The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) located in the heart of downtown has just begun showcasing a new exhibit titled "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Paloma Picasso Loving Heart lariat Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum." This new exhibit began on October 11th and will continue until January 6th of next year. Even if you have already visited the exhibit, do not forget that beginning December 1st, a whole new set of treasures will be displayed, making up a total of 142 different pieces.

This exhibit is divided into 7 different sections that are in chronological order according to the series of events that occurred during the 16th to 19th centuries. It begins with a whole section devoted to different ancient maps, I personally found this section to be the most interesting over everything else, There were a variety of maps that depicted how Europeans envisioned the geographical layout of Japan and vice versa, It was interesting to see how little others knew about Japan and that their earliest knowledge was mostly based on speculation, For example, there was one map created by a Dutchman that I clearly remember that showed the country of Japan but what would be Hokkaido was much Elsa Starfish than it actually is and it was connected to the rest of the country. It also depicted the neighboring Korea as an island.

As I walked through the exhibit I learned about the history behind this particular type of Japanese artwork that is in relation to the historic events that took Heart and Tiffany Box Charm such as the banning of Spanish and Portuguese relations in 1543 ("sakoku") to the later influence of the Dutch and Chinese when they were the only parties allowed to trade with Japan.