The is an art museum concentrating on photography. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it was founded by the

Tokyo Metropolitan Government The is the government of the Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 56 prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The headquarters building is located in the ward of Shinjuku. The metropolitan government ...

, and is in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest

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 ...

. The museum also has a movie theater. Until 2014, the museum nicknamed itself "Syabi" (pronounced ''shabi''); since 2016, it has called itself "Top Museum".

History and exhibitions

The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography opened in a temporary building in 1990 and moved to its current building in Yebisu Garden Place in 1995. At that time, it was one of the first photography galleries in Japan not to be dedicated to the works of a single photographer. Most of the exhibitions since then have been themed rather than devoted to a single photographer, but exhibitions have been dedicated to such photographers of the past as Berenice Abbott (1990) and

Tadahiko Hayashi was a Japanese photographer noted for a wide range of work including documentary (particularly genre scenes of the period immediately after the war) and portraiture. Youth and early career Hayashi was born in Saiwai-chō, Tokuyama (since 2003 ...

(1993–94), and also to living photographers including Martin Parr (2007) and Hiromi Tsuchida (2008). In order to appeal to children as well as adults, the gallery holds exhibitions of ''

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

'' and video games. The library of the gallery has a substantial collection of books of photographs. As of late 2008, the gallery has no printed catalogue or electronic catalogue available externally. However, the book ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers'' presents a comment on and a small reproduction of a sample photograph of each of over three hundred photographers represented in the permanent collection of the gallery at the turn of the millennium. Most of the individual exhibitions are accompanied by printed

catalogues Catalog or catalogue may refer to: *Cataloging **'emmy on the 'og **in science and technology *** Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media ****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of librarie ...

; as is customary in Japan, most of these lack

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition and ...

s and are not distributed as are regular books, their sales instead being limited to the museum itself. Photographers whose work is included in the permanent collection include Shihachi Fujimoto,

Bruce Gilden Bruce Gilden (born 1946) is an American street photographer. He is best known for his candid close-up photographs of people on the streets of New York City, using a flashgun. He has had various books of his work published, has received the Europe ...

Hisae Imai was a Japanese photographer who specialized in the photography of horses. Biography Born in Tokyo in 1931, Imai graduated from Bunka Gakuin () in 1952. Her father owned a photography studio in the Matsuya department store in Ginza, and after ...

Takeji Iwamiya was a Japanese photographer particularly known for his depiction of architecture, gardens, and Japanese crafts. Career Iwamiya was born on 4 January 1920 in Yonago, Tottori, the second son of parents running a shop selling traditional confection ...

Akira Komoto __NOTOC__ is a Japanese artist and photographer, whose photographs often show his artworks in the open air. Born Masaaki Komoto (, ''Komoto Masaaki'') in Ōmori-ku, Tokyo (now Ōta-ku, Tokyo) on 14 August 1935,Mihashi Junko (), "Nomoto Akira", ...

Motoichi Kumagai was a Japanese photographer and illustrator of books for children, known for his portrayal of rural and school life. He has illustrated numerous children's books, books containing his photography, and other works. His works have won prizes, begi ...

Seiji Kurata was a Japanese photographer. Career Kurata was born in Chūō-ku, Tokyo, 1945. He graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1968. He taught in secondary school and worked in oils, printmaking, and experimental movies ...

Michiko Matsumoto is a Japanese photographer. Biography Michiko Matsumoto was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, in 1950, and in 1974 graduated from Hosei University (Tokyo). She is currently based in Tokyo. The artist's early work of the 1980s included sev ...

Aizō Morikawa was a renowned Japanese portrait and commercial photographer. Born in Fukui Prefecture in 1878, Fukui went some time around 1897 to Sapporo, where he studied photography under Tokiwa Mishima in Mishima's studio. Around 1907, he moved to Tokyo ...

Eiichi Moriwaki was a Japanese photographer. Almost nothing about Moriwaki is known. In the 1930s he was a member of the Osaka Camera Group ( ''Ōsaka Kamera Gurūpu'') of Kiyoshi Koishi, and in the late thirties a member of Rōka Photography Club ( ''Rōka Shas ...

Tadayuki Naitoh is a Japanese photographer known for his photographs of jazz musicians and of Africa. Naitoh was born in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1941. He graduated from a photography course at in 1964. In 1970 he set up his own company, Photohouse OM. From an early ...

, Kiyoshi Nishiyama,

Yoshino Ōishi is a Japanese photojournalist. Ōishi was born in Suginami-ku, Tokyo on 28 May 1944.Tomoe Moriyama (), "Ōishi Yoshino" (), ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers'' (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ). Text in Japanese o ...

, Kōji Satō, Tokihiro Satō, Bukō Shimizu,

Mieko Shiomi was a Japanese amateur photographer in Shōwa era Japan. Life Shiomi was born in Osaka, and graduated from Shimizudani Girls' High School in 1927 (Shōwa 2). Shiomi joined the Tampei Photography Club in 1948, and thereafter joined two other ...

Teikō Shiotani According to Hepburn romanization, Shiotani's adopted given name is written "Teikō". Many publications in English do not provide macrons, resulting in "Teiko". Following an informal convention, some other publications give it as "Teikoh". w ...

, Raghubir Singh,

Yutaka Takanashi is a Japanese photographer who has photographed fashion, urban design, and city life, and is best known for his depiction of Tokyo. Life and career Takanashi was born on 6 February 1935 in Shirogane-chō, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku), Tokyo."Chron ...

Toyoko Tokiwa (1928 – 24 December 2019) was a Japanese photographer best known for her 1957 book of text and photographs ''Kiken na Adabana'' (), and particularly for its portrayal of the red-light district of post- occupation Yokohama, with US servicemen.Tom ...

, Haruo Tomiyama, Kansuke Yamamoto and others. The museum was closed for renovation from September 24, 2014, to the end of August, 2016.Schedule
/ref> As of 2016, there is no entrance charge for the building or its research facilities, but each exhibition has an entrance charge.

References

External links

* {{authority control Art museums established in 1990 Photography museums and galleries in Japan Art museums and galleries in Tokyo 1990 establishments in Japan