Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

was introduced to the idea of Western-style

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

s ( hakubutsukan 博物館) as early as the

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government ...

(幕末 ) period through

Dutch studies Dutch studies may refer to: * the academic study of Dutch culture and language ('' Neerlandistiek'') * Japanese Rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: /Shinjitai: , literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning") is a body of knowledge ...

History

Before WWII

Upon the conclusion of the US-Japan Amity Treaty in 1858, a Japanese delegation to America observed Western-style museums first-hand. Following the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, botanist Keisuke Ito, and natural historian,

Tanaka Yoshio was a Japanese civil servant and naturalist. Born to a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Iida, Shinano Province, Tanaka studied pharmacognosy in his youth with Keisuke Ito. In 1861 he moved to Edo and joined the ''Bansho Shirabesh ...

, also wrote of the necessity of establishing museum facilities similar to the ones found in the West. Preparations commenced to construct facilities to preserve historical relics of the past. In 1872, the Museum of the Ministry of Education (

Monbusho Hakubutsukan 文部省博物館 The was a former Japanese government ministry. Its headquarters were in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The Ministry of Education was created in 1871. It merged with the into the new Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (M ...

) staged Japan's first exhibition in the Yushima area of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Minerals, fossils, animals, plants, regional crafts, and artifacts were among the articles displayed. Following the Yushima exposition, the government set up a bureau charged with the construction of a permanent museum. The bureau proposed that in keeping with Japan's participation in the Vienna World Fair of 1873, a Home Ministry Museum (now, the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage ( :ja:国立文化財機構), is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, ...

) eventually be developed. In 1877, the Museum of Education ( Kyoiku Hakubutsukan 教育博物館)opened in Ueno Park (now, the

National Science Museum of Japan The is in the northeast corner of Ueno Park in Tokyo. The museum has exhibitions on pre- Meiji science in Japan. It is the venue of the taxidermied bodies of the legendary dogs Hachikō and Taro and Jiro. A life-size blue whale model and a stea ...

) with displays devoted to physics, chemistry, zoology, botany, and regional crafts. As a part of the exhibition, art objects were also displayed in an “art museum.” The

Imperial Household Department The Imperial Household Department (; mnc, , v=dorgi baita be uheri kadalara yamun) was an institution of the Qing dynasty of China. Its primary purpose was to manage the internal affairs of the Qing imperial family and the activities of the inn ...

oversaw the establishment of a central museum dedicated to historical artifacts in 1886. In addition, in the years after 1877, there was great enthusiasm for establishing regional museums in Akita, Niigata, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. In 1895, the

Nara National Museum The is one of the pre-eminent national art museums in Japan. Introduction The Nara National Museum is located in Nara, Nara, Nara, which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. Katayama Tōkuma (1854–1917) designed the original building, whi ...

opened its doors, followed in 1897 by the

Kyoto National Museum The is one of the major art museums in Japan. Located in Kyoto's Higashiyama ward, the museum focuses on pre-modern Japanese and Asian art. History The Kyoto National Museum, then the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, was proposed, along with the Imp ...

. Other national specialty museums followed: the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce Exhibition Hall (1897), Patent Office Exhibition Hall (1905), and the Postal Museum (1902). In 1925, the Imperial Household museum, now part of the Tokyo National Museum collection, was separated into science and historical relic departments. Separating the categories was a step towards the creation of art museum. In addition to the national museums, private museums were also established after the turn of the century. The first private museum was the

Okura Shukokan Museum Okura may refer to: * Okura Hotels, an international chain headquartered in Japan * Okura River in New Zealand * Okura, New Zealand, a village * Ōkura school of traditional Japanese comic theater * Okura, Yamagata, a village in Japan * the Japan ...

, built in 1917 to house Okura Kihachiro's collection. The industrialist

Ōhara Mogasaburo Ohara or Ōhara may refer to: Places * Ōhara, Chiba * Ōhara, Okayama * Ohara District, Shimane Companies and organisations * Ohara Corporation, a manufacturer of precision optical glass *''Ohara-ryū'', a school of ''ikebana'' * Ohara Museum of ...

established the

Ohara Museum of Art The in Kurashiki was the first collection of Western art to be permanently exhibited in Japan. The museum opened in 1930 and originally consisted almost entirely of French paintings and sculptures of the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection h ...

in 1930 in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The museum was the first Japanese museum devoted to Western art. By 1945, there were 150 museums in Japan. However, the

Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

(1923), the Sino-Japanese war, and World War II, led to the stagnation of Japan's museum activities. Japanese art objects had been collected in the

Shōsōin The is the treasure house of Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara, Japan. The building is in the ''azekura'' ( log-cabin) style with a raised floor. It lies to the northwest of the Great Buddha Hall. The Shōsō-in houses artifacts connected to Emperor Shō ...

(treasure houses) of shrines and temples from the

Nara Period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...

on. Artifacts were included in the national hakubutsukan established during the Meiji period, but were not assigned to the distinct category of art museum ( bijutsukan 美術館) until after 1945.

After WWII

Plans for museums that had been put on hold during the war recommenced in the 1950s. The Kyoiku Hakubutsukan became the

(Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan 国立科学博物館）in 1949, and the former Monbusho Hakubutsukan became the

(Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 東京国立博物館）in 1952. The government became active in art museum development in the postwar period, opening the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, (Tokyo Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan 東京国立博物館) which housed both Japanese and foreign art. Private museums continued to open after the war. In 1966, the Yamatane Museum of Art and the

Idemitsu Art Gallery is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries, produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products, and also operates gas stations under the brand and (until 2023) in its own ''Idemitsu'' and ''Shell ...

, both built around private collections, were established. During the 1970s, prefectural and local governmental entities began to found museums and art museums devoted to the traditional arts and crafts or commerce of their individual communities. The 1980s saw a national boom in new art museum development, with 90 new facilities constructed in 1988 alone. Local governments were active in establishing many of these museums. In addition, museums devoted to particular industries were also founded, among them the

Electric Energy Museum Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

Denryokukan 電力館, 1984) and the Subway Museum (Chikatetsu Hakubutsukan 地下鉄博物館, 1986).

List of Japanese museums

File:NMAO01s3200.jpg,

National Museum of Art, Osaka is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 10 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka. The official Japanese title of the museum transl ...

File:Adachi Museum of Art04st3200.jpg,

Adachi Museum of Art The opened in Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture, Japan in 1970. It houses a collection of modern Japanese art, including paintings by Taikan Yokoyama, and has a celebrated garden. Its six gardens and around 1,500 exhibits of Japanese paintings, pott ...

File:Hyogo prefectural museum of art08s3200.jpg,

Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art is a purpose built municipal art gallery in Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It was opened in 2002. The major collections of the museum are foreign and Japanese sculptures, foreign and Japanese prints, Western-style and Japanese-style ...

File:HPIM2654.JPG,

Moerenuma Park is a municipal park in Sapporo, Japan. It has playground equipment, outdoor sports fields, and objects that are designed by Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese American artist. Visitors can enter the park and use the parking lot for free. Construction be ...

File:Toyama Museum of Modern Art.jpg,

Museum of Modern Art, Toyama The is a museum in Toyama, Toyama. It is one of Japan's many museums which are supported by a prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Museums"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 671-673. The museum, which opened in 1981, stands within Jōnan ...

File:Oshima Museum of Picture Books, Imizu, Toyama.jpg, Oshima Museum of Picture Books,

Imizu, Toyama 270px, Tonami-yotaka festival held in June is a city located in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 93,447 in 37,734 households and a population density of 850 persons per km². Its total area was . Geography Im ...

References

National Museum of Japanese History
at intute.ac.uk

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Museums *

Museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...