Orientations Magazine

Orientations Magazine An authoritative source on Asian art with stories of amazing places & incredible art collections.

Our articles are written by the world's foremost scholars in their field and every issue also includes market news and developments.

Dating to around 1325, a 14th century silk tapestry in the David Collection, Copenhagen, offers a rare glimpse into the ...
01/06/2026

Dating to around 1325, a 14th century silk tapestry in the David Collection, Copenhagen, offers a rare glimpse into the cosmopolitan visual world of the Ilkhanate (1256-1335) (fig.1). Woven in Iran or Iraq, the work unites Persian, Central Asian, Chinese, and West Asian motifs within a single decorative field, embodying the Ilkhanid court's embrace of cultural synthesis.

Read more about David Collection in Tong Su's 'The Flowering of Kingship: Power and Taste in an Ilkhanid Tapestry' in our May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. Tapestry medallion
Iraq or western Iran; Ilkhanate period (1256-1335), first half of the 14th century
Silk and gilded lamella of animal substrate spun around cotton; diameter 69 cm
David Collection, Copenhagen (30/1995)
Photo by Pernille Klemp © The David Collection

2. Tapestry medallion (fig. 1), detail of the central 'princely cycle' scene and three bands of alternating light-on-dark and dark-on-light patterns

3. tapestry detail.

Though the samurai are long gone, they survive in our imaginations and fuel our creativity. Video games now serve as the...
29/05/2026

Though the samurai are long gone, they survive in our imaginations and fuel our creativity. Video games now serve as the primary means of propagating the samurai image, acting as a portal through which players can embody the lives of famous warriors. Experientially, this can be seen as a continuation, or modernisation, of kabuki theatre, which offered Edo-period audiences opportunities to project their fantasies onto a physical embodiment of samurai glory.

Read more from Joe Nickols in 'The Power of Playfulness: The Samurai Exhibition at the British Museum' in our current May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

Night Attack of Chūshingura (Chüshingura youchi no zu)
By Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861); Edo period (1603-1868), 1851-52
Triptych print; 37.7 X 76.5 cm
British Museum, London
Photo © The Trustees of the British Museum

Since their origins at the beginning of the last millennium, the samurai have used image- making to project cultural aut...
25/05/2026

Since their origins at the beginning of the last millennium, the samurai have used image- making to project cultural authority within a dialectical relationship with play, or asobi. In Japanese aesthetics, 'playfulness', which can be interpreted literally as entertainment or imaginative adaptation, enabled the ordinary to be elevated to the extraordinary, and, for the elite, was combined with a taste for elegance.

Read more from Joe Nickols in 'The Power of Playfulness: The Samurai Exhibition at the British Museum' in our current May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. Armour surcoat depicting Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039-1106) at the Nakoso Barrier
Japan; 1800-50
Wool, silk and metallic threat; 105 X 100 cm
Photo © Patrick SYZ Limited

2. Depiction of Minamoto no Yoshiie on horseback in Picture Book: Stirrups of Musashi, published 1836
By Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849); Edo period (1603-1868)
Woodblock print; 22 X 16 cm
British Museum, London Photo © The Trustees of the British Museum

3. Iwai Hanshirō V as Sukeroku
By Toyokuni I (1769-1825); Edo period (1603-1868), 1815-16
Colour woodblock print; 38 X 26.2 cm
Private collection
Photo © Paul Griffith Collection

4. Scene from Tale of the Drunken Acolyte (Shuten Dōji) (detail)
By Kano Okunobu (act. 17th century); Edo period (1603-1868), 1600-1700
Handscroll, ink, gold, and colour on paper; height 26.8 cm
British Museum, London
Photo © The Trustees of the British Museum

5. Portrait of Minamoto no Yoritomo
Japan; Momoyama period (1336-1576), second half of the 14th century
Hanging scroll, ink, colours, and gold on silk; 267 X 114 cm
The British Museum, London
Photo © The Trustees of the British Museum

The surface is animated by a rich orchestration of hues, where warm reds and golden yellows are set against cooler blues...
24/05/2026

The surface is animated by a rich orchestration of hues, where warm reds and golden yellows are set against cooler blues and greens. This effect was achieved through the careful manipulation of differently dyed silks, each chosen for its specific tonal depth and sheen. The tapestry weave structure allows colours to meet with remarkable precision, creating crisp contours and softly modulated fields that lend the panel a painterly quality. At close range, the density of the weave and the varied thickness of the threads reveal a sophisticated understanding of how light interacts with silk.

Read more from Shilei Zeng in 'Quiet Brilliance: Ming Textiles in the V&A Collection' in our current May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. Kesi tapestry
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), probably 15th century
Silk and metallic threads; 65 X 43 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (T.101-1948)

2. Kesi badge
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 1600-1644
Silk and metallic threads; 32 X 42 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (FE.133-1978)

3. Satin damask
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 1550-1644
Silk; 35 X 43 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (1404-1899)

The badge (image 2) is a textbook example of mid- to late Ming insignia, woven for a civil official of the sixth rank, a...
19/05/2026

The badge (image 2) is a textbook example of mid- to late Ming insignia, woven for a civil official of the sixth rank, as denoted by its paired egrets. This piece is executed primarily in silk, with silver-wrapped threads used to highlight water droplets (in the centres of two lotus leaves) and to outline the clouds and mountains, though their shine has now faded. A gradient array of hues was skilfully woven to create natural transitions and subtle tonal effects, creating a refined scene of one bird standing in rippling water among polychrome rocks while another soars between cloud bands, all flanked by flowering lotus plants.

Read more from Shilei Zeng in 'Quiet Brilliance: Ming Textiles in the V&A Collection' in our current May/Jun
2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link below to get your own print or digital copy!

https://orientations.squarespace.com/past-issues/p/mayjun-2026

1. Kesi badge
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 1500-1600
Silk and metallic threads; 32 X 35 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (FE.11-1986)

2. Robe fabric
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 1500-1644
Silks and metallic threads; 135.9 X 139 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (T.1-1957)

3. Chasuble
China; Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 1550-1644
Silk and metallic threads; 74 X 116 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum (1962-1899)


The house itself-with its distinctive architecture and furnishings-constitutes an important expression of Kawai's creati...
15/05/2026

The house itself-with its distinctive architecture and furnishings-constitutes an important expression of Kawai's creativity and a stage for the work that he collected and made. Kawai had purchased the climbing kiln from potter Kiyomizu Rokubei V (1875-1959) in 1920 and then named it Shōkeiyō ('Kiln of Bell Creek'). After Typhoon Muroto decimated his residence in 1934, Kawai redesigned it in 1937, drawing on various types of vernacular architecture, including merchant houses in Hida Takayama and Korean farm dwellings. His elder brother, the master carpenter Zenzaemon (1883-1938), oversaw the construction.

Read more about Kawai Kanjiro's life and artistic practice in Michele Bambling and Tamae Sagi's 'Kawai Kanjirō: House to House' in our May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. Jar with splashed three-colour glaze
Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966), 1961
Ceramic; 30 X 23.1 X 17.4 cm
Kawai Kanjirō House

2. Tea set
Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966), 1943
Ceramic; heights 18 cm (teapot), 6.4 cm (teacups)
Kawai Kanjirō House

3. Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966) in his climbing kiln (noborigama), Shōkeiyō

Despite his early success, Kawai developed doubts about this work. The middle of his career took place during the prewar...
12/05/2026

Despite his early success, Kawai developed doubts about this work. The middle of his career took place during the prewar and wartime phase of the Shōwa era (1926-1945), when he became passionately interested in unpretentious, deftly made functional objects. Rather than aspire to the perfection of singular Chinese precedents, Kawai sought to elicit the 'beauty of utility' (yō no bi) he found in anonymous folk ware. This new source of inspiration transformed his work. He began to create practical pieces for everyday use, like the modest teapot and cups made for drinking bancha (roasted green tea) with his family and friends.

Read more about Kawai Kanjiro's life and artistic practice in Michele Bambling and Tamae Sagi's 'Kawai Kanjirō: House to House' in our May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. White porcelain diamond-shaped vase
Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966), 1942
Ceramic; 21 X 20.7 X 15.2 cm
Kawai Kanjirō House

2. Slipware bottle
Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966), 1930
Ceramic; 18.8 X 17.3 X 15.4 cm
Kawai Kanjirō House

3. Wooden sculpture
Kawai Kanjirō (Japanese, 1890-1966), 1955
Carved wood; 28.5 X 22 X 5 cm
Kawai Kanjirō House

Throughout the 5th and 6th centuries, Sogdian merchants travelled widely along the Silk Road, dominating the trade of lu...
08/05/2026

Throughout the 5th and 6th centuries, Sogdian merchants travelled widely along the Silk Road, dominating the trade of luxury goods between the East and West. Sogdian immigrant artists and artisans introduced China to a rich tapestry of artistic traditions, encompassing Indian, Mediterranean, and, most notably, Sasanian-Persian motifs and styles. Many luxury artefacts-potentially brought to China by tomb figurines, and stone burial Sogdiansfurniture created for Sogdian immigrant leaders feature human figures and horses, rendered more realistically than in the native figural style.

Read more about these phenomenal horse paintings in Jin Xu's 'A Central Asian Steed with a Chinese Spirit: Night-Shining White and the Transformation of Horse Paintings in 8th Century China' in our May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations. Click the link in our bio to get your own print or digital copy!

1. Horse and Central Asian grooms
Excavated from the tomb of Consort Wei (579-665) China, Xianyang, Shanxi; Tang dynasty (618-907)
Mural painting; height 146 cm
Shaanxi Museum, Xi'an
Photo by Ma Youning © Shaanxi Museum, Xi'an

2. Night-Shining White
By Han Gan (act. C. 742-56); Tang dynasty (618-907), C. 750.
Ink on paper; 30.8 X 34 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

3. Horse in a polo game
Excavated from the tomb of i Yong (687-727) China, Fuping, Shaanxi; Tang dynasty (618-907)
Mural painting; height 120 cm
Shaanxi Museum, Xi'an
Photo © Shaanxi Museum, Xi'an

4. Man Herding Horses
By Han Gan (act. C. 742-56); Tang dynasty (618-907)
Ink on paper; 27.5 cm X 34.1 cm
National Palace Museum
Photo © National Palace Museum

5. A charger
China, Liquan, Shaanxi; Tang dynasty (618-907)
Stone relief from the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong (d. 649) Carved stone; 166.4 X 207 cm
University of Pennsylvania Museum
Photo © University of Pennsylvania Museum

04/05/2026

The May/Jun 2026 issue of Orientations is out now!

Horse Paintings in 8th Century China | The Ohara Family of Kurashiki and Chinese Painting | Ming Textiles at the V&A| The Samurai Exhibition at the British Museum | Kawai Kanjirō: House to House | Mithila Paintings at the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw | 19th Century Collecting at Leighton House | Hong Kong's Art World of the Mid-20th Century | Suzhou Woodblock Prints | Ilkhanid Tapestries

Click the link in our bio to get your own copy! 📜

Around the World: MayYour monthly guide to must-see exhibitions and events worldwide across Asian and Middle Eastern Art...
01/05/2026

Around the World: May

Your monthly guide to must-see exhibitions and events worldwide across Asian and Middle Eastern Art!

1. 'Two Islands, One Thread: The Art and Cultures of Lombok & Bali' Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 15 May to 11 October, 2026.

2. 'PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai' Shanghai Exhibition Centre, 7 to 10 May, 2026.

3. 'Silla: Gold and the Sacred. Royal Treasures of Korea (57 BCE – 935 CE)' Musée Guimet, Paris, 20 May to 31 August, 2026.

4. 'Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind' The Broad, Los Angeles, 23 May to 11 October, 2026.

5. 'Ceramic Art London' Olympia, London, 8 May to 10 May, 2026.

6. 'Everyday Elegance: Daily Lives of Women in Late Qing China' Oriental Museum, Durham University, 16 May to 20 September, 2026.

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