“The wind brings, through scattered clouds, the sound of laughter.”

This aphorism appears in fine black ink, inscribed in Japanese kanji on a painting titled Hotei by the Japanese artist Hakuin Ekaku. The piece is from the Edo period of Japanese art, 1615-1868, and depicts an eccentric monk known in Japanese folklore as one of the Seven Lucky Gods. The titular monk is smiling at the sky, dragging behind him a prodigious sack, presumably stuffed with all his worldly possessions and plenty else besides. Hotei was said to be loved by children because he always had something for them in his sack; to adults, he is a god of happiness, contentment and abundance. Knowing this enhances my pleasure at seeing his representation near the entryway of the newly reopened Asian Art Galleries at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA).

The Birmingham Museum of Art's Asian art galleries recently reopened after two years of being closed. More than 200 objects are on display for the first time in the collection's history.

Last Sunday I saw Hotei and other works of ink on paper and ink on silk — hanging scrolls, folding screens and 18th century manga. I saw an array of teaware, including bowls, dishes, plates and incense burners and unparalleled porcelain pots. I saw jewelry and weapons and ancient writing instruments, plus statues and sculptures previously entombed — two parades of men made of clay and a menagerie made of carved wood. 

I was reminded of the difference between an ewer and a hu (the former is a container with a spout and a handle, while the latter is a bulbous storage jar with small ring handles on either side). I placed my hands and then my face (forehead first, then each cheek) on a block of jade as big as a basketball, bigger even, which was extracted from the Earth in northwest China and now is housed in a building more than 8,000 miles from its point of origin: a smooth, green stone historically used to make ornaments and implements, now on display in a city where the most common rock has always been a crude ore the color of blood, used to make the steel that in turn was used to make the modern world. 

Juxtaposing jade and iron in my mind made me think about what it means that the Birmingham Museum of Art has one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian art in the United States. After two years out of sight, the assemblage is surprising and almost sublime. In short, this newly arrayed segment of the BMA’s permanent collection has all the appeal of a temporary exhibition, but an even greater personal value because it’s ours.

Highlights & history

A classic early 12th century wooden sculpture of Jizo, a benevolent Japanese Buddhist deity.

Unlike other museum collections, the Asian collection at the BMA began with the gifts of objects from a wide variety of individiuals rather than the gift of a single major collection. Back in 1972, Dr. Sherman E. Lee, then director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, came to the BMA to evaluate its Asian art and advise the museum board how to form and manage a significant collection. Lee encouraged the formation of a support group to help with acquisitions and educational activities, which led to the founding of the Birmingham Asian Art Society in 1975 by M. Bruce Sullivan, M.D., L. Paul Kassouf, Wyatt Haskel, Elton B. Stephens and the William M. Spencer family.

“This collection exists because of donations from hundreds of people,” explains Don Wood, senior curator and The Virginia and William M. Spencer III Curator of Asian Art at the BMA. July 1,2009, marked the start of Wood’s 23rd year at the museum.

“The Asian Art Society has helped us acquire some of our most important pieces,” Wood says. “In the early days, they took many trips to Asia for the specific purpose of making acquisitions for the museum. We wouldn’t be here without the Asian Art Society,” Woods says. “The collection wouldn’t be here.”

The BMA opened its Asian art galleries in 1993, following a major expansion of the entire museum. It showcased a significant collection that was the result of a massive collaboration spanning four decades; the total holdings included more than 4,000 objects from China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

Only about 300 objects were on display in 2007 when the Chinese and Japanese galleries were closed to accommodate “Tales from an Eruption,” the massive exhibit of art and artifacts from Pompeii.

The centerpiece of the Chinese galleries, a 15th century Buddhist temple mural that measures more than 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide, was too massive to move. Walls were built around the mural during the Pompeii exhibit, and then carefully removed earlier this year as part of the gallery renovation.

Dated to the 15th century, these two panels from a Buddhist temple weigh approximately one ton and are the outer parts of what was probably a much larger composition. The wall on which the mural is painted is made of mud mortar on a bamboo lattice frame, bound with chopped straw and rush, covered with a layer of cloth and fine plaster.

“It was very exciting to see it revealed again,” Wood says.

All of the galleries have had a fresh coat of paint (albeit in the same color scheme prior to the 2007 closing). The armor, gloves, boots and weaponry that comprise the museum’s popular Samurai collections are laid out on new tatami mats. An exhibition area previously crowded with floor pedestals now has built-in display cabinets, which effectively create panoramic arrays of objects.

“It has opened up the space considerably,” Wood says. “People keep saying it seems larger. But we wanted it to feel familiar, also. Many of the objects on view either have not been seen for many years or have never been seen by the public. Although no new footage was added to the galleries, a creative use of existing space enables us to show far more of the permanent collection than before.”

Collection connections

In reworking the Asian art galleries, Wood, exhibit designer Terry Beckham and other BMA staffers chose to focus on four thematic areas — technology, trade, religion and art. In addition to longtime favorite displays like the Samurai collections and the Japanese scroll paintings, the galleries now include a significant representation of pieces that have been in storage for decades. Those objects that were previously on view might have been in a different context, but the new arrangement provides new context for viewers, emphasizing connections within not only the Asian collection but also the museum’s entire collection.

Wood describes the Chinese galleries as having undergone “a total transformation.” Surrounding the temple doors are exhibits of rare funerary goods, including earthenware tomb figures from the 8th and 15th centuries; dozens of examples of Imperial Jade from the 15th through 19th centuries and nearly 100 pieces of blue and white porcelain.

“It’s not a dynasty-by-dynasty installation,” Wood says. “It’s not chronological. We decided to go for the ‘Wow’ factor.”

The result is a commanding array of blue and white vessels in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging in date from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

The BMA has more than 100 pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain from every era.

“Ceramics are such an important part of the collection — not just the Asian art collection, but the museum’s entire collection. Wedgwood was influenced by Chinese ceramics,” Wood says. “Everybody was.”

Several of the blue and white pieces come from a single collection that belonged to Thaddeus Crenshaw. An Alabama native who lived most of his life in Paris, Crenshaw donated more than 80 pieces of blue-and-white to the museum. The Imperial Jade previously belonged to a Mrs. Georg Vetlesen, whose husband made a fortune in shipping. The collection was assembled in the early part of the 20th century and was previously on display at the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Now on long-term loan to the BMA, it’s on view for the first time anywhere in more than 25 years.

“You’ll see museums with more jade on view but you won’t see any finer,” Wood says.

Elsewhere in the galleries are new acquisitions purchased with funds from the estate of Ron Robel, who taught history and Chinese language at the University of Alabama for more than 40 years. A longtime member of the museum’s Asian Art Society and the most significant Asian studies scholar in the state, Robel specified in his estate plan that his bequest was to be used for acquisitions in Asian art.

Certain pieces in the Asian art collection are considered important because of their rarity. One example is an “ear cup,” an oval-shaped drinking vessel named for the ear-shaped handles on either side of its bowl. 

“It’s a wrinkled piece of lacquer that dates to 300 B.C.,” Wood says. “We’ve had it for 14 years and it’s only now on display for the first time.”

Also on display for the first time is a tureen stand that’s been in the BMA collection since 1959. The same case holds a soup plate made in China for Catherine the Great of Russia (Interestingly, the Wedgwood holdings at BMA also include a piece from Catherine the Great’s 952-piece dinner and dessert service, known as the “frog service” because of the painted animal emblem that decorates the set.)

Several Chinese bronzes are on display for the first time, and the display highlights the timeless quality of several designs. The shape of a bronze wine cup from 1632 echoes that of a wine cup made in the 11th century B.C.

Near the Japanese teaware, there’s a 16th century calligraphy painting by Sen Rikyū, considered Japan’s greatest tea master. Titled Gazing Enchantedly at the Moon, the calligraphy is daringly installed with contemporary ceramics. The historical contrast serves to heighten appreciation of each era.

Later this summer, Wood and other BMA staffers will close the Indian sculpture galleries to begin an overhaul of the Indian and Southeast Asian exhibition areas. There will be a grand reopening of all of the Asian galleries in March 2010.

“It’s fun to see pieces out now that have never been on display,” Wood says. “We’re intent on highlighting the real strengths of the collection.”

The BMA Asian Art Galleries are open to the public during the museum’s regular hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission to the Birmingham Museum of Art is free. Don Wood will give a lecture titled “China and Japan Revisited: The newly redesigned Asian galleries at the Birmingham Museum of Art” at the downtown branch of the Birmingham Public Library at noon on Wednesday, July 15, as part of the library’s Brown Bag Lunch series. For more information on the Asian Art Galleries or the rest of the permanent collection at the BMA, call (205) 254-2565 or visit www.artsbma.org.