NEW YORK, NY.- The annual winter Asia Week, held in March, will feature gallery exhibitions of Japanese art from the five members of the Japanese Art Dealers Association and affiliated galleries from Switzerland and the West Coast of the U.S.

A highlight among these exhibitions will be JADA 2016: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association (JADA). The largest and most varied gallerist exhibition of Japanese art held during Asia Week, JADA 2016 will present scores of fine and important works of art, from the archaic to luminous gold-leaf screens to exceptionally refined ceramics and vibrant, colorful woodblock prints that influenced the West’s Impressionist and PostImpressionist artists.

JADA 2016 will be held for three days only, from March 12 to March 14, 2016. Presented in the expansive Ukrainian Institute of America on 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, the exhibition is being organized by the members of JADA: Erik Thomsen Gallery; Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts; Leighton R. Longhi, Inc. Oriental Fine Art; Mika Gallery; and Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art.

Each of JADA’s members will also be holding exhibitions at their individual galleries and include archaic Dogu bubble-eyed figures, fine works of the Momoyama and early Edo periods, important ukiyo-e prints and paintings, and screens and paintings of the Taisho and early Showa period, of the first quarter of the 20th century.

In addition, affiliated galleries from the United States and abroad, including Bachmann Eckenstein Japanese Art, of Basel, Switzerland, Gallery Shibunkaku, of Kyoto, Japan, Ronin Gallery, of New York City, and West Coast galleries, The Art of Japan, of Medina, WA, and Egenolf Gallery Japanese Prints, of Burbank, CA, will be holding gallery exhibitions on the Upper East Side.

“During a week that brings to New York City curators, collectors, art historians, and lovers of Japanese art, the Japanese Art Dealers Association and its members and affiliated galleries will once again exhibit rare and important works of art,” said Sebastian Izzard, president of JADA. “Asia Week is now in its 24th year, and we look forward to continuing to highlight the mastery and exceptional artistry and design of Japanese art over the course of centuries.”

Highlights of JADA 2016 include A Magnificent Pair of Gourd-Shaped Bottle Vases, dating from approximately 1670 – 1690, which feature a double gourd form with a raised ring foot and a tall neck and a trumpet mouth. Examples of Hizen ware, Kakiemon type, the vases are decorated in iron-red and colored enamels and depict contemplative male figures in natural settings. Double-gourd bottles decorated in Kakiemon enamels are extremely rare: only one other example of this pattern is known, and it is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The bottles will be exhibited by Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art.

Presented by Erik Thomsen Gallery will be a pair of circa 1700 six-panel screens, Stations along the Tōkaidō Road. An early example of the subject, the screens show a series of sites along the road between Kyoto, long the Imperial capital of Japan, and Edo, present day Tokyo. The most important Japanese route of the Edo period is rendered in fine detail, with minutely drawn and labeled towns, castles, shrines, and temples, with gold leaf suggesting billowing clouds.

Also rare are bronze Muromachi period (15th century) sculptures, of the Buddhist guardian deities Fudo Myoo and Bishamonten, bearing weapons and clad in armor. The sculptures feature fierce expressions and are remarkably well preserved: traces of pigment remain on the pedestals, especially that of Bishamonten, and the two figures retain much of their original gilding. The sculptures will be shown by Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts.

The striking Kano School Old and Young Bamboo, another pair of six-panel screens, from around 1640 – 1650, features ground-breaking design elements of the early 17th century Kano School: rather than show nature in full, the artist crops the tops and bottoms of some of the trees to create a tensile and dynamic composition. An overlay of gold leaf at the top and a rich, deep blue of a pond add to the composition’s striking qualities. Measuring 25 feet across in total, the oversized screens were likely commissioned for a castle or temple. The screens will be exhibited by Leighton R. Longhi, Inc. Oriental Fine Art.

Also on view will be an album illustrating scenes from the Tale of Genji, perhaps the world’s first novel. The tale is believed to have been authored by a noblewoman and was written to entertain the Japanese court. The album presents scenes from the novel and dates from the 17th century. The album will be shown by Mika Gallery.