Museums, galleries fuel closer cultural ties

TOKYO - Cultural exchanges and integration between Japan and China have been developing like the flow of a great river, and museums and art galleries are the carriers of Japanese and Chinese culture, said Motoaki Kono, curator of the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, as he marked International Museum Day on May 18.

Located on the outskirts of Tokyo, the Seikado Bunko Art Museum was founded by Yanosuke Iwasaki, who began collecting ancient Chinese and Japanese books sometime around 1892. In 1907, the Seikado Bunko Library was established with a collection of precious ancient books. The name "Seikado" stems from The Book of Songs, an ancient Chinese collection of poems.

Currently the Seikado Bunko Art Museum contains 6,500 works of art, and 200,000 books, including 80,000 Japanese volumes and 120,000 Chinese volumes.