April 14, 2021 – Sept. 13, 2021

Kano Scroll - Edo Period

Nagon Sanyu, Kano Scroll, Edo Period c. 1780, Watercolor ink on silk scroll, Gift of Mrs. Billie Lou Hance, Collection of Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, 2018.9.2

The museum is now open limited hours (Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.), or view the “Pax Tokugawa” exhibit in the museum’s 360-degree virtual tour here.

“Pax Tokugawa: The Japanese Collections of OUMA” illustrates the rich collection of Japanese art in the museum’s permanent collection. This exhibition’s focus is art of the Edo period of 1603-1867, considered a time of growth, peace, and stability under the last traditional shogunate founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu. These works have been graciously given by numerous donors over many years for the enjoyment and benefit of our students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members.

The core works of this concentration in Japanese art are drawn from the collection of porcelain of the late Dr. John Lesh Jacobs ’23, donated by his daughter, Ms. Carrie Lee Jacobs Henderson, granddaughter of former OU President Thornwell Jacobs. Additional key works of Japanese sculpture, porcelain, paintings and works on paper have been donated to OUMA in recent years by patrons and neighbors, Mrs. Billie Lou Hance, Ms. Ellen Stein, Mr. Roderick Hardy and Ms. Miryam Relis, all of whom are in the metro-Atlanta region. Masterful 19th century Japanese woodblock prints have also been donated to OUMA in the recent past in memory of OU Professor Ronald Carlisle.

With the exhibition Pax Tokugawa, it is our hope to honor the memory and rich contribution to academic life our students and alumni of our much admired and beloved friend, colleague, and professor, the late Dr. Robert Steen, Professor of Japanese.