[Tokyo] Japan’s oldest museum “Tokyo National Museum”

Japan's oldest museum

Tokyo National Museum, located in Ueno Park in Taito Ward, Tokyo, is a museum that collects, stores, and exhibits cultural properties from Japan and the East, and is operated by the National Institute for Cultural Properties, an independent administrative agency. Masu.

Photo by i_yudai – Tokyo National Museum(2007) / Size-adapted.

In 1872, Japan's first exposition was held at the present-day Yushima Cathedral Taiseiden in Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, and this year is designated as the year when the Tokyo National Museum was founded, making it Japan's oldest museum. I am.

After World War II, new exhibition halls continued to be constructed, and the current structure consists of the ``Main Building,'' ``Horyuji Treasure Museum,'' ``Toyokan,'' and ``Hyokeikan.''
The museum now has a collection of more than 100,000 items, including national treasures and important cultural properties, and approximately 3,000 deposited items. The main building, which opened in 1938, has a fusion of Japanese and Western architecture, similar to the Meiji Jingu Treasure Hall, and rooms 1 to 10 on the second floor feature ``Noh and Kabuki,'' ``Buddhist art,'' and ``Samurai attire.'' ” and other ``flows of Japanese art,'' while rooms 11 to 16 on the first floor exhibit sculptures, metalwork, swords, and ethnic materials.

In addition, special exhibitions such as the ``Berlin Treasures Exhibition'' are held in this main building for a limited time several times a year.

The ``Horyuji Treasure Museum'' opened in 1964 with the purpose of preserving and displaying over 300 ``Horyuji Temple Treasures'' that were dedicated to the imperial family from Horyuji Temple. It opened as a.

The Toyokan, which opened in 1968, exhibits art from China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, Egypt, and other countries in 13 exhibition rooms. There is also a museum shop here that sells goods designed based on cultural properties.

Hyokeikan was opened in 1909 to celebrate the marriage of Emperor Taisho. This neo-baroque building was designed by court architect Higashikuma Katayama and is designated as an important cultural property. From the end of World War II until the opening of the Heiseikan Museum, archaeological materials were exhibited, and after that it was used as a space for educational purposes, but it is currently closed to improve the exhibition environment.

By the way, the reason why the number of items in the collection is referred to as ``number of items'' rather than ``number of items'' is because artifacts excavated from ruins are counted all at once, even if there are more than 100 items. If you were to count it in terms of points, it would be a huge number.

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