Art museums
Bridgestone Museum of Art - Art museum: Kyobashi
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]The collection here focuses on Impressionism and other European art movements as well as Japanese Western-style paintings from the Meiji Era and onward.
Bunkamura Museum of Art - Art museum: Shibuya
[Open 10am-7pm (Fri, Sat -9pm; enter by 30 minutes before closing) daily.]One of the leading art museums in Japan, the museum at Bunkamura puts on several major international shows every year, often introducing masterpieces from foreign musuems.
Gallery Ma - Art museum: Nogizaka
[Open 11am-6pm (Fri -7pm). Closed Sun, Mon.]Established by Toto, the manufacturer of bathroom appliances, Gallery Ma is a small two-story gallery located above their Nogizaka showroom. They specialize in modern architecture and contemporary...
Hara Museum - Art museum: Shinagawa
[Open 11am-5pm (Wed -8pm). Closed Mondays.]Originally built in 1938 as a private home for businessman Kunizo Hara, the building was converted to use as a museum in 1979. It plays host to five or six yearly exhibitions of contemporary...
Koishikawa Ukiyoe Museum - Art museum: Korakuen
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays, 26th-end of month.]This tiny specialty art gallery probably isn't worth a special trip across town, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood and you have an interest in woodblock prints it could be worth checking...
Meguro Museum of Art - Art museum: Meguro
[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.
Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery - Art museum: Shinanomachi
[Open 9am-5pm daily.]Some eighty paintings, both Japanese- and Western-style, depict the life of the Meiji Emperor.
Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum - Art museum: Marunouchi
[Open Tue, Sat, Sun: 10am-6pm; Wed-Fri: 10am-8pm. Closed Mondays.]Occupying one corner of the very tasteful Brick Square shopping and restaurant complex, this compact museum is set inside a replica of Marunouchi's first office building, which was originally built...
Mori Art Museum - Art museum: Roppongi
[Open 10am-10pm (Tue -5pm). Open every day.]Here on the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower, museum visitors can enjoy an impressive panoramic view of the city after seeing an exhibition. The space itself is relatively large for Tokyo, and...
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo - Art museum: Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30). Closed Mondays.]One of Tokyo's best art museums, the MOT puts on well-curated exhibitions showcasing international artists, architecture, design and fashion. The permanent collection is also worth a visit, and the...
Museum of Contemporary Sculpture - Art museum: Naka-Meguro
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]The work of 56 contemporary Japanese artists is presented on two indoor floors and four spacious outdoor areas, with over 200 pieces in all. There's a small tearoom inside the museum, although it...
Nakamura Keith Haring Collection - Art museum: Yamanashi-ken
[Open 10am-5pm daily.]Located about two hours from Shinjuku, this is the world's only permanent exhibition dedicated to the works of the 1980s New York-based pop artist Keith Haring. The museum is the nucleus (and the...
National Art Center, Tokyo - Art museum: Nogizaka
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Tuesdays.]While the museum doesn't have a permanent collection, there are usually several small exhibitions going on at any given time, focusing on ceramics, photography, drawings and paintings. The...
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo - Art museum: Takebashi
[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...
Nezu Museum - Art museum: Omotesando
[Open 10am-5pm (enter until 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]Pre-modern art from Japan, China, and other Asian countries is the focus of the collection here, with some 7000 items including painting and sculpture, calligraphy, ceramics and lacquerware. The...
Setagaya Art Museum - Art museum: Setagaya-ku
[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.
Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum - Art museum: Omotesando
[Open 10am-6pm (enter until 5:30pm). Closed Tuesdays.]The artist and sculptor Taro Okamoto is known for his iconic, cartoonish and somewhat surrealist large-scale public sculptures. The museum occupies the space that he used as a studio and residence...
Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery - Art museum: Hatsudai
[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...
Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art - Art museum: Harajuku
[Open 10:30am-5:30pm. Closed Mondays.]The museum holds a collection of 12,000 woodblock prints, and the selection on display changes monthly. Note that the museum is often closed for a few days a month while they change the exhibitions....
Watarium - Art museum: Gaienmae
[Open 11am-7pm (9pm Wed). Closed Mondays.]The relatively small exhibition space here hosts exhibitions of contemporary artists from around the world. Attached to the museum is an excellent art bookstore called On Sundays.
Yokohama Museum of Art - Art museum: Yokohama Minato-mirai
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Thursdays.]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 each year. ...
Ceramics and crafts
Amuse Museum - Museum: Asakusa
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]Established in 2009, this rather specialized ethnological museum focuses on unique textiles, graphics and product designs with a traditional Japanese aesthetic. One highlight is Chuzaburo Tanaka's...
Crafts Gallery, National Museum of Modern Art - Art museum: Takebashi
[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,...
Hatakeyama Museum - Museum: Takanawadai
[Open April-Sept 10am-5pm; Oct-March 10am-4:30pm (enter by 30 minutes before closing). Closed Mondays.]Antique ceramics and items related to the tea ceremony are the focus of this small facility. Everything is from the private collection of rich industrialist and tea-ceremony devotee Issei...
Japan Folk Crafts Museum - Museum: Komaba-Todaimae
[Open 10am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]If you are looking for a tranquil relic of old Tokyo, the Japan Folk Crafts Museum (Nihon Mingei-kan) is for you. This tiny but enchanting museum, hidden away in peaceful Komaba, displays folk crafts...
Japanese Sword Museum - Museum: Hatsudai
[Open 10am-4:30pm (enter by 4pm). Closed Mondays.]This small, difficult-to-find museum will be of great interest to Japanese sword enthusiasts and collectors, although the lack of English-language descriptions might limit its appeal among the...
Musee Tomo - Art museum: Kamiyacho
[Open 10am-6pm. Closed Mondays.]Tomo Kikuchi has assembled one of the best collections of contemporary Japanese ceramic art in the world, including works by many recognized master potters, and her collection is still growing with...
Nezu Museum - Art museum: Omotesando
[Open 10am-5pm (enter until 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]Pre-modern art from Japan, China, and other Asian countries is the focus of the collection here, with some 7000 items including painting and sculpture, calligraphy, ceramics and lacquerware. The...
Taimeiken Kite Museum - Museum: Nihonbashi
[Open 11am-5pm. Closed Sundays.]A visit to Nihonbashi's Taimeiken Kite Museum feels a bit like stepping into the attic of an eccentric old man. The room is a tangled heap of color and string, requiring you to duck under and step...
Toguri Museum of Art - Art museum: Shibuya
[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...
Art galleries
3331 Arts Chiyoda - Art gallery: Akihabara
[Open noon-7pm. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays.]Once a junior high school, this unusual art complex is still furnished with blackboards in some of the former classrooms, which are now used as offices and galleries by more than two dozen artists. ...
Artcomplex Center of Tokyo - Art gallery: Shinanomachi
[Open 11am-8pm. Closed Mondays.]Founded in 2007, the art complex comprises six gallery spaces, including a big basement area. Not all the galleries are open all the time, but there's usually something going on on any given day. ...
Bunkamura Gallery - Art gallery: Shibuya
[Open 10am-7:30pm daily.]Part of the Bunkamura art and culture complex, the ground-floor gallery holds around thirty exhibitions a year in various genres.
Design Festa Gallery - Art gallery: Harajuku
[Open 11am-8pm daily.]Sprouting out of the backstreets of Harajuku like some bargain-basement Pompidou Centre is the Design Festa Gallery. If not Tokyo's most avant-garde art space, the gallery - an offshoot of Design...
GA Gallery - Art gallery: Sendagaya
[Open noon-6:30pm daily.]Despite their compact gallery space, the Global Architecture Gallery puts on some excellent exhibitions focusing on contemporary Japanese and international architecture. There's also a very well...
Gallery 5610 - Art gallery: Omotesando
[Open 11am-6pm. Closed Sundays.]This small gallery focuses on the work of graphic designers but has also presented exhibitions of ceramics, metalwork and other crafts, and photography.
Ginza Graphic Gallery - Art gallery: Ginza
[Open Mon-Fri 11am-7pm; Sat -6pm. Closed Sundays.]Monthly exhibitions focus on contemporary graphic design, showcasing the work of prominent designers from Japan and abroad. The gallery is run by Dai Nippon Printing, one of Japan's largest printing...
Parco Factory - Art gallery: Shibuya
[Open 10am-9pm (enter by 8:30pm) daily.]This large department-store gallery organizes exhibitions with a pop-culture sensibility, generally focusing on graphic arts and illustration, toys and manga-related subjects. Note that it also...
Prismic Gallery - Art gallery: Gaienmae
[Open 10am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]Occupying a one-room gallery space across from Aoyama Cemetery, this intimate gallery puts together correspondingly small-scale exhibitions, focusing on the works of up-and-coming architects and...
SCAI the Bathhouse - Art gallery: Taito-ku
[Open noon-7pm. Closed Sun, Mon.]Occupying a renovated 200-year-old bathhouse, this cutting-edge gallery represents some of Japan's best-known contemporary artists. The space itself is fairly small, so it's best to combine a visit...
ShugoArts - Art gallery: Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
[Open noon-7pm. Closed Sun, Mon.]ShugoArts is one of the eight small art galleries located in this warehouse building, focusing on contemporary art by emerging artists. There isn't any signage at the building's entrance, and the...
Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo - Art gallery: Ochanomizu
[Open 11am-7pm. Closed Mondays.]Sponsored by the Tokyo metropolitan government, this branch of Wonder Site introduces the work of up-and-coming young artists in Tokyo. A diverse selection of art is on display in the three floors...
Tomio Koyama Gallery - Art gallery: Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
[Open noon-7pm. Closed Sun, Mon.]This major gallery represents over fifty Japanese and international artists, and occupies an important place in the Japanese contemporary art scene. Since 2005 it's been located in a spacious...
Vacant - Art gallery: Harajuku
[Open 1-8pm. Closed Mondays.]Exhibitions here vary widely in content, but tend toward the edgy, underground end of the spectrum. The space is also used for live music and other events. On the ground floor is a bar-cafe with a...
