In a little over a month, the Kentucky Horse Park will welcome a new large-scale exhibit to the International Museum of the Horse. This Far East showing is the first of its kind in many years at the Park.
It’s called “Umo no Kokoro,” in Japanese or “Heart of the Horse.” It’s described as an immersive, educational overview to examine horses’ spiritual and cultural role in Japan. International Museum of the Horse Director Emily Lozon said the exhibit opens on Sunday, Sept 15th.
“And it actually didn’t start out as a big exhibit. It started out hey let’s just do a little case about Japanese racehorses. Japanese Thoroughbreds and it turned into this big exhibit. And hopefully, there is more to come,” said Lozon.
The exhibit will include prominent artifacts from the museum’s collection and Japan and present information in both English and Japanese. Lozon said the last similar international exhibit was about the history and culture of the Arabian Horse in 2010.
Noa Leibson is the curator of the museum.
“We do have traditional artwork including a print. There are a lot of sculptures..a lot of trophies…pop culture items. Perhaps most interesting in the content is that it is a bi-lingual exhibit. So all labels and content will be in English as well as Japanese,” said Leibson.
Leibson said she was watching Japanese horses on the international stage winning some of the biggest races and got the idea for the exhibit. In addition to racing information, another area of focus will be Shintoism, an ancient religion of Japan. The exhibit opens on Sunday, September 15th. Improvements to the museum lobby are being made. It’s just part of a five-to-ten-year overall renovation plan estimated at around $40 million.
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