is a museum in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. Although there had been museums affiliated with the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

since its establishment in 1877, UMUT was established in 1966 to maintain, organise, and exhibit the vast collection of the university. Today, UMUT works with preservation, research, and exhibitions for the general public.

History

The University Museum was established on April 1, 1966 under the name . In 1984 an extension of the main museum was built to house a dedicated exhibition space. On May 11, 1996 the museum was reorganized and got its current name. While the name in English remained the same, the new Japanese name reflected the ambition to work more on showing the collection to the public. The three last characters in both names could be translated as ''museum'', but the old name is perhaps better translated as ''archive''. In connection to the reorganization a new extension (2996 m²) to the main building was completed in 1995. In 2001 the old faculty of medicine building, which was relocated to

Koishikawa Botanical Garden The is a botanical garden with an arboretum operated by the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Science. They are located at 3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan, and open daily except Mondays; an admission fee is charged. History The T ...

in 1969, was opened as a new exhibition space. In 2013 the exhibition space Intermediatheque (IMT) was opened in the old Central Post Office next to

Tokyo Station Tōkyō Station (, ) is a major railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far ...

. This larger space (~3000 m²) was established in part to show more of the museum collection. In 2014 an exhibition space called "Space Exploration, Education, and Discovery" (SEED) was opened at the TeNQ Space Museum, next to

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often us ...

Mako Komuro , formerly , is a Japanese art historian and former member of the Imperial House of Japan, Japanese imperial family. She is the eldest child of Fumihito, Crown Prince of Japan, Crown Prince Fumihito and Kiko, Crown Princess of Japan, Crown Prin ...

, formerly Princess Mako of Akishino, the niece of

Emperor Naruhito Naruhito (born 23 February 1960) is Emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne following the abdication of his father, Akihito, on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era. He is the 126th monarch, according to the traditional order ...

, worked as a researcher at the museum in 2016. Her father, Crown Prince Akishino, has also worked at the museum and is an honorary fellow.

Facilities

The main building is situated in the south end of Hongō University campus and houses the main collection, as well as offices, research labs and a smaller exhibition space (~600 m²) — the Hall of Inspiration. The museum also has three satellite facilities with exhibitions. # Koishikawa Annex – The old faculty of medicine building which was relocated to

in 1969. # Intermediatheque – exhibition space next to

with permanent and temporary exhibitions. Many old specimen cabinets are used for the displays. # SEED, TeNQ – exhibition next to

focused on space exploration and the universe. The University Museum The University of Tokyo

Collection

UMUT has a main collection of 4 million items. It furthermore has several special collections. One such collection is the University Herbarium which holds over 1.7 million specimens. This herbarium has a large collection of specimens from the Himalayas and East Asia. The

Index Herbariorum The ''Index Herbariorum'' provides a global directory of herbaria (singular, herbarium; plural, herbaria) and their associated staff. This searchable online index allows scientists rapid access to data related to 3,400 locations where a total of ...

code assigned to this herbarium is TI, which is used when citing specimens. The museum collection originates from the time of the founding of the University of Tokyo in 1877 and some parts of the collection predate that as it comes from older institutions. Some of the mechanical displays now shown at Intermediatheque come e.g. from the

Imperial College of Engineering The Imperial College of Engineering (工部大学校, ''Kōbudaigakkō'') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese institution of higher education that was founded during the Meiji era. The college was established under the auspices of the Ministry of P ...

which was incorporated into the new University of Tokyo. In the photography album of The University of Tokyo published in 1900 by

Ogawa Kazumasa , also known as Ogawa Kazuma or Ogawa Isshin, was a Japanese photographer, printer and publisher who was a pioneer in photomechanical printing and photography in the Meiji era. Life Ogawa was born in Saitama to the Matsudaira samurai clan ...

several images depict the collections and exhibitions of the university faculties. Ogawa 1900 geology museum

Publications

UMUT has two main publication series, the Research Bulletin and the Material Reports. UMUT has also published a newsletter since 1996, Ouroboros (ISSN 1342-3614), with 3 issues per year. Between 1984 and 1995 another series of newsletters was published.

Directors

The directorship is held by one of the professors at UMUT.

1966-1996

# 1966–1968:

Takeo Watanabe Takeo Watanabe' Animeland Retrieved November 11, 2009. was a Japanese musician and composer. In addition to composing the well known theme song for ''Cutie Honey'' he has also composed music for multiple anime television series and films includin ...

# 1968–1971: Hiroshi Hara # 1971–1973: Hirotarō Ōta # 1973–1976: Takeshi Sekino # 1975–1977: Nobuo Egami # 1978–1980: Naosuke Watanabe # 1980–1984: Eizo Inagaki # 1984–1985: Kazurō Haniwara # 1985–1987: Yukio Nose # 1987–1989: Toshihisa Takeuchi # 1989–1993: Takeshi Yōrō # 1993–1996: Masanori Aoyagi # 1996–1996: Yoshihiro Hayashi

1996-

# 1996–1999: Yoshihiro Hayashi # 1999–2001: Akihiko Kawaguchi # 2001–2006: Susumu Takahashi # 2006–2010: Yoshihiro Hayashi # 2010–2017: Yoshiaki Nishino # 2017–2020:

Gen Suwa Gen Suwa (born 1954) is a Japanese paleoanthropologist. He is known for his contributions to the understanding of the evolution of early hominids, including the discovery of a tooth from a hominid that was more than one million years older than the ...

# 2020–: Yoshihiro Nishiaki

References

External links

University Museum Official Website

Intermediatheque

Herbarium of The University Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Museum, The University of Tokyo, The Museums in Tokyo Museums established in 1966 1966 establishments in Japan University museums in Japan