Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

was introduced to the idea of Western-style

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

s ( hakubutsukan 博物館) as early as the

Bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...

(幕末 ) period through Dutch studies.

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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, botanist Keisuke Ito, and natural historian, Tanaka Yoshio, 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) staged Japan's first exhibition in the Yushima area of

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 ...

. 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 A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be pe ...

(now, the

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō wards of Tokyo, ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the , is considered the oldest national museum and the largest art museum in Japan. The museum collects, prese ...

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

Ueno Park is a spacious public park in the Ueno, Tokyo, Ueno district of Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. The park was established in 1873 on lands formerly belonging to the Buddhist temples in Japan, temple of Kan'ei-ji. Amongst the country's first public parks, i ...

(now, the National Science Museum of Japan) 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 ( zh, t=內務府, s=内务府, p=Nèiwùfǔ, first=t; 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 ...

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, which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. Katayama Tōkuma (1854–1917) designed the original building, which is a rep ...

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, built in 1917 to house Okura Kihachiro's collection. The industrialist Ōhara Mogasaburo established the Ohara Museum of Art 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 (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 wikt:treasure house, treasure house of Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara, Nara, 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 arti ...

(treasure houses) of shrines and temples from the

Nara Period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 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 capita ...

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 National Science Museum of Japan (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, 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 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 File:Adachi Museum of Art04st3200.jpg, Adachi Museum of Art File:Hyogo prefectural museum of art08s3200.jpg, Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art File:HPIM2654.JPG, Moerenuma Park File:Toyama Museum of Modern Art.jpg, Museum of Modern Art, Toyama File:Oshima Museum of Picture Books, Imizu, Toyama.jpg, Oshima Museum of Picture Books, Imizu, Toyama.

References

National Museum of Japanese History
at intute.ac.uk

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Museums *

Museums A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...