The Mao Gong Ding won’t be lent out, but the National Palace Museum’s Jadeite Cabbage is heading to Japan for a short-term exhibition starting today.

▲ The Jadeite Cabbage is one of the most popular exhibits at the Palace Museum. (Photo / from Wikipedia)

By Xiao Wanning / Compiled report

Starting on the 24th, 231 sets of artifacts from the National Palace Museum will be exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum and Kyushu National Museum in Japan. Confirmed items on loan include popular exhibits such as the Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-Shaped Stone, which will be loaned out gradually. Before finalizing the exhibition list, Japan had submitted a wishlist of dream artifacts to the museum.Among them, the late Western Zhou Dynasty “Mao Gong Ding” was ultimately not lent, but many other national treasures—such as the “Jade Eagle Pattern Gui,” “Jade Cong,” and “San Pan”—will be sent. This marks the largest-scale lending of artifacts from the Palace Museum in Asia’s history..

Among the confirmed lending list, the most eye-catching exhibit is the extremely popular Jadeite Cabbage. For years, the Jadeite Cabbage has been beloved by both domestic and international visitors, with many foreign tourists specifically requesting to see it when they visit the National Palace Museum. Japan had repeatedly requested its loan, but the museum had declined multiple times. Eventually, due to Japan’s persistent requests and their commitment tolending 68 national treasures and important cultural properties in 2016 as a gesture of goodwill—marking the highest-quality overseas exhibition standards ever seen in Japan—the museum finally agreed to lend out the artifact..

The Jadeite Cabbage will be on display in Tokyo from today until July 10. During this period, the museum will rotate three other artifacts weekly in its place: the “Qing Coral Kui Star Pointing Vase Bonsai,” the “Qing Qianlong Gold Ou Yonggu Cup and Jade Candlestick,” and the “17th Century Western Carved Wooden High-Foot Goblet Set.” The Meat-Shaped Stone will be exhibited in Kyushu from September 30 to October 23. To fill the gap left by its absence, the original display case will simultaneously showcase the “Jadeite Cabbage,” “Jadeite Cabbage Flower Vase,” and the “Garden Vegetable Jade Brush Pot.”

Cai Meifen, head of the National Palace Museum’s Department of Antiquities, recently told the Central News Agency that the oldest artifact being lent this time is the “Jade Eagle Pattern Gui,” produced in the late Longshan Culture of the Neolithic Age. It is considered an important representation of tools and weapons evolving into ritual objects. The patterns on the jade also demonstrate extremely high craftsmanship. This artifact has been designated as a national