With selected examples its China-Japan gallery, the museum presents the art of writing, common to all areas of East Asian art. As many works of Chinese and Japanese writing and some of the old paintings are particularly sensitive to light, they are exhibited for periods of three months before being replaced. The same applies to many items of lacquerwork and textile art. However, as a result of ties with Japanese woodcuts and the museum's important graphic collection, new relationships and priorities constantly emerge. In the Japanese department, visitors are shown a Japanese tea room or Boki. A study collection offers interested museum visitors the opportunity to experience an in-depth insight into the collection. A central repository for the collections is being planned in Berlin Friedrichshagen.