An opening ceremony of a large-scale Chinese relics touring exhibition of Chinese Characters:A Legacy and Marvel Perfected Over Three Millennia was held in Tokyo Fuji Art Museum on October 18. Mr. Cheng Yonghua, Ambassador of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Japan, Mr. Hu Sishe, Vice President of Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Mr. Wang Jun, Director-General of Art Exhibitions China (AEC), Mr. HARADA MINORU, Honorary Curator of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (TFAM), Mr. KUROI SENJI, President of Japan-China Cultural Exchange Ass (JCCEA), Mr. TAKEDA YOSHIAKI, Director of the Mainichi Newspapers, and envoys from 16 countries in Japan, personages from cultural sector, friendly personages from China and Japan, and Chinese characters amateurs, attended the opening ceremony.
The exhibition of Chinese Characters:A Legacy and Marvel Perfected Over Three Millennia was commonly and thoughtfully arranged by China Friendship International Art Exchange Association (CFIAEA) and Japan KOUZAN Fine-Arts Company (JKFAC). It took them three years to organize the exhibition. The exhibition held in Tokyo was co-hosted by CPAFFC, AEC, TFAM, JCCEA and Mainichi Newspapers. It will be made a touring exhibition in five places in Japan from October 18th, 2016 to September 14th, 2017, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Niigata, Gunma, Miyagi. The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Japan, State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and other organizations worked as the backup units for the exhibition this time.
110 pieces of exhibits from 17 relics and museum units of 6 provinces and cities in China were displayed this time. Among the 110 items, national-level cultural relics took near 20 percent. The exhibits were not only selected from 11 museums in Shaanxi Province and Henan Province, the original places of Chinese civilization, and from different times and categories which reflect the origin of Chinese characters, such as Oracle Bone script , Bronze, Lettering on Soldier-and-horse Funerary Statues, Inscription Rubbings from Qin and Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty, but also selected from precious relics, such as Liye Bamboo Slips in Qin Dynasty, The Bamboo Slips and Silk Books of Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Wang Ziwu Copper Tripod in Spring and Autumn period, SEISHINNSEI Stone Epitaph in Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian Gold Jane, E Junqi Letter as well as from famous celebrities and masterpieces in the past dynasties in Palace Museum, Liaoning Provincial Museum, An Hui Museum, which are famous for collecting calligraphy and paintings, and four treasures.
Ambassador Cheng Yonghua said in his speech at the opening ceremony that, the Chinese characters are one of the oldest script in the world, which witnesses the origin of Chinese civilization, records the changes of Chinese history and also promotes the cultural exchanges between China and Foreign countries. The Chinese characters inherited and used till now are not only a symbol of language communication, but also a bond of national culture among China, Japan and East Asian culture circle. They also develop into a kind of vision art with deep connotation. They are popular with Chinese and Japanese people. Ambassador Cheng hoped that the exhibition would be another “golden bridge” between China and Japan friendship. The two countries should take this as an opportunity to further strengthening the mutual understanding and friendship, continuously developing friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in various fields and commonly improving the Sino-Japanese relations.
CPAFFC Vice President Hu Sishe expressed in his speech that, Chinese characters with sound, shape and meaning in one word bear the development of five thousand years of Chinese culture and have the most rigorous structure in the character system in the world. They are also common cultural foundation for the East Asian countries. The frequency and proportion of use of Chinese characters in Japan is extremely high, and Japan also created many new vocabularies for Chinese characters in contemporary times. The history of the exchanges between the two countries would have been impossible to develop without Chinese characters. He hoped that China and Japan could further explore the rich significance of Chinese characters through the exhibition so as to make the history of the exchanges more colorful.
On behalf of the Japanese organizer of the exhibition, TFAM Honorary Curator HARADA MINORU delivered a speech. He reviewed the exhibitions held by FAM before, such as, the exhibition of Dunhuang, the exhibition of Palace Museum and the exhibition of the Great Three Kingdoms, which stirred up wide concern among Japanese people. This time the exhibition displayed several precious history relics, such as, from Oracle Bone script and Bronze, the carrier forms representing the origin of Chinese character, to Soldier-and-horse Funerary Statues in Qin Dynasty after the unification of Chinese character. He hoped that the two countries could continue to inherit the spirit of the elder generations, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Mr. Ikeda Daisaku, who had been engaging in promoting the friendship between China and Japan, and to carry forward the cultural exchanges of the two countries through the exhibition.
AEC Director-General Wang Jun stressed in his speech that, the themes of the exhibition are to carry forward the culture of Chinese characters, research the historical progress of the development of Chinese characters and explore the value of Chinese characters in world culture. He said that this exhibition was the first time to systematically display the relics in Japan about Chinese characters. He believed that more Japanese people could learn about historical connotation of Chinese characters, experience the artistic charm and the miraculous wisdom contained in Chinese characters through the exhibition.
The exhibition was popular with the Japanese ordinary people. More than 3000 people attended the opening ceremony and visited the exhibition.
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