Tokyo’s Best Museums

Whether your idea of art is an enormous Monet water lily painting, delicate silk with black ink brushstrokes, or the masterful animation of Japan’s latest anime hit, Tokyo is an art-lover’s paradise, with museums, galleries, and unique exhibitions to cater to just about anyone interested in art and design. Of course, the sheer quantity, variety, and quality of the museums in Tokyo also pose a problem for all of us who can’t spend the rest of our lives exploring the city’s art scene. So which museums are worth prioritizing? Which Tokyo art museums should you visit if you’re only in the city for a few days? Here at Japankuru we think it’s worth looking for the museums that best match your own tastes, and checking the event calendar to see if there are any special exhibitions you can make it to, but when it all looks interesting and you just can’t choose, it’s time to rely on the advice of Tokyo locals! Japanese media outlet All About News surveyed 224 Tokyo residents between the age of 10 and 70 to find out which Tokyo art museums are “world-class,” so let’s take a look at their top five ranking.

5th Place: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

This museum in the fashionable east-Tokyo area of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa first opened with a collection of 3,000 works inherited from the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (ranked 4th!), but since its establishment in 1995, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) has more than doubled its collection. Visitors can now enjoy a wide variety of contemporary works, including the museum’s much-expanded body of Japanese post-war art, and work from the freshest up-and-coming contemporary artists around Japan and beyond. With a mission to “promote contemporary art and cultivate the next generation of artists,” this museum is one of the best places in Tokyo to immerse yourself in Japan’s contemporary art scene.

4th Place: The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

The first public art museum in Japan, and one of the many located in Ueno Park, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is probably most widely known for its temporary exhibitions, often focused on just one famous Japanese or foreign artist. Many locals who frequent the area, however, hold the museum close to their heart due to the facility’s many free exhibitions, displaying calligraphy from their permanent collection, winning pieces from Japanese art competitions, or even thesis projects from the nearby Tokyo University of the Arts. There’s nothing better than taking a stroll in Ueno Park and casually dropping in for a little free art show!

3rd Place: The National Art Center, Tokyo

For those familiar with the Tokyo museum scene, this third-place ranking might come as something of a surprise, because one of the National Art Center’s most defining features is that it doesn’t have its own collection. There’s no permanent exhibition, and no famous works you can be sure to see on any visit, but the museum has other features that make it a popular choice. For one, the museum has one of the largest exhibition spaces in the country, and often hosts popular traveling exhibitions, with an illustrious history that includes events like a major Henri Matisse exhibition and the more recent CLAMP manga exhibition. Perhaps more importantly, the museum building itself is a work of art, designed by famed Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. The museum cafe seems to float in the air at the center of the building, an iconic design that even made it into the international smash hit anime film Your Name.

2nd Place: The Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

One might say this museum, and its high-ranking position, need no explanation. To put it briefly, if you have any knowledge of Japanese animation, you probably know all about Studio Ghibli’s influential body of work, including internationally beloved films like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle. This museum aims to teach visitors young and old about the process of traditional hand-drawn animation, with peeks behind the scenes at the creation process of popular Studio Ghibli works from popular directors Hayao Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata. Popular with Japanese locals and foreign visitors alike, kids love the big stuffed Catbus, and adults tend to go starry-eyed in the (multiple) gift shops.

⇨ More on the Ghibli Museum!

1st Place…

The National Museum of Western Art

The most popular art museum in all of Tokyo, and it’s a museum of Western art? This top ranking may come as something of a shock, but if you take a moment to consider who was being surveyed for this ranking, perhaps it’s no surprise to find that Tokyo residents enjoy a visit to a museum that promises a collection of art they’re less likely to see in Japan! The National Museum of Western Art, another of the many Ueno Park museums, has an excellent collection of over 6,000 pieces that range from medieval illuminated manuscripts to early 19th-century works, often attracting visitors with its courtyard full of Rodin sculptures and the promise of Monet water lilies. Architecture fans might also be interested to hear that the museum building was designed by Le Corbusier – his only building in Asia, registered as a UNESCO cultural heritage site!

This quick ranking of Tokyo art museums only covers a tiny fraction of the total variety of museums found in Tokyo right now, but if you found yourself stuck not knowing where to go first, hopefully these Tokyo-local-approved institutions will give you some ideas. Unless you grew up in Tokyo, your own favorites are likely to differ, but you can’t rank your own top five until you’ve visited more than five museums in the area, so get out there and take a look!

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