Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhin Ten (; "Exhibition of Surrealist Works from Overseas") was a touring exhibition that presented European Surrealist works and related materials in Japan in 1937. Its French title was , and it is also referred to in English as the International Surrealist Exhibition in Japan.
It opened at the Nippon Salon () in Ginza, Tokyo, in June 1937, and subsequently traveled to Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, and Kanazawa through July. The project was planned by critic-poet Shūzō Takiguchi and the Surrealist artist Chirū Yamanaka, with support from Mizue editor-in-chief Masao Ōshita.
Conceived as a direct encounter with contemporary Surrealism, the exhibition drew on transnational correspondence networks and the circulation of printed documentation and photographic materials. Artscape notes that Yamanaka had cultivated ties with Surrealist figures such as Paul Éluard and André Breton, and that the organizers even contacted Alfred H. Barr Jr. at the Museum of Modern Art in an attempt to bring American Surrealist works to Japan, though this did not materialize.
Later scholarship has described the show as the first—and nearly the only—surrealist exhibition in Japan before the Second World War, while also emphasizing that the majority of the display consisted of photographic reproductions and printed materials rather than original works. In one contemporary accounting it comprised 377 items, spanning both originals (watercolors, drawings, and prints) and reproductions, and included works attributed to major Surrealist artists such as Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, René Magritte, and Giorgio de Chirico. In histories of Japanese avant-garde photography, the exhibition is also cited as an impetus for Surrealist experiments by poet-photographers, including Kansuke Yamamoto.
Background
Surrealism emerged in Paris in the 1920s around the writer and critic André Breton, whose Manifeste du surréalisme (1924) articulated Surrealism as an exploration of dream and the unconscious and promoted techniques such as automatic writing. By the 1930s the movement circulated internationally through publications, correspondence, and exhibitions involving artists and writers such as Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, René Magritte, and Giorgio de Chirico.
In interwar Japan, Surrealism was received within the broader culture of Modernism. Scholar Yuko Ishii identifies poet-critic Shūzō Takiguchi as an important mediator who deepened Japanese understanding of Surrealism through criticism and translation, and who followed developments in European Surrealist exhibition culture in the pages of Mizue. Ishii also notes that, after the Great Depression, major international art exhibitions became rarer and Paris study and travel decreased; in this context the Paris–Tokyo New Art Exhibition (; Tokyo, 1932, then touring) offered one of the most substantial early introductions of contemporary European avant-garde painting in Japan and included original Surrealist works shown alongside other French modern art, strongly influencing younger Japanese artists.
The immediate prehistory of Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhin Ten lies in the intersection of such local precedents with transnational correspondence. Ishii writes that artist-poet Chirū Yamanaka—inspired by the Paris–Tokyo New Art Exhibition—developed plans for a Surrealist show in Japan, while Takiguchi pursued the possibility of an "international" Surrealist exhibition through his exchanges with Breton; from 1933 Yamanaka began a long-term correspondence with Éluard, and their combined networks helped realize the 1937 touring exhibition. Ishii further observes that the exhibition's French title (Exposition internationale du surréalisme) deliberately matched the naming of the interwar sequence of Surrealist "international exhibitions", situating the Tokyo show between the London International Surrealist Exhibition (1936) and Paris's Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (1938).
Planning and organization The exhibition was planned by the critic-poet Shūzō Takiguchi in collaboration with the Surrealist artist Chirū Yamanaka. In later reminiscences, Yamanaka recalled that because he was living in Nagoya at the time, he entrusted the basic practical arrangements for mounting the Tokyo showing to Takiguchi and to Masao Ōshita ().
Ōshita—then editor-in-chief of the art magazine Mizue—supported the project, and the organizers placed particular emphasis on printed documentation. In addition to a small pamphlet listing the exhibits that was distributed during the run, the exhibition's principal catalogue took the form of ALBUM SURRÉALISTE—Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhinshū (), issued as a special extra number of Mizue; scholarship notes that it was printed and published in May 1937, before the exhibition opened, and functioned as the show's substantive catalogue and representation.
The organizers relied on international correspondence and the circulation of photographs and printed matter to assemble the display. Research on the exhibition notes that it was initially conceived largely as a documentation-oriented “materials exhibition”, requesting from overseas groups photographs, catalogues, posters, and other printed matter; European Surrealists also sent original works such as drawings and collages, which became part of the final display. Artscape further reports that the organizers contacted Alfred H. Barr Jr. at the Museum of Modern Art in an attempt to bring American Surrealist works to Japan, though this did not materialize.
Venues and tour Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhin Ten opened in Ginza, Tokyo, in June 1937 and then toured other cities in Japan through July. Published summaries generally list the tour cities, while providing limited detail on venues and exact dates outside the Tokyo presentation. CityVenueDatesNotesGinza (), TokyoNippon Salon ()10–14 June 1937Opening venue in Tokyo.Kyoto—June–July 1937Touring city.Osaka—June–July 1937Touring city.Nagoya—June–July 1937Touring city.Kanazawa—July 1937Listed as a tour stop by artscape.
Exhibition contents Media shown Contemporary descriptions characterize Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhin Ten as a large-scale introduction of overseas Surrealism in Japan, combining a small number of original works with extensive documentation and photographic reproductions. The Nagoya City Art Museum catalogue contrasts the 1937 tour with the broader Paris–Tokyo New Art Exhibition (1932), describing Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhin Ten as a deliberately Surrealism-focused selection intended to present the movement's core concerns. Ishii notes that the vast majority of exhibited items were photographs, many of them reproduction photographs of paintings and objects, rather than original works shipped to Japan. Artscape reports a total of 377 items, including watercolors, drawings, prints, and photographic materials.
According to Ishii, the exhibition was accompanied by a printed album that functioned as a de facto catalogue (—), issued in advance of the Tokyo opening, and the contents also included collaborative “cadavre exquis” works and documentation relating to the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London (New Burlington Galleries). +Reported breakdown of mediaMediumCountNotesWatercolors6originalsDrawings31originalsGouaches3originalsCollages5originalsPrints16originalsFrottage2originalsPhotographs295largely reproductions of artworks/objects“Cadavre exquis” collaborations4collaborative worksLondon exhibition record43 photographs + 1 poster (New Burlington Galleries, 1936)Portraits7category reported by IshiiChildren's paintings4category reported by IshiiManuscripts / literature(not specified)listed, but count not stated
Selected exhibited artists Ishii states that the exhibition included works by 41 artists, and notes that much of the display depended on works and materials sent through European Surrealist networks. Artscape identifies a multinational selection spanning artists active in Paris and other European centres.
Artists active in Paris (selected)
Max Ernst Yves Tanguy Joan Miró Pablo Picasso Hans Bellmer Man Ray Victor Brauner Salvador Dalí Dora Maar André Breton Alberto Giacometti
Belgium
René Magritte
Czechoslovakia
Jindřich Štyrský
United Kingdom
Henry Moore Paul Nash Eileen Agar Humphrey Jennings
Italy
Giorgio de Chirico
Additional organisers and suppliers Ishii also notes the role of European Surrealist networks in assembling the exhibition, naming Paul Éluard, Georges Hugnet, and Roland Penrose among those involved in supplying works and materials.
Catalogue and related publications The exhibition was accompanied by a set of printed materials that helped frame the show as a transnational survey of contemporary Surrealist art. In addition to an exhibit list/catalogue (mokuroku), the organizers and their supporters issued an illustrated publication that functioned as a portable surrogate for the display itself.
Exhibition catalogue (mokuroku) A slim catalogue titled (Kaigai chōgenjitsushugi sakuhin ten; "Exhibition of Surrealist Works from Overseas") was published by Shunchōkai on 10 June 1937.
Album Surréaliste (Mizue special issue) In May 1937, the art magazine Mizue issued a special number titled Album Surréaliste (), published by Shunchōkai and edited by Shūzō Takiguchi and Chirū Yamanaka.
Published ahead of the opening, the volume served as an illustrated, take-away "representation" of the exhibition—especially significant because much of the display relied on photographic reproductions and printed documentation. The Henry Moore Foundation's bibliography describes it as a 112-page publication (dated 20 May 1937) with Japanese text and French elements (including the title, bibliography, and list of exhibits), illustrating 125 works by 41 artists; it includes a short introduction to Surrealism, plates of exhibited items, brief artist biographies (including an entry for Henry Moore), a chronology and bibliography, and an exhibition list/index.
Reception and impact
Contemporary reception Contemporary commentary on the Tokyo showing survives only in limited quantity compared with larger, institutionally staged exhibitions of foreign modern art. In later analysis, Yuko Ishii notes that the extant reviews were mixed, and that more favorable responses tended to come from photographers rather than from the established fine-art establishment.
Ishii also emphasizes the importance of the venue in shaping who encountered the show. The exhibition was held at the Nippon Salon (Nihon saron), a small rental gallery in Ginza, Tokyo, which recent research has identified as a gallery opened by the photographer Kiyoshi Nishiyama; it was initially conceived as a display space for a “new photography” group. In this context, the likely core audience included photographers (including amateurs) as well as makers and critics interested in avant-garde art, situating the exhibition within the interwar media ecology discussed in histories of Photography in Japan.
Reproductions, print circulation, and the exhibition as a “portable archive”