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Advertising Museum Tokyo
Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising agency, operates this rather extensive museum of Japanese ads in the basement of the Caretta building. The collection covers wood-block printed handbills from the Edo period, through sumptuous Art Nouveau and Art Deco Meiji and Taisho era works, to the best of today. There's not a lot of English signage, but the strong graphics of many of the ads stand in good stead. You can watch award-winning TV commercials from around the world in a video room.
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Ancient Orient Museum
On the 7th floor of the Bunka Kaikan Centre you'll find the quiet Ancient Orient Museum. It displays art and antiquities, sculpture and fragments, amulets and idols from Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan and especially Syria. Exhibits change every six months; there are about 600 pieces on display at any one time.
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Art Galleries
An increasing number of galleries are moving out of Central Tokyo to an edgy space such as you might expect in New York or Los Angeles. The building faces the Sumida-gawa (Sumida River) on one side and a cement plant on the other, and downstairs are loading docks for a department store. But no matter: the gallery owners present some of the city's most cutting-edge work. Galleries are on the 5th through 7th floors.
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Asakura Chōso Museum
The primary work of sculptor Asakura Fumio (1883-1964) consisted of realistic sculptures of people and cats, but the real attractions are the Japanese house, studio and garden, designed by the artist himself. Upstairs in the Morning Sun Room and the Poised Mind Room are some excellent ink scrolls and beautiful old tansu (wooden chests).
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Bashō Kinenkan (Bashō Museum)
Although it now takes just a matter of minutes from the central Nihombashi district, Fukagawa was considered a very remote area of Edo in 1680 when the revered haiku poet Matsuo Bashō arrived here. At this compact museum, you can see some scrolls of poetry written by Bashō and those inspired by him, as well as souvenirs of his journeys. There's no English signage, but it's a unique opportunity nonetheless to enter his world.
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Beer Museum Yebisu
Let's cut to the chase. Yes, this is the site of the original Yebisu brewery (1889; now owned by the giant brewer Sapporo). And yes, inside are giant pot-bellied beer vats, antique signage, cute beer ads and a suitably cheesy Magic Vision Theatre. But really you've come for the Tasting Room, where you can try cheap draughts of everything from weizen and ale to porters and stouts - a four-glass tasting set will only set you back around ¥400 ).
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Bijutsukan Kōgeikan
An excellent museum staging changing exhibitions of mingei crafts: ceramics, lacquerware, bamboo, textiles, dolls and more. Artists range from living national treasures to contemporary artisans. Its red-brick building is an important cultural property in its own right - it dates from 1910, when it was the headquarters of the imperial guards, and was rebuilt after destruction in WWII.
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Bridgestone Museum Of Art
Tokyo has a love affair with all things French, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that French impressionist art looms large in the civic imagination. The Bridgestone Tyre Company's collection, once kept privately by Bridgestone founder Ishibashi Shojiro, is one of the best French impressionist collections you'll find in Asia.
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Bunkamura
'Bunkamura' means 'culture village' and it was Japan's first crosscultural centre. Spin-the-globe exhibits feature the work of artists from Grandma Moses to Monet to Munakata Shikō as well as photographic displays by the likes of Man Ray. It's also a busy theatre, art house cinema and concert hall. It's about seven minutes' walk from Shibuya Station (turn right at the Shibuya 109 building).
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Complex
If you're only here for a few days and are seeking a peek into the Tokyo art scene, stop here. Several of the best commercial galleries in town inhabit the five-storey, aptly named Complex. Spaces are a mix of styles and intentions, a conflation of more established exhibitors such as Ota Fine Arts, known for showing big names like Kusama Yayoi as well as newer galleries.
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Criminology Museum Of Meiji University
Covering centuries of crime and punishment in Japan, this museum will fascinate both the criminally minded and the morbidly curious. While there isn't much English signage, the wood-block prints and torture devices are self-explanatory. From the stations, walk downhill on Meidai-dōri. The Daigaku Kaikan building will be on your right, on the corner just before the huge Meiji University building.
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Edo Shitamachi Dentō Kōgeikan (Traditional Crafts Museum)
Gallery Takumi, as this hall is also known, is a great place to view dozens of handmade crafts that still flourish in the heart of Shitamachi. The gallery on the 2nd floor is crammed with a rotating selection of works by neighbourhood artists: fans, lanterns, knives, brushes, gold leaf, precision wood-working and glass just for starters. Craft demonstrations take place most Saturdays and Sundays around noon.
Read more about Edo Shitamachi Dentō Kōgeikan (Traditional Crafts Museum)
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Edo-Tokyo Museum
This massive, futuristic building is by far the best city-history museum we've ever encountered. The permanent collection on the upper floors starts with a reconstruction of one-half of the bridge at Nihombashi, on either side of which are thorough histories of Edo and Tokyo respectively, mostly with excellent English signage.
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Fukagawa Edo Museum
This museum re-creates a 17th-century Edo neighbourhood complete with a fire lookout tower, life-sized façades and buildings you can enter. Explore the shops like the greengrocer's and rice shop, or slip off your shoes to enter the tenement homes and handle the daily utensils and children's toys. Be sure to note the Inari shrine and the kura (storehouse) where belongings were kept for protection from fire and, just as big a danger, Edo's legendary humidity.
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Gallery Koyanagi
This gallery exhibits photography and prints in a space conspicuously set off by blinding white light. The staff speaks fluent English and is willing to talk about the work on the walls, which includes some of the leading artists of Japan and abroad, like Sugimoto Hiroshi and Marlene Dumas. Enter around the rear of the building housing the White Bell jewellery shop on Chūō-dōri.
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Ghibli Museum
When you saw Spirited Away by Miyazaki Hayao (or Princess Mononoke, and so on) you probably fell in love with its mythical themes, fanciful characters and outrageous landscapes. Needless to say, do did every kid in Japan, which means you need to arrange tickets long before you arrive at this museum of the work of Ghibli, Miyazaki's animation studio.
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Ginza Graphic Gallery
Excellent exhibitions with an emphasis on graphic design are this gallery's forte. The gallery also hosts workshops and talks by visiting artists, covering everything from tiny typography to monumental architecture.
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Idemitsu Museum Of Arts
This excellent collection of Japanese art, sprinkled liberally with Chinese and Korean pottery and a few stray Western pieces, is the result of the lifetime passion of petroleum magnate Idemitsu Sazo. As there is no permanent display, exhibits change every few months, highlighting the complete depth of Idemitsu's collection. The museum also provides broad views across to the grounds of the Imperial Palace.
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Isetan Art Gallery
On the 5th floor of the Isetan Building, it hosts print, ceramic and fine art exhibits by Japanese artists.
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Japan Traditional Craft Center
Operated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, this showroom is less a museum than a resource for working artisans and crafts collectors. You'll find on display some 130 different types of crafts, from lacquerwork boxes to paper, textiles to earthy pottery. You can also buy much the same from the discriminating collection.
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Japanese Sword Museum
In 1948, after American forces returned the swords (katana) they'd confiscated during the postwar occupation, the Ministry of Education established a society to preserve the feudal art of Japanese sword-making. There are about 120 swords with their fittings in the collection, of which about one-third are on view at any one time. The museum also showcases crafts of tempering and polishing steel.
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JCII Camera Museum
What's that? You didn't know that Japan is obsessed with photography? This museum, established in 1989 by the Japan Camera Industry Institute, takes it a step further, for those for whom equipment is the thing. Holdings consist of over 10,000 cameras, of which as many as 600 may be on show at any one time. Highlights of the collection include the world's first camera, the 1839 Giroux daguerreotype (one of an estimated seven worldwide) and the Sony Mavica, a prototype for the original digital camera, from which images had to be downloaded to a floppy disk.
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Kantō Earthquake Memorial Museum
This museum presents sombre exhibits about the 1923 earthquake that destroyed more than 70% of the city and killed more than 50,000 people. Maps chart the course of the devastating fires while cases display glassware, eyeglasses, binoculars, tools and other objects convoluted by heat. There is also a harrowing collection of photographs and paintings of the aftermath.
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Kitanomaru-Kōen (Kitanomaru Park)
This large park north of the Imperial Palace grounds is home to a few noteworthy museums as well as the Nihon Budōkan. Westerners know the 14,000-plus-seat Budōkan as Tokyo's legendary concert hall for big acts from the Beatles to Beck, but it was originally built as the site of martial arts championships (judō, karate, kendō, aikidō) for the 1964 Olympics ( budō means 'martial arts'). These arts are still practised and exhibited here today.
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Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan (National Science Museum)
This large, sprawling, multistorey museum dedicated to the pursuit of science is packed with delights, especially if you're travelling with the little ones. Displays (eg of the forest or animals of the savannah) are imaginatively presented, some allowing kids to climb up, down, around and even within.
Read more about Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan (National Science Museum)
