Grutto recommendations - history and culture
[Open 10am-5pm (entry until 4:30pm) daily.]
The exhibitions at this small museum focus on archaeological finds and fine arts from the Ancient Near East (Egypt, Mesopotamia) and Central Asia (the Silk Road). Standing in the entranceway is a replica of the stele of the Code of Hammurabi from...
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by the city government of Kita-ku in northern Tokyo, this well-curated history museum covers a number of topics of local interest, starting with archeological finds from local prehistoric settlements dating back 30,000 years. The area's history...
[Open 9:30am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
Although it's called a Calligraphy museum, the collection here focuses mainly on the early history of the Chinese (and later Japanese) written language through its use in inscriptions on ancient Chinese jade, bronze and ceramic objects. There are...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm; Saturdays -7:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
[Update: The Tokyo-Edo Museum will reopen mid-2025] This excellent museum is devoted to the history of Tokyo, formerly known as Edo. Entering the museum via escalator from the third-floor plaza below is an inspiring experience - the massive...
[Open April-Sept 9:30am-5:30pm; Oct-March 9:30am-4:30pm (last entry 30 min earlier). Closed Mondays (or Tues if Mon is natl holiday).]
This massive open-air museum features preserved and reconstructed examples of Tokyo's Edo-era architecture. Besides merchants' mansions and crowded shops, there's also a mausoleum and a bathhouse. The visitor's center was once a pavilion of the...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed 2nd and 4th Mondays.]
Looking almost like a film set for a historical drama, the main exhibit here is a life-size reconstruction of an early nineteenth-century neighorhood on the banks of the Sumida River, filled with shops, warehouses, private houses, and even a canal...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
This excellent three-story museum covers the history of Tokyo's neighboring Kanagawa region from prehistoric times to the present day. Themed exhibition areas are devoted to ancient archeological finds, medieval life under the Kamakura shogunate,...
Kyodo no Mori Museum - Park/garden: Fuchu-shi
[Open 9am-5pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
An open-air folk-history museum, Kyodo no Mori houses a number of historical buildings including farmhouses, stores and a townhouse. The main building has exhibition rooms focusing on local history and a large planetarium. The park is also...
[Open 9am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
Exhibits at this rather large museum feature archeological finds from the area, including a pit dwelling from the Jomon period. There are also collections of swords and armor, pottery and metalware, and famous 16th-century scroll paintings depicting...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The pre-industrial history of Koto-ku in eastern Tokyo is intimately tied to its rivers and canals, and the top half of this small, rather specialized museum focuses on the theme of water transportation. The other half looks at daily life in this...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by Toppan Printing Company, this medium-size museum explores "printing culture," showing off interesting examples of both printed word and image. You can admire beautifully illustrated books from the 18th and 19th centuries, and see the...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Highlights at this charming local museum include life-size reconstructions of an Edo-era storehouse, residential interiors, and half a streetcar. There's also a large scale-model diorama representing the early post town of "Naito Shinjuku" - rows...
[Open 9:30am-4:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
[Update: the Shitamachi Museum is scheduled to reopen in Spring 2025.] To get a real hands-on grasp of what life must have been like back in the dark days before instant noodles, the Shitamachi Museum is the place to go. Shitamachi ("low city") is...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Life in Japan during and after World War II - the period from 1935 to 1955 to be exact - is the focus at this small historical museum. Completely renovated in January 2013, the museum offers a unique glimpse into everyday life during this turbulent...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by cigarette conglomerate Japan Tobacco, this oddly specialized museum focuses on the history of tobacco use around the world and the history of the Japanese salt industry. Graphic design historians can draw inspiration from a huge wall display...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
[Update: currently closed for renovation, the museum will reopen in July 2024.] The permanent collection of this compact museum includes ancient pottery, coins, and ethnic costumes; there are also frequent special exhibits lasting two to four...
Grutto recommendations - art
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Run by the nearby National Museum of Modern Art, the small gallery focuses on early and mid twentieth-century crafts. The six gallery rooms are filled with gorgeous ceramics and lacquerware, room-divider screens, metalwork and fabrics. The museum...
[Open noon-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
ICC explores the interface between electronic technology and the arts with varying degrees of success. Some of the installations here seem more like cool toys than groundbreaking art, but there's always some fun stuff to look at and play with.
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Mondays.]
This small local museum is run by Meguro Ward, and focuses on modern Japanese and contemporary foreign artists, with frequently changing temporary exhibitions.
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30). Closed Mondays.]
After a three-year hiatus for renovation work, Tokyo's premier contemporary-art museum finally reopened in March 2019, incidentally giving a boost to the handful of small independent galleries that have gathered in the neighborhood. The museum's...
[Open 10am-5pm (Fri -8pm). Closed Mondays.]
One of several museums and other attractions located in Kitanomaru Park just across the moat from the Imperial Palace, MOMAT displays an extensive collection spread out over three floors, and is well worth a visit for those with an interest in art. ...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
This lovely museum is devoted to the work of Katsushika Hokusai, Japan's most famous ukiyoe artist, who lived and worked for most of his life here in this traditional neighborhood. The wide-ranging permanent collection provides a good overview of...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed second and fourth Wednesdays.]
The lovely Art Deco building that houses the Teien Museum was completed in 1933, with interiors designed by Henri Rapin and decorative glass work by Rene Lalique. The beautifully decorated and well-preserved rooms serve as a unique backdrop for the...
[Open 11am-7pm (Fri, Sat -8pm). Closed Mondays.]
In addition to contemporary fine arts, the gallery also presents diverse and well-put-together shows covering fashion, architecture and design. Attached is an interesting museum shop called Gallery 5, run by Nadiff art bookstore.
[Open 10am-6pm (entry until 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by the Tokyo metropolitan government, this first-rate museum showcases both Japanese and international photographers. Around twenty exhibitions a year are held in the museum's three gallery spaces. A branch of Nadiff bookstore, located on the...
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Thursdays.]
[Update: the museum is scheduled to reopen in March, 2024.] The focus here is primarily on twentieth-century modern art, with works by Dali, Picasso, Cezanne and Magritte as well as notable Japanese artists. Several special exhibitions are held...
Grutto recommendations - more
[Open 10am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Sundays.]
Under the auspices of the Bunka Fashion College, this tiny, specialized museum has collected some 20,000 historical costumes and related crafts from around Japan and around the world, and holds four exhibitions a year organized around specific...
[Open 9am-5pm (enter by 4:30) daily.]
Sitting on the Tokyo Bay waterfront in the shadow of the skyscrapers of Shiodome, this massive garden was once part of a shogun's villa, with two ponds that were used for wild-duck hunting. It contains the only tidal pond in Tokyo, with a lock that...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (entrance until 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
This low-key zoo specializes in animals that are native to Japan, so don't expect to see lions and giraffes, although they do have an Asiatic elephant and many tropical birds. Some of the other animals on display include tanuki, fennecs, masked...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
Tokyo's largest botanical garden, Jindai is planted with 120,000 trees and bushes representing 4,500 different species. The 750 cherry trees in the cherry grove turn this into a major destination during hanami season, and the plum and rose gardens...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Recently refurbished, the Metro Museum focuses on the Tokyo subway system, with several hands-on driving simulators, a big model train layout (with shows four times a day), and exhibits of subway cars through the ages, tunneling equipment and...
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30). Closed Tuesdays.]
There is more than enough to keep you (or any children you happen to bring along) busy for a whole day in this beautifully housed and expertly presented museum. The personal cinemas in the library section alone have more than 600 science videos....
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
The goal of Tama Zoo is to display animals from various parts of the world in naturalistic habitats. Spread out over the vast 129-acre grounds are three distinct ecological areas - the Asiatic Garden, African Garden, and Australian Garden. There's...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
This beautifully designed aquarium recreates more than a dozen marine environments from around the world, including the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans as well more local spots like Tokyo Bay and Japanese rivers. Sea bird afficianados can enjoy...
[Open 9am-5pm (tickets sold until 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
Perhaps best known for its beloved giant pandas, Ueno Zoo is home to more than 2600 animals from more than 450 species. Zoo highlights include a petting zoo, a small-mammal house with a nocturnal animal section, and a reptile and amphibian house...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
More than 1000 varieties of tropical and subtropical plants grow inside this 1500-square-meter dome-shaped greenhouse located in a park next to Tokyo Bay. Some highlights include giant water lilies, jade vines, Chinese banyan trees, flowering...
Literary museums
[Open 9:30am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Located on the banks of the Sumida River, this tiny museum is dedicated to the life and works of the poet Matsuo Basho, who elevated the haiku form to a major literary genre. Basho lived in a thatched cottage somewhere in the nearby area from 1680...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Mondays.]
The popular twentieth-century writer Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) was best known for her autobiographical novel "Vagabond's Song" and "Floating Clouds." Her tastefully appointed home, where she lived with her husband (the painter Rokubin Tezuka) and...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed 4th Tuesday of the month.]
This small literary museum is devoted to Meiji-era novelist, translator, critic and physician Ogai Mori (1862-1922). The attractively appointed museum building was constructed in 2012 on the site of Mori's former residence near Sendagi station. ...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Open since September 2017, this tasteful and expensively produced museum is devoted to the work of esteemed novelist Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), whose portrait appeared on the face of the Japanese 1000-yen note from 1984-2004. The museum will...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Special exhibitions here cover a wide range of topics, including film, theater, music, art, and of course literature. The permanent exhibition is quite small though - the main items of interest are some unusual kinetic art pieces by artist Masato...
More art museums
Accessory Museum - Art museum: Yutenji
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays, 4th and 5th Sundays.]
The collection of 2000 items of costume jewelry is organized according to style and time period, with exhibit areas devoted to the Victorian Era, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Haute Couture, Pret-a-porter and Avant Garde styles. In addition to regular...
[Open 9:30am-4:30pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Mondays, Thursdays.]
The former home and studio of sculptor Fumio Asakura (1883-1964) now houses a surprisingly large museum dedicated to his work. The sprawling building was designed by Asakura himself, and consists of a European-style studio wing, where he ran an art...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed first Monday of the month.]
This city-run museum is famous for its permanent collection of ukiyoe woodblock prints. Extensive gallery spaces spread out over two floors offer a chance to see quite a bit of art in one visit. In addition to the permanent collection there are...
Chihiro Art Museum - Art museum: Nerima-ku
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974) was a Japanese artist who was popular from the late 1950s; she was best known for her paintings and illustrations of flowers and children. While the museum is mainly devoted to her work, it also collects and shows...
[Open 10am-7:30pm. Closed last Wednesday of the month.]
The three small galleries here focus mainly on established 20th-century Japanese artists working in various media. It's one of the few art museums in town that are open past 5pm, and its location on the top floor of a department store makes it a...
[Open 10am-4:30pm (last entry; Sat, Sun -5pm). Closed Mondays.]
One of the few museums in the world dedicated exclusively to printmaking, this spacious and well-curated museum has amassed a collection of some 30,000 prints from around the world, some dating back to the eighth century. After you've toured the...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Calligraphy students, former calligraphy students and hard-core calligraphy fans would appear to be the main audience for this specialized museum, which showcases the work of calligrapher and poet Mitsuo Aida (1924-1991).
[Open 11am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Japanese printmaker Yozo Hamaguchi (1909-2000) was perhaps the most renowned mezzotint artist of the twentieth century. This small private museum exhibits sixty of his works, and has frequent shows devoted to the work of printmaker Keiko Minami,...
[Open 10am-5:30pm (last entry at 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Completed in 1982, this was the first museum building designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, who was also responsible for the Nakagin Capsule Tower and the National Art Center, Tokyo. A lattice-like structure frames the outer perimeter of the...
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The museum specializes in contemporary Nihonga - Japanese-style painting using traditional techniques and materials. There are four or five exhibitions held each year and there's also a permanent collection, which consists of several large-scale...
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The permanent collection of this local art museum includes ceramics and lacquerware, tea ceremony utensils, Buddha sculptures, bronzeware and jade pieces, although the small size of the galleries means that only a small fraction of the works will be...
[Open 10am-6pm (entry until 5:30). Closed Mondays.]
The museum has a collection of over 10,000 works of modern and contemporary art, although the exhibition space is relatively small. The building was completed in 1985, and was designed by architect Shozo Uchii. Set in the tranquil urban oasis...
Shiodome Museum - Art museum: Shiodome
[Open 10am-6pm (last entry 5:30pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
More than 200 prints and oil paintings by French expressionist artist Georges Rouault (1871-1958) make up the collection at Panasonic's Shiodome Museum. In addition to showing the permanent collection, the museum puts on curated temporary...
Shoto Museum of Art - Art museum: Shibuya
[Open 10am-6pm (entry until 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Run by the Shibuya-ku government, this small local museum runs a very eclectic program of exhibitions. Past shows have been devoted to Lalique perfume bottles, antique lace and old India textiles, and there are frequent shows of artwork by local...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (enter by 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
The museum's impressive 7000-piece collection focuses on ancient Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics, although it includes some modern works as well. They put on four thematic shows per year, but unfortunately with only three small exhibit rooms...
[Open 9:30am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Five of the six galleries in this city-run facility are rental galleries, used by local artistic associations for temporary exhibitions, and thus the shows here cover a wide range of genres and levels of quality. The museum itself runs the...
Other venues
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays, Tuesdays.]
Japanese and Chinese paintings, ceramics, calligraphy, tea ceremony implements, swords and mirrors - there are over 5,000 items making up the museum's impressive collection. Unfortunately, though, we'll probably only get to see most of these...
[Open 9:30am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
This small museum will mostly be of interest to Japanese sword enthusiasts and collectors. The facility is run by the Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords, and there are usually several dozen swords and other objects from their 190-piece...
Koga Masao Museum of Music - Museum: Yoyogi-Uehara
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
This museum is dedicated to the popular Japanese enka composer and guitarist Koga Masao (1904-1978). Exhibits include movie posters and album covers, recreations of rooms from Koga's home, listening booths and a basement karaoke studio where you...
Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden - Museum: Yushima
[Open 9am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm) daily.]
The former estate of the founder of the Mitsubishi Group, this property is made up of three buildings - a European-style residence and a Swiss-style billiard room designed by British architect Josiah Conder, and a Japanese house designed by master...
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The Mitsui family's immense collection of Japanese and Asian art sounds impressive in the catalog, but in reality the exhibition space is quite small and the Y1000 admission price seems rather steep considering how little you get to see. It might...
[Open 11am-6:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
The seventh-floor gallery of the Film Archive has a permanent gallery devoted to the history of the Japanese film industry, with a lot of old posters, photographs and film paraphernalia. The focus is mainly on notable directors and actors, but they...
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30). Closed Mondays.]
If you're spending the day in the nearby park but get hit by a sudden downpour, this specialty museum is a decent way to kill ten or fifteen minutes. The rather limited exhibit area covers topics such as the invention of paper, the crafting of...
[Open 9:30am-4:50pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Wednesdays.]
Aimed primarily at younger visitors, the focus here is on basic science and technology, with lots of hands-on exhibits, although many of them look like they were put together a few decades ago. Driving simulators in the Waku Eco Motor Land section...
[Open 10am-7pm (last entry 6:30pm). Closed Tuesdays.]
This gorgeous museum is attached to Toyo Bunko, which is Japan's largest Asian Studies library with holdings of more than one million books. A museum devoted entirely to books might sound rather dry, but the exhibits here do a decent job exploring...
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
The main museum building has exhibits on the 150-year history of Yokohama port, but the main attraction is the Nippon Maru, a real-life sailing ship built in 1930 and retired in 1984. You can walk around admiring the big white sails and the...