Past ExhibitionsBack

“Ōmi”—written with the characters for “nearby lake”—refers to the ancient name of the province surrounding Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest lake, in present-day Shiga Prefecture. Historically, it was “nearby” from the point of view of the capital cities of Nara and Kyoto and the crossroads of key transportation routes.
Since the seventh to eighth centuries, the lake and its picturesque landscape of surrounding mountains captured the imaginations and poetic talents of residents of the capital. Their waka verses describing its famous sights were passed down and widely emulated, and the landscapes captured in verse were also painted on scrolls and folding screens.
In the early seventeenth century, the courtier and multi-talented artist Konoe Nobutada (1565–1614) wrote waka verses on the theme of eight selected places seen from Zeze Castle, which once stood on the edge of the lake in today’s city of Ōtsu. These “Eight Views of Ōmi” became known far and wide, and are depicted in many paintings and works of craft.
This exhibition presents about 100 paintings and works of craft featuring famous sights from before and after the advent of the “Eight Views of Ōmi,” offering an overview of the way scenic places of the Lake Biwa area were depicted over the centuries.
We hope you will take time to fully appreciate these landscapes of Ōmi that are not only famous scenes of one region but present a microcosm of Japanese culture as a whole.