Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology
Kraków Artists: Painters and Sculptors
The Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, founded in 2007; from 1994 it operated as the Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology. In 1920 the critic, writer and collector Feliks Jasieński, who wrote under the pseudonym Manggha, gave the National Museum his collection of Japan-related objects, over 6,500 items. The 19-year-old Andrzej Wajda saw an exhibition of these collections in the Cloth Hall in 1944 and became fascinated with this art; when he received the Kyoto Prize in 1987, he devoted the entire sum to building a home for the collection in Kraków. In 2013 the museum was entered in the State Register of Museums.
History
The museum's name comes from the pseudonym of Feliks Jasieński - a critic, writer and collector whose collection was the impulse for founding the institution. The pseudonym was taken from the title of a collection of woodcuts by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Jasieński moved to Kraków in 1901 and played an important role here as a patron of the arts and a promoter of Modernism, and his collection inspired many Young Poland artists, among them Julian Fałat, Leon Wyczółkowski and Józef Mehoffer. In 1920 he donated his Japan-related collections, including works by Japanese painters, to the National Museum in Kraków.
After Jasieński's death in 1929 the collection was not exhibited - partly for lack of space, as it numbered more than 6,500 objects. The exception was an exhibition in the Cloth Hall in 1944, which was seen by the 19-year-old Andrzej Wajda, who became fascinated by Japanese art. When he received the Kyoto Prize in 1987, he gave the entire sum towards building a home in Kraków for Jasieński's collection. The plan was supported by the Kraków authorities and the Japanese government, and about a million dollars for the construction was contributed by the East Japan Railway Workers' Union. The building was conceived by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who donated the design to the Kyoto-Kraków Foundation; on the Polish side his office worked with Krzysztof Ingarden, Jacek Ewý and JET Atelier. The building has a modern form while also referring to traditional Japanese art.
The Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology opened on 30 November 1994. Since 2007 it has operated as a museum under its current name, and in 2013 it was entered in the State Register of Museums. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibitions devoted to the art, culture and technology of Japan, it runs courses in the tea ceremony, flower arranging and the Japanese language. Hokusai's work now makes up only a small part of the collection.
Did you know?
On 11 July 2002 Manggha was visited by Emperor Akihito and his wife Michiko. At the Emperor's request, an exhibition of woodcuts by the 19th-century artist Utagawa Hiroshige was organised for the occasion.