Unsure about where to go, we stayed overnight on our bus and cautiously drove back to Tokyo the following morning. When we disembarked, I noticed large pallets of water bottles on different street corners, left there for people to take whatever they needed Under similar circumstances in New York or Boston would people have had the restraint to only take what they needed? Later that day, we caught the Shinkanzen (Japan’s famous bullet train) south to Kyoto. For days, we continued to feel aftershocks from the earthquake even though we were 500 miles from the epicenter.

I was fortunate and escaped the tragedy unharmed, but tens of thousands didn’t. The destruction I saw in Mashiko and elsewhere in Japan reminded me of how much of our history we’ve lost through time and tragedy. Objects that survive are a tangible lifeline to our past. PEM’s collection preserves many extraordinary works of art made by artists in Japan for export to other cultures. These glittering lacquers and brightly colored ceramics are ambassadors and survivors. They tell tales of religious upheavals, political and cultural clashes, and arduous ocean voyages that span 400 years and multiple continents. As objects made in Japan for voracious foreign patrons, they speak to us about desire and evolving global networks.

In 2018, we’ve been able to reinterpret this celebrated collection for the first time in 15 years. Working with a nimble and creative team of curators, interpreters, conservators, designers, planners and collections management partners, we’ve given this gallery a fresh look with a new interpretive spin.

Japanomania: Japanese Art Goes Global takes visitors on a journey through time, from the arrival of Portuguese merchants in the 1500s through Japan’s emergence on the world stage in the late 19th century and beyond. Throughout, the story is punctuated with stunning works of art, many which are back on view for the first time since PEM’s 2016’s exhibition, Asia in Amsterdam.

Two lifelike painted porcelain birds peer out from the cage. Only twenty of these vases survive including PEM’s example which once belonged to Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King in Poland. A great military leader, he was also completely obsessed with porcelain. He assembled a collection of over 25,000 pieces of Japanese and Chinese porcelain to decorate his palace in Dresden in the 1720s.

Of all the goods coming out of Japan and China, Europeans coveted porcelain and lacquer the most. Enterprising European artists attempted to replicate these luxuries, often with comical results. But try as they might, they couldn’t seem to unlock the secrets of these technologies. Augustus’ obsession with porcelain was so great that he ultimately locked up an alchemist until he finally discovered how to make the first true porcelain in Europe.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Augustus the Strong and his porcelain obsession lately. In June, I attended a major conference dedicated to his celebrated collection. Miraculously over 8,000 pieces from his original collection survive, despite the bombing of Dresden during World War II.

For the first time in over a century, scholars are working to fully catalog these 8,000 pieces. Because PEM is an institutional partner of this multi-year project, members of the Asian Export Art Visiting Committee enjoyed a rare opportunity to tour the porcelain in storage with Dr. Julia Weber and Dr. Cora Würmell, Director and Curator respectively of the Porcelain Gallery at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Augustus the Strong’s obsession with porcelain will be a central theme of the upcoming gallery for Asian export art in PEM’s new building, slated to open in mid-2019. I look forward to sharing more of our plans for this gallery in the months ahead.

But for now, I want to return to the cats in Japanomania. Hello Kitty may be the most famous cat in the world, but Japan has always loved its feline friends. Folktales and visual art are filled with cats that capture the imagination better than any viral video.

Yoshitomo Nara’s contemporary head of a child in a cat costume is all simple lines and delicate surfaces. Nara is deeply influenced by pop culture, including anime, manga, and punk rock, but the cat also connects to more historic traditions.