Focus on Architecture - 15 Museums in Japan: A Journey Through the Masterpieces of Japan's Leading Architects

A number of the 5,738 museums across Japan are undergoing renovations and reopenings (*1). In this article, we have selected 15 museums from all over Japan for a quick overview of the current trends in museum architecture in Japan. Many museums could not be included here for various reasons. Still, we hope that those who visit museums for exhibitions and artwork will be inspired to enjoy the architecture as if it were part of the collection or a permanent exhibit.

1. Kushiro City Museum (Hokkaido Prefecture)

Kushiro City Museum was designed by local architect Kiko Mozuna (1941-2001), whose eccentric exterior makes you want to take a drone photo of it. He used his specialty, feng shui, to interpret the site on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and envisioned the museum as a “golden bird spreading its wings and embracing its eggs.” One wonders whether the museum’s functionality and rationality can be maintained in the face of such an exterior-driven proposal, but the storage room on the left wing, exhibition rooms on the right wing, and flow lines are organized in the center, and a giant mammoth specimen is placed in the entrance stairwell. Near the museum are Kushiro City Nusamai Junior High School, which was also built by Mozuna, the Kushiro Fisherman’s Wharf MOO, and the Kushiro Marsh Observatory, where visitors can see real red-crowned cranes (*2).

Kushiro City Museum
Design: Mozuna Kiko Architectural Office
Opened: 1983
Floors: 4 above ground, 1 below / Site area: 4,450 m2 / Total floor space: 4,302 m2 (including 1261 m2 for exhibition rooms)
Address: 1-7 Shunkodai, Kushiro-shi, Hokkaido
Hours: 9:30-17:00
Closed: Mondays (if Monday is a national holiday, closed on the following weekday from April to November 3; otherwise closed on Mondays), national holidays from November 4 to March, year-end and New Year holidays (December 29 to January 3), and museum closing day (December 15 in 2022)

2. Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art (Aomori Prefecture)

Including the Hachinohe Art Museum, which re-opened in 2021, Aomori Prefecture has five spaces for exhibiting contemporary art, including the Aomori Museum of Art and the Towada Museum of Contemporary Art. The Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art is the only conversion (renovation of an existing building and further change of use). The brick warehouse (1923), where apple cider was successfully mass-produced for the first time in Japan, has been reused, and as if to symbolize this, the roof shines in gold (cider color). The plaster on the interior walls was also stripped away to expose the old bricks, leaving as much of the structure as possible, while bricks reproducing the old bricks were applied to the damaged areas. The black tarred walls and cider barrels behind the ceiling were also left in place, carefully bringing to life the time the building “remembers.” The museum is a perfect example of designer Tsuyoshi Tane’s interest in the “memory of place.”

Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art (Aomori)
Design: Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects
Opening: 2020
Floors: 2 floors above ground / Site area: 3606.75 m2 / Total floor space: 3089.59 m2 (including exhibition space: 1224 m2)
Address: 2-1 Yoshino-cho, Hirosaki-shi, Aomori 
Hours: 9:00-17:00
Closed: Tuesdays (or the following day if Tuesday is a national holiday), and New Year holidays

3. 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Ishikawa Prefecture)

Museum architecture has shifted with the times and the exhibits, from temples and palaces displaying the treasures of the privileged classes to white cubes that treat abstract art in a homogeneous manner. Among these, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, is said to be a pioneer as a contemporary art museum that makes work of the same era more accessible. The round, one-story building with glass walls faces the street on three sides, and the four entrances and exits are not divided into front and back entrances. The public zone, which charges a fee, is located in the center, and the social zone, which is free of charge, is located around the perimeter. The exhibition rooms, which vary in area and ceiling height, are dispersed throughout the building, and the two-layered glass ceiling, exterior walls, and courtyard keep the entire building in a dimly lit environment. Yuko Hasegawa, who had been involved in the design process of the museum since 1999, before its opening, returned in 2021 as its director.

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Design: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA
Opened: 2004
Floors: 2 above ground, 2 basement levels / Site area: 26,964.5 m2 / Total floor space: 27,920 m2 (including 2,056 m2 for exhibition rooms)
Address: 1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa
Hours: 10:00-18:00 (open until 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Public Zone: 9:00-22:00)
Closed: Mondays (or the following weekday if Monday is a national holiday), and New Year holidays (Public Zone is closed only during New Year holidays)

4. The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma (Gunma Prefecture)

The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, was the first white cube to appear in Japan. The concept was an accumulation of cubes measuring 12 meters on each side, with the intention of allowing artworks to be placed anywhere within the cube frame, and increasing the number of rooms (cubes) themselves depending on the building conditions (*3). The aluminum and glass of the exterior walls, the interior walls, the floor, and other components are also made up of squares based on 12 meters. While based on the norm of geometry, Arata Isozaki does not regard the completion of an architectural project as completion, but rather as a “cutting plane,” (*4) as if the operating system were being updated one after another. This architectural work embodies a pioneering idea that is relevant to today’s information society.

Gunma Museum of Modern Art
Design: Arata Isozaki Atelier
Opened: 1974
Floors: 2 above ground / Total floor space: 9347 m2 (including 3,318.86 m2 of exhibition space)
Address: 992-1 Watanuki-machi, Takasaki-shi, Gunma
Hours: 9:30-17:00
Closed: Mondays (or the following day if Monday is a national holiday), New Year holidays

5. Tokyo National Museum (Tokyo)

Originating from an exposition held in 1872, the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) is the museum with the longest history in Japan. It was established on the site of Kan’eiji Temple in Ueno, which was burnt down during the Boshin War, and now consists of six exhibition halls, including buildings designated as important cultural properties, teahouses, and a pond. Located in Ueno Park, including the surrounding Ueno Zoo, National Museum of Nature and Science, and National Museum of Western Art, it is part of one of the most significant cultural areas in Japan.

The oldest existing exhibition hall is the Hyokeikan (1909). It was designed by Tokuma Katayama (1854-1917), a disciple of Josiah Conder, who designed the first main building of the Tokyo National Museum, and a court architect known for the State Guest House in Akasaka. The Expo also houses the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, which preserves and exhibits the precious treasures of Horyuji Temple, the oldest wooden structure in the world. Horyuji donated its treasures to the Imperial Household in order to prevent the works from being scattered due to the abolition of Buddhism. Initially, the museum was restricted to once a week for the purpose of preserving the works, but there were calls for increasing the number of days the works were open to the public, and in 1999, a new gallery designed by Yoshio Taniguchi was opened with the aim of opening the works to the general public while enhancing the preservation function. The museum is one of the leading museums in Japan, where visitors can learn about the flow of Japan’s cultural policy, including national politics, wars, and connections with the imperial family, from the architecture on the premises.

Tokyo National Museum
Design: Jin Watanabe (Honkan), Yoshiro Taniguchi (Toyokan), Tokuma Katayama (Hyokeikan), Yoshio Taniguchi (Gallery of Horyuji Treasures), Shinichiro Okada (Kuroda Memorial Hall)
Opened: 1872
Floors: Floors: 2 above ground, 1 basement level (Honkan) / Total site area: 120,270 m2 (including Yanase-so)
Address: 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (admission until 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (or the following weekday if Monday is a national holiday) and New Year holidays, and other temporary closures and openings

6. The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (Saitama Prefecture)

The demolition of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Ginza, designed by Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007), has been a hot topic for some time. The capsules, which were to be replaced with a new unit every 25 years, were planned as second homes for office workers in the city center. Now one of these capsules is on permanent display in Kitaurawa Park. On the same site is the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, which became the first museum building designed by Kurokawa ten years after the capsule tower.

The building was kept to a height of 15 meters in consideration of the tree-lined avenue, and a kaleidoscopic atrium was created in the center of the building, connecting the three floors above ground to the first basement level. Like the Sunken Garden, the outdoor intermediate area enclosed by the exposed lattice-like structure in front emphasizes the connection between the building and the park. The wavy glass facade lurking behind it actively brings natural light into the exhibition rooms, reminding one of the National Art Center, Tokyo in its later years.

The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Design: Kisho Kurokawa & Associates
Opened: 1982
Floors: 3 above ground, 1 below / Site area: 35,177 m2 / Total floor space: 8,577 m2 (including 2,710.82 m2 for exhibition rooms)
Address: 9-30-1 Tokiwa, Urawa-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama
Hours: 10:00-17:30
Closed: Mondays (open if Monday is a national holiday or a prefectural holiday)

7. Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum (Nagano Prefecture)

Architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori designed his first museum as an architect at the age of 45, the Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum, a cave-like exhibition hall built near Fujimori’s family home. The client is the head of the Moriya family, who knew Fujimori well from childhood and named him “Terunobu.” The Moriya family has served as the chief priest and chief Shinto priest of Suwa-Taisha Shrine since ancient times, and documents that have been passed down from generation to generation since the Kamakura period are stored and exhibited at the museum.

In addition to actively using locally produced materials in the construction of the building, the architectural historian has also demonstrated his ability to comply with local customs in the handling of details, such as wall pressure and wood splitting. The four pillars that run through the eaves of the main entrance are derived from the Mikashira Festival, in which sacred trees pulled down from the cliff were erected on all four sides of the shrine building. The three teahouses in Fujimori, Takasugi-an (2004), Flying Mud Boat (2010), and Hikusugi-an (2017), as well as the Takabe Community Center in Chino City (2021), are also located near this museum.

Jinchokan Moriya Historical Museum
Design: Terunobu Fujimori + Shoji Uchida
Opened: 1991
Site area: 937.54 m2
Address: 389-1 Miyagawa, Chino-shi, Nagano
Hours: 9:00-16:30
Closed: Mondays, New Year holidays (December 29-January 3), and the day following a national holiday.

8. Toba Sea-Folk Museum (Mie Prefecture)

Located along the coast of Ise Bay, with the sea breeze blowing and an ancient burial mound in the back, the Toba Sea-Folk Museum houses and exhibits a vast collection of marine-related materials. It was designed by Hiroshi Naito, who is also known as a member of the jury for the National Stadium design competition for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Seven buildings are dispersed throughout the site, which varies in elevation. Two of the exhibition rooms are wooden, and the tar-painted cedar planks give the building the appearance of a fishing village. Natural light floods in through the arched ceilings that resemble the bottom of a ship.

On the other hand, the three white storage rooms are made of precast concrete and house 60,000 items, including wooden Japanese-style boats and fishing tools. The large spaces with different structures are both naturally ventilated, low-cost, and sustainable. The museum is a good starting point for a visit to the Makino Botanical Garden (1999, Kochi), where Naito further developed his ideas on air quality.

Toba Sea-Folk Museum
Design: Naito Ko Architects & Engineers
Opened: 1971 (moved in 1992, designed by Naito Ko Architects)
Floors: 2 floors above ground / Site area: 18,058 m2 / Total floor space: 3,924 m2
Address: 1731-68 Oyoshi, Uramura-cho, Toba-shi, Mie
Hours: 9:00-17:00 (March 1-November 30), 9:00-16:30 (December 1-February 31)
Closed: June 26-30, December 26-30

9. Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art（Kyoto Prefecture）

Opened in 1933 as Japan’s second public art museum, the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art was Japan’s oldest existing public art museum building. The Jun Aoki and Tetsuo Nishizawa design team renovated the building and reopened it in 2020 as the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. The architects found the characteristics of the existing building and preserved extravagant features such as stained glass and decorations that were possible only with the technology of the time. In order to preserve the symbolic facade typical of the imperial crown style, the western plaza in front of the main entrance was excavated down to the basement level, and a glass ribbon was inserted as a facade. Today’s functions such as stores and cafes were added. The large display room with a 16-meter ceiling height was utilized as a central hall connecting the exhibition rooms, while at the same time connecting the main entrance on the west side with the Japanese garden on the east side to enhance accessibility.

Jun Aoki, the director of the museum and one of the designers, was involved in the design of Art Tower Mito when he was a member of Arata Isozaki Atelier, going on to design the Aomori Museum of Art as an independent designer. Nishizawa, who worked with Aoki on Art Tower Mito, later designed the Hachinohe City Museum of Art (in collaboration with Yoshihide Asako and Junpei Mori). This work is perfect for grasping the flow of the history of Japanese art museum architecture.

Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
Design: Jun Aoki and Tetsuo Nishizawa Design Collaborative
Opened: 1933 (Jun Aoki and Tetsuo Nishizawa designed the 2020 renewal)
Floors: 2 above ground, 1 below / Site area: 25,383.71 m2 / Total floor space: 19,495.17 m2 (including 5,240.49 m2 for exhibition rooms)
Address: 124 Enshoji-cho, Okazaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto
Hours: 10:00-18:00
Closed: Mondays (open if Monday is a national holiday), year-end, and New Year holidays (December 28-January 2)

10. Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art (Kyoto Prefecture)

The Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art is located in the middle of a hiking trail on Mt. Tennozan, in a garden of approximately 1,500 m2, in addition to a building designed by Shotaro Kaga completed around 1932 (used as the main museum building since 1992), the “Underground Jewel Box” (Chichu-kan) added in 1992 and the “Dream Box” (Yamanote Kan) newly constructed in 2012 and designed by Tadao Ando.

The Chichu-kan is a circular, semi-subterranean structure connected to the main building by a stairway. A staircase surrounded by high concrete walls leads visitors to the quiet underground exhibition room where Monet’s “Waterlilies” is exhibited, and as they ascend the stairs from the exhibition room, they are welcomed to the ground by greenery and light coming in through the glass on all four sides. Although relatively small in scale, this is one of Ando’s earliest works and offers a taste of the typical Ando sequence in which he skillfully manipulates the light and wind that stream through the naked concrete and provides an architectural experience that can be considered a prototype for his later representative art museums. It would be best to visit the museum in conjunction with the national treasures Taian and Chochikukyo.

Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art
Design: Shotaro Kaga (Main Building), Tadao Ando Architectural Institute (Underground Jewel Box [Chichu-kan], Dream Box [Yamate-kan])
Opened: 1996 (Dream Box [Yamate-kan] in 2012)
Floors: 3 above ground, 1 below / Site area: approx. 5,500 tsubo
Address: 5-3 Zenihara, Oyamazaki-cho, Otokuni-gun, Kyoto
Hours: 10:00-17:00
Closed: Mondays (or the following Tuesday if Monday is a national holiday), occasional holidays, year-end and New Year holidays

11. Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography (Tottori Prefecture)

Shoji Ueda is known for his “Dune Mode” series and other photographs in which he carefully arranges his subjects in natural settings. The Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography, which houses and exhibits Ueda’s work, is located in Tottori Prefecture, Ueda’s hometown, and stands in a location that seems to be solely for the purpose of viewing the famous mountain. There is nothing between Mt. Daisen and the view of Mt. Daisen in front of the museum. The curved wall surrounds a concrete grouping that resembles a comb lying on its side, and Mt. Daisen peeking through a slit in the exterior wall is reflected upside in a pool of water.

Even in the exhibition room, through a 600mm-diameter lens, a 7m-diameter inverted large mountain is projected on the wall, a device that turns the exhibition room itself into a camera obscura. The architecture is not overly decorative but simply becomes a lens to capture the scenery. It could be seen as architecture as a metaphor. Compare this with the Yoshio Taniguchi-designed Ken Domon Memorial Museum, which is also a private museum specializing in photography, but in a different architectural style.

Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography
Design: Shin Takamatsu
Opened: 1995
Floors: 3 above ground / Site area: 16,175 m2
Address: 353-3 Sumura, Hoki-cho, Nishihaku-gun, Tottori
Hours: 10:00-17:00
Closed: Tuesdays (or the following day if Tuesday is a national holiday), winter (late December to late February), and during exhibition change periods

12. Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (Kagawa Prefecture)

The Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art was planned as part of the redevelopment project in front of JR Marugame Station following the opening of the Great Seto Bridge. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the museum is a natural extenuation of the adjacent station-front square. A grand staircase by the entrance leads up to the art library, café, and other functions open to the public. After passing through the entrance on the first floor, visitors are welcomed into a white space with a two-story atrium, which leads to three exhibition rooms on the second and third floors, each with different characteristics. The three layers from the first to the third floors are partially divided by interior windows. The method of implying signs of movement in various places is typical of Taniguchi.

Even though no space is dedicated to civic activities (*5), the architecture gently connects the town and the museum, and the open space where visitors can always feel the outside air and light further accentuates Inokuma’s humorous style. It is a wonderful collaboration between a painter with a strong interest in architecture and an architect with a deep knowledge of art museums.

Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art
Design: Taniguchi and Associates
Opened: 1991
Floors: 3 above ground, 1 below / Site area: 5974.53 m2 / Total floor space: 11,948.14 m2
Address: 80-1 Hama-machi, Marugame-shi, Kagawa
Hours: 10:00-18:00
Closed: Mondays (or the immediately following weekday if Monday is a national holiday), Year-end and New Year holidays (December 25-31), Temporary closing days

13. Teshima Art Museum (Kagawa Prefecture)

A large drop of water dropped on a lush green hill, or a building resembling a white shellfish hiding in its natural habitat. At the Teshima Art Museum, the exhibits are not placed in a box like a white cube, but rather art and architecture, artifacts, and natural surroundings create a single scene. The building is almost like a roof and ground, with no pillars, and a flowing, gently sloping floor under a low, wide, thin roof made of concrete. Only one work, Rei Naito’s “Matrix,” is on view. The high level of construction technology fuses with nature.

Teshima Art Museum
Design: Ryue Nishizawa Architects
Opened: 2010
Floors: 1 story above ground / Site area: 9959 m2 / Total floor space: 2334 m2
Address: 607 Karato, Teshima, Tonosho-cho, Shozu-gun, Kagawa
Hours: 10:00-17:00 (March 1-October 31), 10:00-16:00 (November 1-February 31)
Closed: Tuesdays (March 1-November 30), Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (December 1-February 31) *If Monday is a national holiday, the museum will be open on Tuesday and closed the following day.

14. Seashell Gallery (Kochi Prefecture)

The Seashell Gallery is a small two-story gallery that displays a collection of shells by Kazuo Kurohara, a Western-style painter living in Tosashimizu City. The designer, Masako Hayashi (1928-2001), is considered a pioneer of female architects in Japan, but most of her works are private homes. For this reason, we recommend that you make the trip to the southern tip of Kochi Prefecture to visit the Seashell Gallery from the perspective that it is one of the few places where you can actually see Hayashi’s architecture. 

Inspired by bivalve shells, the building is made of concrete slabs that are bent symmetrically to form a freestanding roof, creating a transparent space with no visually obtrusive elements. The staircase is also light, with each step lifted from the central beam, and the display case in the center of the second floor is made of glass on both sides. Looking up from the first floor to the second floor, visitors can see the other side, which is usually hidden in ordinary exhibitions. As the designer states, “I thought about how best to show the shells and made them visible under the sea” (*6), the white light falling through the blue interior walls creates a serene space that makes one wonder what it would be like to look up at the sun from the bottom of the sea.

Seashell Gallery
Design: Hayashi, Yamada, and Nakahara Sekkei Doujin
Opened: 1966
Floors: 2 floors above ground / Total floor area: 475.2 m2
Address: 23-8 Ryugushi, Tosashimizu-shi, Kochi
Hours: 9:00-17:00 (July and August), 9:00-16:00 (September-June)
Closed: Thursdays (open on Thursdays from August 13 to 15 and January 1 to 3)

15. Kyushu National Museum (Fukuoka Prefecture)

Kiyonori Kikutake (1928-2011) was an advocate of the Metabolism movement with Kisho Kurokawa and others and had a great influence on many of his successors, including Hiroshi Naito and Toyo Ito. Kikutake’s last museum building was the Kyushu National Museum, which he designed in his hometown of Fukuoka.

The building has an interesting Kikutake-like quality, with its man-made technology that faces nature standing out amidst the futuristic expression of the Showa era. The exterior of the building is designed to blend in with the surrounding mountains with its large titanium roof that curves gently from east to west and its glass exterior walls that reflect the sky and trees to the north and south. The large, kamaboko-shaped screen and the blue columns at the entrance give the impression of a man-made structure that is in antagonism or coexistence with nature rather than an architecture that blends with nature. The Japanese-style interior, with its abundant use of wood, is clearly structured with four layers of buildings inserted within the dome, with maximum consideration given to the environmental performance of the technology available at the time. This museum is worth revisiting, along with the elegant Shimane Art Museum on the shores of Lake Shinji to contemplate the architecture of the future and the relation between nature and the man-made.

Kyushu National Museum
Design: Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates
Opened: 2005
Floors: 5 above ground, 2 basement levels / Site area: 159,844 m2 / Total floor space: 30,675 m2 (1,500 m2 for the 3rd-floor special exhibition room, 3,900 m2 for the 4th-floor cultural exchange exhibition room)
Address: 4-7-2 Ishizaka, Dazaifu-shi, Fukuoka
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Admission until 4:30 p.m.)
Closed: Mondays (or the following day if Monday is a national holiday), Year-end
 
*1 - https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bijutsukan_hakubutsukan/shinko/suii/
*2 - ‘Kushiro, Hokkaido Lake Akan Travel Guide (Official), Walkable Mozuna Tour’　http://ja.kushiro-lakeakan.com/things_to_do/5333/
*3 - ‘ArchDaily’ Presentation Drawing
https://www.archdaily.com/153449/ad-classics-museum-of-modern-art-gunma-arata-isozaki
*4 - https://artscape.jp/artword/index.php
*5 - https://www.mimoca.org/data/news/upload/
*6 - ‘Shinkenchiku’ April 1967 Issue (Architecture and Urbanism Magazine)