Seattle Art Museum began its life as a spectacular Asian art
collection and now it is a power player in Asian art—so this
should be good. In collaboration with the Kobe City Museum in
Japan, an exhibition of 140 objects—some of which have never left
Japan—provides a panorama of Japanese attitudes toward Western
culture from the 16th to the 19th centuries. We’re talking
paintings, prints, maps, ceramics, lacquerware, metal, glass, and
textiles, plus works from SAM’s own stellar collection. (Seattle Art
Museum, 1300 First Ave, 654-3100. 10 am–5 pm, by donation.)

Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male...