Bunten and Teiten

In 1907 the Ministry of Education began Japan's first state-run art exhibition, the Bunten, held every year with three sections: Japanese-style painting, Western-style painting, and sculpture. Works were shown after a jury examined them. In 1919 the exhibition passed to the newly founded Imperial Academy of Arts and became the Teiten; half of its jurors were recommended by the Minister of Education and half by the Academy, and a section for craft as art was added in 1927. In 1936 the Ministry took it back and renamed it the Shin-Bunten, and after the war the line continues as the Nitten, from 1946. The Symbiotic Splendor show at the National Taiwan Normal University Art Museum uses this system as its background: Taiwan's first generation of artists who studied in Japan took part in it and moved among Japanese artists. Taiwan's own Taiten likewise had a Japanese-style painting section and a Western-style painting section.

Check the exhibition name and number on the label, whether it says Bunten, Teiten or Shin-Bunten, and then match it to the section the work was shown in: Japanese-style painting, Western-style painting, or sculpture.

• Taiten 臺展→The Taiten also had a Japanese-style painting section and a Western-style painting section.