Traditions Unbound focuses on the work of eight innovative painters who broke new ground in Japanese art. Released from the repressive constraints of the shogunate in Edo and inspired by a new merchant market, they created sometimes radical work that expressed the new freedom enjoyed in the thriving eighteenth-century arts scene of Kyoto. The artists are Watanabe Shiko, Yosa Buson, Matsumura Gekkei (Goshun), Ike Taiga, Maruyama Okyo, Nagasawa Rosetsu, Soga Shohaku, and Ito Jakuchu.

Traditions Unbound is a collaborative project of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan, and the Kyoto National Museum.