Tokyo National Museum

photo by Wei-Te Wong from Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China · CC BY-SA 2.0

photo by Roman Suzuki · CC BY 3.0

Of its works, 89 are National Treasures: a tenth of Japan's total, the record among museums.

Visitors enter the Honkan, the main building, chosen in 1931 from 273 competition entries and opened in 1938, after the 1923 Kantō earthquake had left the previous one unusable. Its tiled roof on reinforced concrete, by Watanabe Jin, earned it designation as an Important Cultural Property in 2001. Inside, the museum's 89 National Treasure works are shown in rotation.

The Tokyo National Museum dates its founding to 1872, from an exhibition in the Taiseiden hall of the Yushima Seidō. The present complex, in Ueno, includes, besides the Honkan, the Tōyōkan (Asian art), the Heiseikan (Japanese archaeology) and the Hyōkeikan (special exhibitions), and holds the largest collection of National Treasures in the country, about 120,000 works in all.

ℹ️ Open 9:30–17:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and the Sunday before a Monday public holiday); last entry 30 minutes before. Closed on Mondays (with exceptions). Permanent collection ticket: adults 1,000 yen, university students 500, free for under 18s and over 70s, free for people with disabilities and one companion; free entry on 19 May, 21 September and 3 November 2026. No car park on site; from 1 August 2026 suitcases cannot be taken inside.

🚉 Uguisudani · 9 min walk

Sources: tnm.jp · tnm.jp · tnm.jp · online.bunka.go.jp · culture.city.taito.lg.jp · bijutsutecho.com

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