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, Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 47 Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, headquarters build ...

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

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 ...

. 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 is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo, the oldest brand of beer in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo. The co ...

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 Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of cultural figures of the interwar period, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science ...

(1990) and Tadahiko Hayashi (1993–94), and also to living photographers including

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

(2007) and

Hiromi Tsuchida is a Japanese photographer. His creative photo career is over 40 years long. Tsuchida has produced several collections of photographs of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He has produced many photo books such as ''Zokushin'', ''Co ...

(2008). In order to appeal to children as well as adults, the gallery holds exhibitions of ''

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

'' 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 **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 libraries *** Calendar (arch ...

; 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 or receive ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. A different ISBN is assigned to e ...

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,

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, Takeji Iwamiya,

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,

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, Aizō Morikawa, Eiichi Moriwaki,

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, Kōji Satō, Tokihiro Satō,

Bukō Shimizu was a Japanese photographer who lived in and photographed Chichibu ( Saitama). Shimizu was born on 12 October 1913 in Chichibu, the eldest son of the family running a photography studio in Kumaki, Chichibu.Teruo Okai (, potted biography of Shimiz ...

, Mieko Shiomi, Teikō Shiotani, Raghubir Singh,

Yutaka Takanashi is a Japanese people, 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 Shinjuk ...

, Toyoko Tokiwa,

Haruo Tomiyama , 1935-15 October 2016 was a versatile Japanese photographer, active since the 1960s. Life and work Born in Kanda (Tokyo) on 25 February 1935, Tomiyama dropped out of evening high school in 1956 to study photography for himself.Yoshiko Suzuki ( ...

, 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 and galleries established in 1990 Photography museums and galleries in Japan Art museums and galleries in Tokyo 1990 establishments in Japan