Early 20th Century Japanese Ceramics from the Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California

The exhibition features 35 ceramic objects from the early 20th century including works by the world famous Japanese potter, Kitaoji Rosanjin, and nine designated Living National Treasures recipients. The works are from the collection of Japanese ceramics given to Mills College in the 1970s by William S. Picher, a prominent San Francisco patron of the arts, and Dr. Herbert Sanders, a Bay Area teacher, writer, and collector.

The exhibition looks at Japan's ceramic journey from earthenware to porcelain, demonstrating the technical brilliance, refined aesthetics, and feeling for nature that lies at the heart of Japanese ceramics.

Presented by the Chancellor's Committee on Art, Honors, and Recognition.

Main floor, Library hours, through June 2012.

See the exhibit brochure (PDF).

An exhibit highlighting prints and scrolls from UCSF's East Asian Collection is now on display in the Parnassus Campus Library's first floor gallery.

The prints on exhibit represent a cross-section of the collection, featuring colorful ukiyo-e scenes on topics such as women's health, diet and nutrition, spirituality, views of foreigners, and traditional Chinese healing methods.

Human physiology is dramatized symbolically in several prints showing teams of tiny workers attending to the body's functions. A striking triptych depicts a ceremony celebrating a noble birth. A triptych of a boat leaving a California port presents a nineteenth-century Japanese view of Western traders. Also on display are two prints from Andō Hiroshige's series, A Shoal of Fishes.

The scrolls on display present instructions on traditional Chinese therapies.

Enlarged reproductions of several of the prints also adorn the walls of the Teaching and Learning Center on the second floor. The large-scale prints enhance the TLC's "huddle spaces," which were designed to promote impromptu collaboration among students and faculty outside of the classroom.

Please enjoy these treasures from our East Asian Collection. View the entire collection of Japanese woodblock prints.

Permanent Exhibits

• Azuma nishiki e Yamato fūzoku: Shokō gata otanjō shiki / Japanese costumes in Eastern brocade: Birth ceremony of receiving visits from other families
  Kobayashi, Ikuhide, fl. 1868-1887 1889
• Uo-zukushi: Koi / A Shoal of Fishes: Carp
  Andō, Hiroshige, 1797-1858 1832
• Uo-zukushi: Ayu / A Shoal of Fishes: Sweetfish (trout)
  Andō, Hiroshige, 1797-1858 1832
  
• Kinrai ryūkō kabuki uwasa Kenbutsu no hara / Internal bodily functions dramatized by popular kabuki actors
  Unknown artist, Late 19th century
• Senaka ni hara kodomo asobi / Back and abdomen, children's games
  Unknown artist, Late 19th century
  
• Gotai wagō shinsai no kyō-kun / Teaching on harmonious body and mind
  Utagawa, Yoshikatsu, fl. 1844-1859 1850

• Georges Mathieu, Arrivee De Bohemod, 1957
• Helaman Ferguson, Umbilic Torus NC, 1988
• Fred Reichman, Little Summer Music with Book and Chair, 1990
• Portrait of Julius R. Krevans, M.D.
• Bill Woodrow, Regardless of History, 2000
• Robert Cremean, Bust of R. de la V., 1964