PORTLAND, Ore. —December 6, 2023— Portland Japanese Garden is delighted to present its final new art exhibition of 2023, Masterpieces in Miniature: The Art of Netsuke Sculptures. Once immensely popular across Japan, netsuke (pronounced nets-keh) were miniature sculptures that also served a purpose as personal fashion accessories, helping overcome the lack of pockets in traditional men’s clothing by helping hang small items from a kimono sash. What started as simple accessories evolved into beautiful and complicated sculptures created in a variety of exquisite materials over a span of more than two hundred years during Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868).
Masterpieces in Miniature draws on Portland Japanese Garden’s collection of netsuke that were first gifted to the Garden by Marian Plumb Miller and then expanded through a further gift from The Netsuke Collection of James R. Coonan, Denise C. Bates and Lurline C. Menzies. Guest curator Peter Doebler, the Kettering Curator of Asian Art at Dayton Art Institute, has crafted an exhibition featuring both never-before-seen netsuke as well as pieces not displayed at Portland Japanese Garden since 2010. Masterpieces in Miniature explores new stories and subjects to deepen our appreciation for these little wonders.
“Whenever I encounter netsuke, I end up with a smile on my face,” Doebler notes. “It is easy to overlook netsuke since they are so small, and having an exhibition dedicated to the subject encourages guests to really pay attention…Gazing closely at a netsuke, I often sense the artist grasped the essence of the subject and distilled that into a piece of wood or ivory smaller than a golf ball, creating a unique object that has a life of its own.”
Masterpieces in Miniature: The Art of Netsuke Sculptures will be on display in the Pavilion Gallery from December 16 through March 4, 2024.
Portland Japanese Garden receives support from the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts.
More Information
Visual Assets
Images can be found in this Dropbox folder. Photographer name is in the file name. Please stylize the credit as “Courtesy of Portland Japanese Garden, photo by [fill in name].”
Media Contact
Will Lerner | Communications Specialist | (503) 542-9351 | [email protected]
About Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is a nonprofit organization founded in 1963 as a place for cross-cultural understanding following World War II. A hallmark in the City of Portland and the state of Oregon, the Garden was founded on the ideals of peace and mutual understanding between peoples and cultures. Portland Japanese Garden is considered the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan and among the foremost Japanese cultural organizations in the world.
About Japan Institute
Japan Institute was established in 2022 as a global cultural initiative of Portland Japanese Garden. This sibling organization is the programmatic arm of Portland Japanese Garden, allowing us to share and expand our cultural programs more broadly around the world, deepen international partnerships, and continue to engage diverse people in shared experiences and conversations about peace, beauty, and connection of nature. Japan Institute consists of three centers: Global Center for Culture and Art, International Exchange Forum, and International Japanese Garden Training Center.
Portland Japanese Garden and Japan Institute share the mission:
Inspiring Harmony & Peace