The Japanese Art Society of America (JASA) promotes the study and appreciation of Japanese art. Founded in 1973 as the Ukiyo-e Society of America by collectors of Japanese prints, JASA’s mission has expanded to include related fields of Japanese art. Through its annual lectures, seminars and other events, the Society provides a dynamic forum in which members can exchange ideas and experiences with experts about traditional and contemporary arts of Japan.
Celebrating 50 Years of JASA—and Building Our Exciting Future!
JASA’s groundbreaking 50th anniversary exhibition, Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan, took place from October 2023 to September 2024 to great acclaim, attracting thousands of visitors at venues in New York, Chicago and Houston. JASA’s beautiful 272-page full-color catalog for the exhibition (cover at left) takes a fresh look at the art of the Meiji period (1868-1912) through approximately 200 objects drawn from public and private collections across the United States, including newly discovered prints, photographs, textiles, paintings and craft objects. Copies of the catalog can be ordered through the JASA Store or our mail-in Publications Order Form.
JASA has embarked on a major capital campaign. Our goal is to raise a total of $2.5 million to help secure our future as the premier membership organization in North America dedicated to the arts and culture of Japan. We have already raised a substantial portion to cover the costs of the Meiji Modern exhibition. However, we also need your help to secure additional funds to support Impressions, JASA programming and scholarship in Japanese art history Download our Securing Our Future brochure here and watch the video here to learn more about this important initiative and how you can be part of building JASA’s exciting future!
Meet JASA’s New President: Victoria Melendez
Impressions recently met with Victoria Melendez, elected the society’s president in 2024, in the galleries of the Department of Arms and Armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we had just viewed an onsite presentation of Japanese swordsmanship. While she is well-known to many JASA members and fellow collectors, we invited Victoria to share some of her background and views on collecting Japanese art.
We are delighted to speak with you about your new leadership role with JASA. Members look forward to getting to know you better and to working with you. To begin our short conversation, please tell us about your early years. Where were you born? Where did you grow up, go to school?
I was born and raised in New York City. I attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where I focused on painting and drawing.
Were your parents both interested Japan, or in art? What interested you as a child?
My parents were both interested in art, such as painting and ancient art, and when I was a child often took me to museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rather than Japan, they were more interested in Spain and Latin America, probably because my father was from Colombia and my mother was a Spanish teacher.
Read our complete conversation with Victoria Melendez here.
March JASA Events
Join us, Tuesday, March 3, at 12 p.m. EST, for a live Zoom webinar, Staging the Samurai, with Dr. Rosina Buckland, Asahi Shimbun Curator in the Department of Asia at the British Museum. She will discuss the major exhibition Samurai currently on view at the museum until May 4. Click here to register: Mar 3 Webinar.
On Sunday, March 22, JASA members will gather at Japan Society in New York for our annual meeting at 12 p.m. EDT. Beforehand, at 11 a.m., Meghen Jones, Professor of Art History at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, will give the talk We Do Not Work Alone: Kawai Kanjirō and Ceramics in Modern Kyoto. Registration is required whether attending the noon member meeting in person or via Zoom, or if attending the 11 a.m. lecture via Zoom. The in-person lecture is a free ticketed event for JASA members; contact jasa@japaneseartsoc.org for tickets. Nonmembers, please contact the Japan Society box office at (212) 715-1258. Only those with tickets will be admitted.
Registration for the annual meeting is required. If attending in person, register here: March 22 Annual Meeting in person registration. If attending by Zoom: March 22 Noon Annual Business Meeting via Zoom. If attending the 11 a.m. lecture via Zoom: March 22 11am Lecture by Meghen Jones.
For details of these and upcoming events, visit our JASA-Sponsored Events page.
If you missed our January 13 webinar, Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō, with Stephen Salel, curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art, the video is posted below. You can also find links and details for all recorded JASA events on our Lecture Videos page.
- Lecture: Staging the Samurai (Dr. Rosina Buckland) March 4, 2026Staging the Samurai (Lecture by Dr. Rosina Buckland)
In this lecture, Dr. Rosina Buckland, Asahi Shimbun Curator in the Department of Asia at the British Museum, discusses the major exhibition Samurai currently on view at the museum until May 4. The exhibition examines the history and myths of the samurai, from their warrior origins in the 11th century to their pervasive presence in popular culture today. As Lead Curator, Dr. Buckland has also co-authored the accompanying book for the show. In her presentation, she will describe the thinking behind the exhibition and a sampling of the exhibits, as well as explain the broader scope of an associated research project. Dr. Buckland notes that within Japan’s history, the figure of the samurai is unique in its global intelligibility, reading as both symbol of Japan and a universal icon of the virtuous and fearless warrior, ripe for appropriation. Although the term is now commonly used in English and other languages, among the general public there is little understanding of the changing historical reality of the people called samurai, or of the wide variety of ways in which the stereotype has been used over time, both in Japan and elsewhere.
- Impressions Special Issue (2026) January 19, 2026
The spring 2026 Impressions is a Special Issue devoted to Japanese ceramics that came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1975 as part sale, part gift from the dealer and collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914–1991). Twenty-two articles and sixteen authors cover everything from Jomon to Edo, from soba cups to Nabeshima dishes for daimyo. (View the Table of Contents here.) This issue accompanies the Met’s 2026 exhibition “The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics,” now on view until August 8, 2027 (in three rotations). Additional copies can be ordered for $25 (plus shipping) through the JASA Store or our online Publications Order Form. - Lecture: Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō (Stephen Salel) January 13, 2026Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō (Lecture by Stephen Salel)
In this webinar recorded January 13, 2026, Stephen Salel, curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) discusses an exhibition currently on view at HoMA that commemorates the 70th anniversary of the death of Onchi Koshirō (1891–1955), the leader of the Creative Prints (sōsaku hanga) movement and one of Japan’s first abstract artists. Thanks to the generosity of Honolulu-based collectors such as James Michener (1907–1997) and Oliver Statler (1915–2002), the Honolulu Museum of Art possesses the largest public collection of prints by Onchi outside of Japan.
Stephen Salel received his MA in Art History from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he specialized in early modern Japanese painting. In addition to Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō, past exhibitions include Enduring Impressions: Contemporary Woodblock Prints (August 30–December 14, 2025), which he curated in collaboration with the Portland Japanese Garden/Global Center for Culture and Art in Portland, Oregon. Salel’s recent publications include “Onchi Kōshirō: Poetic Images” in Andon: The Journal of the Society of Japanese Art (No. 119, Autumn 2025) and the catalog for Lyrically Rebellious.
- Lecture: The Art of Yoshida Chizuko (Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu) December 11, 2025The Art of Yoshida Chizuko (Lecture by Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu)
On December 10, 2025, Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu, Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum, explored the career of groundbreaking 20th-century painter and printmaker Yoshida Chizuko (née Inoue, 1924–2017), a pioneering woman modernist in Japan. As a young painter, Yoshida Chizuko made remarkable inroads in the male-dominated, often conservative, art establishment of mid-century Japan, securing coveted prizes and invitations to join distinguished art societies. Committed to forging her own style of radical modernism and gifted with a brilliant sense of color and pattern, Chizuko’s work engaged with abstraction for over 60 years. However, today she is best known as a member of the Yoshida family of artists into which she married. This lecture is informed by the artist’s first major retrospective exhibition, titled Yoshida Chizuko, and presents a new understanding of Chizuko’s six-decade artistic career. The exhibition is on view at the Portland Art Museum until January 4, 2026, and brings together over 100 works—many of which have never been seen outside Japan.
- Lecture: Japan’s Manga Revolution: From Painted Scrolls to Comic Books (Dr. Andreas Marks) November 14, 2025Japan’s Manga Revolution: From Painted Scrolls to Comic Books (Lecture by Dr. Andreas Marks)
On November 11, 2025, Dr. Andreas Marks, Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, provided an overview of Japanese illustrated books in premodern times. Storytelling has always played an important role in Japanese visual arts. Over a thousand years ago, painted hand scrolls began to appear in Japan that enhanced text with pictures. This tradition of interplay between word and image continued in the form of illustrated books and remains active today in modern manga comics. This talk coincided with the release of Dr. Marks’ latest book, Japan’s Manga Revolution: From Painted Scrolls to Comic Books. Covering subjects from poetry to celebrated beauties, famous kabuki actors to adventure tales, this survey ends with the birth of political cartoons in Japan in the early 20th century.