Nezu Museum

Founded in 1941, this private museum conserves and exhibits the collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art that the industrialist Nezu Kaichirō (1860-1940) had built. It is located at the site of the family estate, in the heart of one of Tokyo's most fashionable districts, Harajuku/Aoyama. Closed due to large-scale renovation and renewal from 2006 to 2009 the museum re-opened by presenting a completely new building by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The setting includes the main museum building, the garden, a pond, a set of tea-house pavilions and a building especially design by Kuma to lodge a new cafe immersed in the Japanese style garden. The museum's collection, which was quite large at its start, with 4,642 works, also expanded, to approximately 7,400 works. These include seven National Treasures, 87 Important Cultural Properties, and 94 Important Art Objects. Included in the collection are a pair of Edo period folding screens, Irises, by Ogata Kōrin. It also includes other paintings of renown, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and archaeological materials, as well as objects in lacquer, metal, and wood. The collection includes as well, Chinese bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. | Photos by Martin Grossmann, October 2019 | URL: http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/