Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (Tokyo National Museum)

Lonely Planet review

If you visit only one museum in Tokyo, make it this one. The Tokyo National Museum's grand buildings hold the world's largest collection of Japanese art, and you could easily spend an entire day perusing the galleries here. The building dates from 1939, and is in the imperial style, which fuses Western and Japanese architectural motifs.

The museum has four galleries, the most important of which is the Honkan (Main Gallery). For an introduction to Japanese art history from Jōmon to Edo in one fell swoop, head to the 2nd floor. Other galleries include ancient pottery, religious sculpture, arms and armour, exquisite lacquerware and calligraphy.

The Tōyōkan (Gallery of Eastern Antiquities) boasts a collection of art and archaeological finds from all over Asia, with an emphasis on Chinese arts and archaeology. Heiseikan (Heisei Hall) is the newest, open in 1999 to commemorate the marriage of Crown Prince Naruhito, and it is used for exhibitions of Japanese archaeology.

Finally, there is the Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures, which displays masks, scrolls and gilt Buddhas from Hōryū-ji, the first Buddhist temple in Japan. In order to protect the artefacts, some of which are more than 1000 years old, this wing may be shut when it's raining or humid.

A fifth building, Hyōkeikan (Hyōkei Hall) was built in 1909, with Western-style architecture that is reminiscent of a museum you might find in Paris. Used for special exhibitions, the Hyōkeikan displays temporary exhibits, a good number of which are in fact rotating exhibits from France and other European countries.