Preludes to an Exhibition

Abstract

In the exhibition “Tokens of the Path – Japanese Devotional and Pilgrimage Images: The Wilfried Spinner Collection (1854–1918),” (November 28, 2014 until May 17, 2015), the University of Zurich’s Ethnographic Museum presents Japanese religious paintings and prints that were collected by the Swiss theologian and pastor Wilfried Spinner, who worked as a missionary in Japan from 1885 to 1891. This collection is accessible to the public for the first time. In what follows, the curator of the Asia collections Martina Wernsdörfer provides insight into the story behind the exhibition.