The museum's new Arts of Japan Gallery debuts with the inaugural exhibition Elegant Perfection: Masterpieces of Courtly and Religious Art from the Tokyo National Museum. The opening marks the culmination of a five-year initiative to expand the presentation of Asian art at the MFAH. The Arts of Japan Gallery is the final installation in a suite of permanent Arts of Asia galleries in the Law Building.

Elegant Perfection showcases more than 25 objects—on view in Houston for only eight weeks—from the collection of the prestigious Tokyo National Museum.

The public opening will include samples of the traditional Japanese beverage, sake, courtesy of the Texas Sake Company.

The Arts of Japan Gallery is made possible with generous support from:

Japan Business Association of Houston 2011*
      In memory of Mr. Seigo Arai
Nanako and Dale Tingleaf
Mitsui & Company (U.S.A.), Inc.
Penny and Paul Loyd
Mitsubishi Corporation
Miwa S. Sakashita and John R. Stroehlein
Sumitomo Corporation of America
General Electric
Donna Fujimoto Cole
Julia Anderson Frankel and Russell Frankel
Kathleen and Glen Gondo
Drs. Ellin and Robert Grossman
Gulf States Toyota, Inc.
Merrill and Joe Hafner
Tomiko Mita and Dr. John M. Mayo
Mitsubishi International Corporation–Houston Branch
Akemi and Yasuhiko Saitoh
Satake USA Inc.
Taeko and Nobuya Tomita
Toshiba International Corporation
Nozomi and Ryuji Watanabe
Susan and Jack Lapin

*Japan Business Association of Houston 2011
The JBAH gift made possible in part by
     JX Group
     Kaneka Texas Corporation
     Kuraray America, Inc.
     Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, Inc.
     NOLTEX LLC
     Toshiba International Corporation

Special thanks to The Japan Foundation, New York