Resources

Part of a long archipelago off the eastern rim of the Asian continent, the island country of Japan has four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Learn more.

Commissioned for our 50th anniversary, Liu Jianhua’s striking artwork “Collected Letters” links the Asian Art Museum building’s past as the city’s Main Library with the museum’s distinctly forward-looking mission.

Scholars often refer to the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) dynasties as the “medieval” period of China. The civilizations of the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) dynasties of China were among the most advanced civilizations in the world at the time. Discoveries in the realms of science, art, philosophy, and technology—combined with a curiosity about the world around them—provided the men and women of this period with a worldview and level of sophistication that in many ways were unrivaled until much later times, even in China itself.

The earliest surviving representations of the Buddha date from hundreds of years after his death, so they are not portraits in the usual sense. Buddha images vary greatly from place to place and period to period, but they almost always show these conventional features . . .

Buddhism has deeply influenced the character and evolution of Asian civilization over the past 2,500 years. It is based on the teachings of a historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived around the fifth century BCE. As it moved across Asia, Buddhism absorbed indigenous beliefs and incorporated a wide range of imagery, both local and foreign, into its art and religious practices. Buddhism continues to evolve as a religion in many parts of the world.

A comprehensive, short documentary on the art of Chinese calligraphy.

Much of China, a country slightly larger than the continental United States, is hilly or mountainous. To its east lies the Pacific Ocean; to its south thick jungles. Learn more.

Students will view representations of literary epics, read related excerpts, and discuss how those scenes exemplify the code of the samurai.

A date around 1050 BCE is generally accepted as the date of the defeat of the Shang dynasty (approx. 1500 to 1050 BCE) by Wen Wang and the establishment of the Zhou. The Zhou is divided into Western and Eastern stages, with 771 BCE a critical year, when the Zhou court moved east to Luoyang.