Skip to main content

We use cookies and tags on our website to provide you with a better website experience, advertising based on your browsing habits, and to understand what our website is being used for, and for statistics and measurement purposes. By clicking ‘I Accept’, or clicking on our website, you agree to such purposes and the sharing of your data with our trusted partners.
For further information, please read Privacy Policy.

Upcoming ExhibitionsExhibition
Two Flemish Paintings from Tokyo and Bruges Reunited

pamphlet
Dates
Saturday, 25 October 2025 - Sunday, 10 May 2026
Hours
9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Fridays, Saturdays 9:30 am – 8:00 pm
Admission ends 30 mins. before closing time
Closed
Mondays and 28 December - 1 January
(Except when a national holiday falls on Monday. In this case, the museum is open on the holiday and is closed the next day)
In addition to the above, the museum may be specially opened or closed. For details, please click here.
Venue
Main Building
Admission Fees
Adults 500 yen (400 yen), college and university students 250 yen (200 yen)
  • * Admission is free for Special Exhibition or The Collection ticket holders.
  • * Numbers in parenthesis indicate discount fees for groups of 20 or more.
  • * Free for high school students, under 18, seniors (65 and over), "Campus Members". Please show your ID upon entrance.
  • * Disabled visitors admitted free of charge, with one attendant. Please present your disability identification upon arrival.
Organized by
The National Museum of Western Art

The Groeningemuseum, Bruges and the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo each have a panel painting depicting a narrative scene from the life of one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, St. James the Great (referred to hereafter as the Bruges panel and the Tokyo panel).

The two works were property of Farr Gallery, London in 1909. Then, the Bruges panel was transferred to Kleinberger Gallery, Paris by 1911, and entered the Groeningemuseum in 1912. There is no record of the Tokyo panel in the catalogue compiled by Kleinberger Gallery in 1911, and it appears that the two works were separated before that. The Tokyo panel was purchased by Matsukata Kōjirō at the beginning of the twentieth century and sent to Tokyo. Thereafter, via a private collection in Japan, it was acquired by the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo in 2017.

On the occasion of the acquisition in 2017, the National Museum of Western Art conducted a survey of the panel, through which it was confirmed that the Tokyo panel and the Bruges panel once belonged to a larger ensemble such as an altarpiece. This exhibition was planned as a result of this rediscovery, and the two panels which went separate ways, one to Belgium and one to Japan, at the beginning of the twentieth century are to be “reunited” after more than a hundred years. The fruit of the surveys of the panels undertaken by the Groeningemuseum and the National Museum of Western Art from 2017 onward will also be reported through a display, lectures, and a collection of papers.