Jizo Bosatsu, a popular figure of Japanese worship, from the late 12th century

By HOLLAND COTTER   New York Times (Published: May 5, 2006)

MAY you live in interesting times, the Chinese blessing goes. The Asia Society has been doing so for exactly 50 years.

"A Passion for Asia: The Rockefeller Family Collects" at the Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, remains on view in two parts with different closing dates. The sections titled "Nourishing the Spirit" and "Landscape Design: Asia and the Rockefeller Gardens" are open through May 14; the sections titled "Home as Aesthetic Retreat" and "Archival Room" are open through Sept. 3.

As collectors, the Rockefellers are spiritual descendants of the "Boston Buddhists," a social and academic elite that visited Japan in the late 19th century, fell in love with it and shipped Buddhist art back to the United States by the crateful. In the hands of men like William Sturgis Bigelow and Ernest Fenollosa, an art of Asian temples and monasteries became an art of American parlors and museums.

The Rockefellers are somewhere in this tradition. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller designated certain rooms in her homes as "Buddhist" rooms: images of the Buddha were on view, lights were kept low, incense burned.