ニューヨーク在住の日本美術史家、村瀬実恵子さんが100歳を迎え、2024年4月にお祝いのパーティーが開催された。パーティーは、東洋部特別顧問を務められたメトロポリタン美術館内、ニューヨーク市内のレストランで計3回開催され、教鞭をとられたコロンビア大学での教え子たちや美術史家、友人らが世界中から集まり、村瀬さんを祝福した。

メトロポリタン美術館でのバースディパーティで挨拶をする村瀬実恵子さん。

Miyeko Murase giving a speech at her party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

村瀬さんは１９２４年生まれ。東京女子大学卒業後、フルブライト奨学金を得てコロンビア大学に入学。同大学で日本美術の教授としてクラスを持ち、後に日本美術の大コレクターとなったメアリー・グリックス・バークさん（１９２２〜２０１２）のアドバイザーとしてコレクション形成にも尽力された。

村瀬さんがバークさんを始め、数多くのコレクターと親交を深めてきたことはコロンビア大学の日本美術研究の発展に大きく貢献した。90年代に鹿島建設元社長渥美健夫夫妻の寄付によって日本美術史の教授職が常置され、メアリー・バーク基金からの寄付は日本美術を研究する学生、研究者への奨学金制度、２０１６年の日本美術研究所設立の原資となっている。

ご自身もこれまで数多くの日本美術の展覧会に関わられ、『Iconography of the Tale of Genji: Genji Monogatari Ekotoba』などの研究書を刊行。100歳になる今も研究を続けられている。

[English ver.]

Sixty Years Advancing Research in Japanese Art in the US:

Miyeko Murase Turns 100

In April 2024, Japanese art historian Miyeko Murase, who lives in New York and was featured last year in these pages in an article titled Bijutushika mukashi-banashi (“Memories of an Art Historian”), celebrated her 100th birthday. A total of three parties were organized at New York restaurants and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she served as a special consultant in the Department of Asian Art. Her friends and former students at Columbia University gathered from all over the world to mark the occasion.

Prof. Murase was born in 1924. After graduating from Tokyo Women Christian University, she entered Columbia University on a Fulbright
scholarship. Later, as a professor at the same university, she taught classes in Japanese art and served as an advisor to Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012), who became a major collector of Japanese art, helping her build her collection. Prof. Murase’s friendship with Ms. Burke and a great number of other collectors was extremely important to the development of the study of Japanese art at Columbia University, where in the 1990s a permanent professorship in Japanese art history was established thanks to a donation from Takeo Atsumi, former president of Kashima Corporation, and his wife. Support from the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation has provided scholarships for students wishing to study Japanese art and funded the work of many researchers, and in 2016, provided for the establishment at the university of a special institute for the study of Japanese art. Prof. Murase has organized numerous exhibitions of Japanese art and published many books, including “Iconography of the Tale of Genji: Genji Monogatari Ekotoba.” She continues her research, even having reached the
age of 100.