HANFORD, CALIF. – The Ruth & Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at the Clark Center will reopen after its annual summer break with an exhibition that explores “traveling images” of Japan through September 28.

At a time when nearly 100 Japanese masterpieces from the Lee Institute Permanent Collection have traveled back to their original home for a one-year, five-museum tour, such a theme seems perfect for an exhibition at the Lee Institute.

The Japanese government of the Edo period (1615-1868) placed tight controls on travel both within and to and from Japan. By the end of the Seventeenth Century, however, the roads were positively teeming with travelers, and foreign influence was spreading throughout the land from the remote trading port of Nagasaki.

Using works from or related to the period, this exhibition explores travel’s role in Edo-period pictorial arts. The title phrase “traveling images” refers both to images of real travel and to the journey of pictorial styles and themes between different countries, ages and even between members of the same artistic school.

Among the best-loved “traveling images” of Edo-period Japan were woodblock prints of travel by Hiroshige. The institute will exhibit a selection of these, on loan from the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. Also showcased will be a newly acquired folding screen and paintings on long-term loan from the Carol Brooks Collection and the Addiss-Seo Collection of Nanga Art, along with rarely seen works from the Lee Institute Permanent Collection.

The Lee Institute holds a superb collection of significant Japanese screen and scroll paintings, sculptures and art objects ranging in date from the Eighth to the Twentieth Centuries. It is considered one of the finest collections of its kind in the United States.

The Lee Institute for Japanese Art is located six miles south of Hanford at 15770 Tenth Avenue. The gallery and reference library are open to the public Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 6 pm. Docent tours of the exhibition are held each Saturday at 1 pm. Special docent-led group tours can be arranged in advance by calling 559-582-4915. Admission is free.