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Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan
Contemporary art museum facing the Imperial Palace East Garden. All pieces date from the Meiji period onwards and impart a sense of a more modern Japan through portraits, photography and grim wartime landscapes. Its collection of over 9000 works is arguably the best in the country.
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Kokuritsu Seiyō Bijutsukan (National Museum Of Western Art)
Designed by Le Corbusier in the late 1950s, this museum has its roots in French impressionism, but runs the gamut from medieval Madonna & Child images to 20th-century splatter painting. All the big names are here, particularly Manet, Rodin, Miró and the Dutch Masters. It also hosts wildly popular temporary exhibits on loan from such stalwarts as the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Read more about Kokuritsu Seiyō Bijutsukan (National Museum Of Western Art)
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Laforet Museum Harajuku
This museum, on the 6th floor of the teenybopper fashionista Mecca that is Laforet department store, is gallery or performance space depending on the event. Small film festivals, art installations and launch parties are held here regularly - after browsing the art-as-streetwear on the floors below, check out art-as-art upstairs.
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Leica Ginza Salon
Exhibiting the outstanding work of up-and-coming photographers and long-time professionals, this clean, minimalist salon remains one of the best photography galleries in the area.
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Meguro Museum Of Art, Tokyo
Half local, half global, one part of this museum exhibits the work of Meguro artists, while the other is dedicated to fine art and craft exhibits from around the world (think the work of Charles and Ray Eames). The building is a delight - it's airy, spacious and well-lit compared with many other Tokyo art museums, which can want for space - and there is a coffee shop on the 1st floor with pleasant views of the grounds.
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Meguro Parasitological Museum
Yeah, ew. Probably the grossest museum in Japan, this spot was established in 1953 by Satoru Kamegai, a local doctor concerned by the increasing number of parasites he was encountering in his practice due to unsanitary postwar conditions. The grisly centrepiece is an 8.8m-long tapeworm found ensconced in the body of a 40-year-old Yokohama man.
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Miraikan (National Museum Of Emerging Science & Innovation)
Kids will love the engaging exhibits at this science museum, where most displays have excellent explanations in English and English-speaking guides fill in the blanks. There's the spectacular planetarium (buy tickets for a show as soon as you arrive), demonstrations of robots and opportunities to interact with them, and tons of exhibits about space, medicine and the environment.
Read more about Miraikan (National Museum Of Emerging Science & Innovation)
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Mori Art Museum
Perched on the 52nd and 53rd floors of Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex, the high ceilings, broad views and thematic programmes of this new museum have somehow managed to live up to all the hype. Exhibits are consistently beautifully presented and run the gamut from Bill Viola and Sugimoto Hiroshi to the Da Vinci Codex and the silver of Georg Jensen.
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Musée Tomo
This marvellous museum may be one of Tokyo's most elegant and tasteful. It is named for Kikuchi Tomo, whose collection of contemporary Japanese ceramics wowed them in Washington and London before finally being exhibited in Tokyo. Exhibitions change every few months and might include highlights of the Kikuchi collection or a special study of raku pottery; you can bet that the displays will be atmospheric and beautiful. The museum is behind the Hotel Ōkura.
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Museum Of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Dedicated to showcasing postwar artists and designers from Japan and abroad, MOT also holds some 3800 pieces exhibited in rotation in its permanent collection gallery, by the likes of David Hockney, Sam Francis and Andy Warhol, as well as Japanese artists such as Yokō Tadanori. The building's stone, steel and wood architecture by Yanagisawa Takahiko is a work of art in its own right - highlights include a sunken garden, V-shaped structural supports, and a water and stone promenade.
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Museum Of Maritime Science
This museum is ship-shape, literally. From the outside it looms like an ocean liner by the water's edge, and inside are four floors of excellent displays related to every aspect of ships; don't miss the stunningly crafted replicas of Japanese ships, or try the navigation simulator. Outside, the 83.7m icebreaker Sōya is preserved. The museum is full of activities for kids, including a pool next door used for swimming and demonstrations and instruction of small craft.
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National Art Center, Tokyo
This architectural marvel designed by Kishō Kurokawa, which opened in 2007 as Japan's fifth national-class museum, has no permanent collection but boasts the country's largest exhibition space for visiting shows, which have included painter Yokoyama Taikan and photographer Shigeo Anzai. The NACT is also worth visiting for its awesome undulating mesh façade, its café atop a giant inverted cone and the great gift shop.
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National Museum Of Modern Art
The National Museum of Modern Art has a magnificent collection of Japanese art from the Meiji period onwards. Your ticket (hold on to the stub) gives you free admission to the nearby Crafts Gallery, which houses ceramics, lacquerware and dolls.
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National Science Museum
Renovations in recent years have made this museum more user-friendly for foreigners, with interpretive English signage throughout. The interactive exhibits are great fun for kids, especially those that allow clambering. Between the dinosaur displays here and the animals at Ueno Zoo, this is an excellent outing for children.
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New Ōtani Art Museum
Displays a decent collection of modern Japanese and French paintings as well as wood-block prints.
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NTT Intercommunication Centre
Has an excellent collection of cutting-edge works and installations that address the myriad intersections of art and technology. Its superlative video library includes works by Idemitsu Mako, Bill Viola and Nam June Paik, while installations include dreamy pieces such as works by Laurie Anderson, or Mikami Seiko's World, Membrane and the Dismembered Body, designed for the museum's eerie, echo-free chamber.
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Ōkura Shūkokan
Surrounded by a small but well-populated sculpture garden, this museum has an impressive collection of lacquer writing boxes, scrolls, ancient sculptures and several national treasures. The two-storey museum, whose collection is rotated seasonally, is definitely worth a look if you're on this side of town.
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Ōta Memorial Art Museum
Leave your shoes in the foyer and pad in slippers through this museum to view its stellar collection of ukiyo-e (wood-block prints), which includes works by masters like Hiroshige and Hokusai. There's an extra charge for special exhibits. The museum is up the hill on a narrow road behind Laforet; there's a clear map on the museum's website.
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Parco Museum
This progressive gallery exhibits works by leading international artists and high-profile locals. Photography, installation and graphic design figure prominently, and if the current exhibition does nothing for you, you can check out the edgier Wall Gallery on the same floor.
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Pentax Forum
Even non-photography buffs will appreciate the photo exhibits at the Pentax Forum, on the 1st floor of the Shinjuku Mitsui building. For true camera buffs however, the best part is the vast array of Pentax cameras, lenses and other optical equipment on display. It's completely hands-on - you can snap away with the cameras and spy into neighbouring buildings through the huge 1000mm lenses.
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Shiseido Art House
Underwritten by the cosmetics giant Shiseido, this space is also a classic Ginza concoction: soft-sell corporate promo. Most will be drawn by the alluring, wonderfully displayed themed exhibitions (past ones have included speciality handbags and cosmetics for men), and along the way you might find yourself distracted by advertising icons of the history of Shiseido.
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Shiseido Gallery
This gallery in the basement of Shiseido's Ginza boutique is more experimental than the house thereof. The result is an ever-changing selection, particularly of installation pieces, which lend themselves well to the high-ceilinged space. With a history dating back to 1919, it's also one of the oldest galleries in the area.
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Sompo Japan Museum Of Art
The private museum of the Sompo Japan insurance company concentrates most heavily on the lithography, sculpture and painting of Tōgō Seiji (1897-1980), whose subjects, most often women, resemble luminescent anime figures set off against backdrops that hover between cubist and Art Deco. Tōgō was closely associated with the Sompo Japan's forerunner, Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company, and donated many of his works for the museum.
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Sumō Museum
Although quite small, the museum displays a rotating selection of interesting artefacts of sumō history and art (mostly wood-block prints). When sumō tournaments are on at the stadium, only those holding tickets to the matches can enter the museum.
