The JSMA houses a large and distinguished Japanese collection including more than three thousand Edo-period (1615-1868) ukiyo-e as well as modern and contemporary Japanese prints, traditional paintings in screen, scroll and album formats, Buddhist sculptures, ceramics, lacquer, metalwork, textiles, arms & armor, dolls, and assorted other decorative objects. While living in China, museum founder Gertrude Bass Warner (1863-1951) made the most of her proximity to Japan to travel, study, and collect objects intended to represent Japanese culture to a Western audience. With the renovation, expansion and reopening of the JSMA in 2005, the now beautifully updated Fay Boyer Preble and Virginia Cooke Murphy Galleries of Japanese Art feature many of the same objects selected by Mrs. Warner, augmented with more recent acquisitions. Each year the galleries are rotated to coincide with UO art history courses.
