Poster for the Bronze Gallery feature exhibition on bronze inscriptions

Bronze Gallery: Feature Exhibition "The World of Bronze Inscriptions"

Now showing5 September 2026 – 20 December 2026¥1,200

Shang and Zhou bronzes cast with ancient Chinese inscriptions (jinwen), the earliest forms of today's characters, read as calligraphy and as historical record.

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On now All of November 2026

A tiger rears up on its hind legs and clutches a person to its chest, as if about to swallow them whole. The museum counts this 11th-century BCE wine vessel among the finest Chinese bronzes, and it leads off Gallery 3, a room of sixteen pieces built around the writing cast into bronze.

That writing is jinwen, the inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou, and early forms of the kanji used today. On the Lu Gui and the Jing You the text sits inside the lid. If your phone writes most of your kanji for you, here are some of their oldest forms, in bronze.

The museum pitches it at anyone curious about calligraphy and ancient scripts. Admission is 1,200 yen (students 800 yen) and covers the special exhibition and the other three bronze rooms; under-18s are free and tickets aren't timed. From 20 to 30 October only the Bronze Gallery opens, for 600 yen. A curator gallery talk on 5 December at 14:00 takes 20 people, booked online.

Look for

The Tiger You
Look for the tiger standing on its hind legs, hugging a person as if to swallow them whole, a 35.7 cm wine vessel from the 11th century BCE.
Writing inside the lids
On the Lu Gui, a 10th-century BCE grain server, and the Jing You wine vessel, the inscription is cast on the underside of the lid.
Five inscribed bells
Gallery 3 lines up five bronze bells with inscriptions, from the Western Zhou in the 10th century BCE to the Warring States in the 5th.
The owl vessel next door
In Gallery 1, the Chixiao Zun is an owl whose head is the lid, with a taotie monster on its chest and coiled dragons on its wings.