A floating world: impermanence and motion in Japanese art

Abstract

"Weathered, centuries-old wooden sculptures. A broken tea bowl, repaired with gold lacquer. Hokusai's Great Wave: an archetypal expression of beauty and mortal danger. All these elements are found in A Floating World, accompanying a 2025 exhibition at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany. Priceless items held by the museum are complemented by the works of contemporary artists, portraying Japan as a nation that has created a unique aesthetic language of the ephemeral. In a place where earthquakes, tsunamis and human-made catastrophes can snatch away life at any moment, an art flourishes that is in constant awareness of the precious fragility of our existence--in a breathtakingly beautiful, quiet and fascinating celebration of transience. Also in this stunning volume are images depicting human life with and on the water, cherry blossom festivals and courtly butterfly dances."