20.02.2026.
11.00
Art Museum RIGA BOURSE
Media event:
Snow Melts. Japanese Art
On Friday, 20 February 2026, at 11.00 the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE invites mass media representatives to the presentation of the exhibition Snow Melts. Japanese Art.
Registration of participants:
10.30–11.00
Spring in Japanese culture brings together the rhythms of nature, the cycles of human life and an aesthetic way of perceiving the world into a single, symbolically rich experience. It marks the boundary between the old and the new both in nature and in human life, and thus becomes a significant point of departure for change.
Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786–1864). Scene from the play Shimizu Kiyoharu in the Cherry Blossom Time. Detail. 1830, Edo period, Japan. Paper, colour woodblock print. Collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga. Publicity photo
Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786–1864). Congratulations to Genji. Detail. 1861, Edo period, Japan. Paper, colour woodblock print. Collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga. Publicity photo
In Japanese aesthetics, spring is associated with an awareness of the transience of beauty. The brief blossoming of cherry trees, plum trees and other spring flowers is perceived as the culmination of beauty precisely because of its impermanence, encouraging empathy, attentiveness and a conscious experience of the moment. At the same time, spring in Japan is a season of rituals. Traditions such as hanami, seasonal festivals and religious rites have brought people together in shared spaces and moments for over a thousand years.
The exhibition, which will be on view at the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE from 21 February to 3 May 2026, displays works from the Japanese art collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art – colourful woodblock prints ukiyo-e, lacquerware, porcelain and ceramic objects, which depict this season so essential to Japan in a variety of ways.
