Frommer's Review
The National Museum is not only the largest and oldest museum in Japan, it boasts the largest collection of Japanese art in the world. This is where you go to see antiques from Japan's past -- old kimono, samurai armor, priceless swords, lacquerware, metalwork, pottery, scrolls, screens, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), calligraphy, ceramics, archaeological finds, and more. Items are shown on a rotating basis with about 3,000 on display at any one time -- so no matter how many times you visit the museum, you'll always see something new. There are also frequent special exhibitions. Schedule at least 2 hours to do the museum justice.
The museum comprises five buildings. The Japanese Gallery (Honkan), straight ahead as you enter the main gate, is the most important one, devoted to Japanese art. Here you'll view Japanese ceramics; Buddhist sculptures dating from about A.D. 538 to 1192; samurai armor, helmets, and decorative sword mountings; swords, which throughout Japanese history were considered to embody spirits all their own; textiles and kimono; lacquerware; ceramics; and paintings, calligraphy, ukiyo-e, and scrolls. Be sure to check out the museum shop in the basement; it sells reproductions from the museum's collections as well as traditional crafts by contemporary artists.
The Asian Gallery (Toyokan) houses art and archaeological artifacts from everywhere in Asia outside Japan. There are Buddhas from China and Gandhara, stone reliefs from Cambodia, embroidered wall hangings and cloth from India, Iranian and Turkish carpets, Thai and Vietnamese ceramics, and more. Chinese art -- including jade, paintings, calligraphy, and ceramics -- makes up the largest part of the collection, illustrating China's tremendous influence on Japanese art, architecture, and religion. You'll also find Egyptian relics, including a mummy dating from around 751 to 656 B.C. and wooden objects from around 2000 B.C.
The Heiseikan Gallery is where you'll find archaeological relics of ancient Japan, including pottery and Haniwa clay burial figurines of the Jomon Period (10,000 B.C.-1000 B.C.) and ornamental, keyhole-shaped tombs from the Yayoi Period (400 B.C.-A.D. 200). The Gallery of Horyuji Treasures (Horyuji Homotsukan) displays priceless Buddhist treasures from the Horyuji Temple in Nara, founded by Prince Shotoku in A.D. 607. Although the building's stark modernity (designed by Taniguchi Yoshio, who also designed the expansion of the New York Museum of Modern Art) seems odd for an exhibition of antiquities, the gallery's low lighting and simple architecture lend dramatic effect to the museum's priceless collection of bronze Buddhist statues, ceremonial Gigaku masks used in ritual dances, lacquerware, and paintings. The Hyokeikan, built in 1909 to commemorate the marriage of Emperor Taisho, holds special exhibitions.
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