An extensive collection of Chinese pottery and porcelain, covering several dynasties, is at the heart of this century-old museum's holdings. The 6500-item collection also includes swords, tea ceremony utensils, Chinese and Japanese paintings, calligraphy, lacquerware and wood carvings.

Located in the historic Meiji Seimei Kan building in Marunouchi (itself a Tangible Cultural Asset), the facility houses four small exhibition galleries plus a lavishly decorated central hall where visitors can watch video presentations and peruse exhibition guidebooks. Given the museum's compact size, only a small portion of the collection is on display at any given time, in special themed shows that run for four to eight weeks each.

Next to the museum proper is a large museum shop, stocked with everything from postcards to reproductions of some of the museum's fancier ceramics. We noticed a small bowl with a price tag close to two million yen, but other items are more budget friendly, including pretty ceramic pins, porcelain incense burners, washi wrapping paper and miniature folding screens.