This is Japan's only national museum of Western art, and how it came to be is just as notable as its collection of sculpture and art from the end of the Middle Ages through the 20th century. Kojiro Matsukata was a wealthy shipbuilder who made frequent trips to Europe to buy art, eventually acquiring about 10,000 works that he intended to show in a Tokyo museum. The Great Depression interrupted those plans and forced him to sell off much of his collection, while those that had been left in a London warehouse perished in a 1939 fire. About 400 works remained, in Paris, but these were sequestrated by the French government during World War II and only returned to Japan in 1951, a year after Matsukata had died. Those works formed the basis of this museum, opened in 1959 in a building designed by Le Corbusier that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. The museum now includes works by Old Masters like Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rubens, El Greco, Murillo, Tintoretto, and Tiepolo, and by 19th- and 20th-century French painters like Delacroix, Monet (an entire room is devoted to his works alone), Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Courbet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. The museum's 20th-century works, by Picasso, Max Erst, Miró, Dubuffet, Pollock, and others round out the collection, but also notable is one of the largest Rodin collections in the world, with 50-some sculptures that include "The Kiss," "The Thinker," and, outside the museum's front entrance, "The Gates of Hell." Plan on at least an hour here, unless you also take advantage of one of the special exhibitions—often from prestigious overseas collections—which almost always draw large crowds.
Tokyo› Attraction
The National Museum of Western Art (Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijutsukan)
Ueno Park, Taito-ku
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Ueno Park, Taito-ku.
Hours Tues–Thurs 9:30am–5:30pm, Fri–Sat 9:30am–9pm. Transportation¥500 adults, ¥250 college students, free for children 17 and under and seniors; special exhibits require separate admission fee. Free admission to permanent collection 2nd and 4th Sat of the month.
Phone 03/3828-5131 Prices ¥430 adults, ¥130 college students, free for children through high school and seniors, free admission to permanent collection 2nd and 4th Sat of the month; special exhibits require separate admission fee Web site The National Museum of Western Art (Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijutsukan)Map
Ueno Park, Taito-ku TokyoNote: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.