Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Ferry on the Fuji River. From Famous Places in Japan. Colour-woodblock print, about 1832. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Hiroshige: artist of the open road (title TBC), 1 May – 7 September 2025, The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery (Room 35)

Join Hiroshige on a lyrical journey through Edo Japan, exploring the natural beauty of the landscapes and the bustle of urban life. The exhibition also considers his lasting influence on modern and contemporary artists.

Born into a humble home during an unsettled time in Japan’s history, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797– 1858) went on to become one of Japan’s most talented, prolific and popular artists.

His calm artistic vision of Japan connected with – and sustained – people at every level of society through uncertain times. From fashionable figures and energetic city views to glimpses of the natural world, Hiroshige captured many aspects of Japanese life. Stunning flower-and-bird prints show Hiroshige’s poetic feeling for nature while his evocative landscapes reflected the growing interest in travel across Japan and showed his world not merely as it was, but the way it might be.

Possessed of remarkable technical skills – both as a colourist and draftsman – Hiroshige’s work also shows a sympathetic regard for people from all walks of life, and sensitivity to the rhythms of nature.

The exhibition will explore Hiroshige’s art and legacy through a significant gift and loan of prints from a major US collector of Hiroshige’s work, as well as prints, drawings, illustrated books and paintings from the British Museum collection, and additional important loans.

The exhibition is the first of Hiroshige to be held at the British Museum and the first on the artist in London for more than a quarter of a century.

Sandstone figure of a dancing Ganesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, about AD 750. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Ancient India: living traditions (title TBC), 22 May – 12 October 2025, The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery (Room 30)

Where does the image of the beloved and playful god Ganesha, with his elephant head and rounded belly, originate? What inspired the depictions of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain deities and enlightened teachers in the forms we are still familiar with today? How did these religions and their devotional art spread across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and along the Silk Roads to East Asia? This major new exhibition explores the origins and global spread of the sacred art of three of the world’s major religions in the nature spirits of ancient India.

Through the lens of the exceptional South Asian collection at the British Museum, as well as generous loans from national and international partners, this will be one of the first major exhibitions in the world to look at the early sacred art of India from a multi faith, contemporary and global perspective.

The exhibition will be a colourful, multi-sensory and atmospheric journey in which to encounter devotional art in a contemporary context. Connected through the common threads of nature spirits, community, continuity and change, it will show how these living religious traditions and their sacred art are now part of the daily lives of almost two billion people around the world. The arrival of South Asian diaspora communities in the UK means that these religions and devotional art are also part of British culture. The exhibition will also explore provenance, examining the stories, from creation to acquisition by museums, of key objects in the show.

The exhibition will showcase more than 180 objects – including sculptures, paintings, drawings and manuscripts – to explore how these indigenous religions transformed India’s sacred landscape and shaped devotional works of art into the forms we recognise today.