Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Tokyo Museum


Today we saw the Tokyo National Museum. It contains antique kimono, tea ceremony articles, the history fo Buddhism in Japan, laquerware and ceramics, and samuri armor and weapons. This is the armor that was used to decorate horses in battle in Japan during the bronze age.

Ancient painted screen.
Samuri armor. Impressive.
Katana Sword. I can't believe that the sword has been so well preserved after 600 years. It looks like it just came out of the forge.
A Beautiful example of ancient Japanese pottery. There was a lot of influence from China and Korea on all aspects of the culture of Japan. Prehistoric neanderthal people lived in Japan as early as 10,000 BC to 5,000 BC, and then the Jomon people from lived from 5,000 BC - 1,000 BC. The Jomon people were reportedly the earliest civilization to develop pottery. After this, more civilizations developed under increasing influence from China and Korea, and eventually the arts and crafts were very similar. There were many more museums in Tokyo, but we're not museum types so we skipped them. They are all conveniently located in Ueno Park near a zoo. We finished the day by shopping. -Anna

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