When the Okada Museum of Art, in the popular getaway of Hakone, opened its doors in 2013, successful businessman Kazuo Okada brought to fruition his long-held plan to build a museum brimming with quality Asian artworks.
This year, the museum is holding its "Fifth Anniversary Exhibition All-Stars of the Okada Collection," highlighting its most prized acquisitions.
The showcase, which spans four floors of the museum, opens with a selection of large flasks, jars and other ceramics from Qing and Ming dynasty China, mostly in underglaze blue on white. There are also two large dishes, each with a blue dragon on a rarely seen bright yellow overglaze enamel, a color that was reserved for the exclusive use of the emperor. The dragons are depicted head-on instead of the more usual sideways view, another privilege reserved for the emperor, not to be reproduced elsewhere, under pain of death. Nowhere else in the world but here can visitors see two of these rare plates together.
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