Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka

Brief Information

The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka was built not around a building, but around the private collection of Eiichi Ataka: it was donated to the city by 21 companies from the Sumitomo Group. That is why the main focus here is not a general account of East Asian art, but a concentrated presentation of ceramics, above all from ancient China and Korea. The museum is located on Nakanoshima Island, but its meaning is shaped less by the district than by the way the collection became a city museum.

Later, a side wing was added to the main building. It appeared in order to display more Japanese ceramics and a separate collection of Korean ceramics by Lee Byung-chang. This fact changes the way one sees the museum: its layout reflects not only the storage of objects, but also the growth of the collections, for which the exhibition space had to be expanded.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to look at the museum as a system of separate display cases and galleries, where ceramics are divided by origin and period. The Korean section is divided into Goryeo ceramics, the Joseon Gallery, and Korean porcelain: what appears side by side is not simply “Korean objects,” but different historical lines within a single tradition.

The Chinese galleries are also arranged as a comparison of eras: ceramics of the Song dynasty are identified separately, while nearby are Yuan–Ming objects. Especially important are the display cases with “natural light” in the Song gallery: the source text singles out precisely the method of display, which means that here the material and lighting become part of the perception. The side wing should be considered in relation to the main building: it is connected with Japanese ceramics and the Lee Byung-chang collection, so the museum plan helps one understand which collections were added to the original foundation.