The National Museum of Modern Art (renamed the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo in 1967) opened in 1952 as Japan’s first national art museum. The term “modern” was included in its name to signal the expectation that it would function as a “dynamic museum,” engaging with contemporary art and helping to lead the cultural recovery of the postwar period. Hasegawa Saburo, recognized as a pioneer of abstract art in Japan, played a key role in the “Abstraction and Surrealism” exhibition (1953) and “Abstract Art Exhibition: Japan and U.S.A.” (1955), both organized in keeping with the new museum’s guiding principles. Hasegawa has long been regarded as an artist whose practice encompassed not only painting but also criticism and thought, pairing “painting” and “writing”. This exhibition also focuses on his work as a curator. Marking the 120th anniversary of his birth, it traces Hasegawa’s path through his works and those of related artists, and through an introduction to his exhibition activities and the prolific body of writing he produced, illuminates his full presence as a multifaceted artist.