41st Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition (第41回産経国際書展) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

I submitted a piece for the 41st Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition (第41回産経国際書展) but unfortunately was not selected. Today, I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, where the exhibition is being held (from 14 to 21 August 2024) to see what are the works that get selected. Thankfully, the weather was a bit cloudy so it was not as hot as when I went to see my piece at the 75th Mainichi Shodo Exhibition (第75回毎日書道展).

 

There is only one venue in Tokyo for the Sankei International "Sho" Exhibition and it is at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, spanning 12 exhibition halls (4 on each floor, on B1, level 1, and level 2; basically, these are all the exhibition halls at the museum except for those used by the museum for its own exhibits).

Out of the 12 exhibition halls, 10 were used for the exhibition, while the remaining 2 halls were used for the "junior" section, displaying works by school students. Out of the 10 halls, works submitted by the public (from all 47 prefectures in Japan, as well as those who submitted from overseas) took up about 4 halls; the remaining 6 halls displayed works by members of the Sankei Shokai Calligraphy Association. The scale is very different from the Mainichi exhibition, where 10 halls were used to display submissions from those in the Kanto area, and works which received awards were displayed at The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT).

 

Here are some of the winning works by students.

 

There was also a calligraphy demonstration, where the two calligraphers who received the top awards were asked to demonstrate how they go about creating their works.

 

I also realized that quite a number of the works were in hansetsu 半切 size. This is quite surprising since most exhibitions do not accept submissions in this size; they usually take in bigger works. With so many pieces on display being of hansetsu size, I am thinking about using this size for future submissions to this exhibition.

 

It was a worthwhile trip to Ueno this time as I now have a better idea of the kind of pieces that get selected for this exhibition. Now to think about what to write for my submission next year...