition) could once again experience the long-standing cultural exchanges between Japan and China."

Masanori Aoyagi, former commissioner for the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan, said at the news conference that cultural exchange is an important driving force for human development, and Japanese culture has continued to evolve through exchanges with other cultures. He said the exhibition is expected to serve as an opportunity for Japan to nurture new culture.

Chen Zheng, minister counselor of the Chinese embassy in Japan, said hosting the exhibition in the 45th anniversary year of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship holds significant importance.

The Silk Road represents the historical imprint of the exchange, integration and mutual learning of world civilizations and is a great endeavor of China's inclusiveness and openness. Over two thousand years of history has proven that as long as countries with different races, beliefs and cultural backgrounds adhere to unity and trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation, they can share peace and seek common development, composing achapter of friendshipthrough the ages, Chen said.

China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, calling for the promotion of the spirit of the Silk Road in the new era to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. It is hoped that the people of both countries will take this exhibition as an opportunity to revisit the original intention of friendship, promote the stable and long-term development of China-Japan relations, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, he said.

The exhibition will be held at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum from September 16 to December 10 and is planned to tour other venues from January 2024 to February 2025, including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the Tohoku History Museum, the Ehime Museum of Art, the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, and the Museum of Kyoto, according to the press release.