Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art

A grand building of reddish brick tile, topped with a Japanese-style tiled roof, stands in a corner of Okazaki Park. This is Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, whose building is the oldest surviving public art museum building in Japan.

Its predecessor was the Tairei Memorial Kyoto Museum of Art, planned to commemorate the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Showa and opened in 1933. The two-story steel-reinforced concrete main building, based on a design by Maeda Kenjiro, is regarded as a representative example of the Teikan style, which crowns a Western-style structure with a Japanese roof. After the war it was requisitioned by the occupation forces, and for a time the Great Exhibition Hall served as a basketball court. The requisition ended in 1952, and the museum resumed activity as the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. Records show more than 890,000 visitors came to the 1964 special display of the Venus de Milo and more than 1.07 million to the Tutankhamun exhibition the following year.

After a renovation by the design team of Aoki Jun and Nishizawa Tetsuo, it reopened on May 26, 2020. Kyocera holds the naming rights. The work preserved the existing building while turning the front plaza on the west side into a gentle slope and moving the entrance underground. The "Glass Ribbon," a glazed space between the plaza and the main building, houses the museum shop and cafe. The south courtyard was returned to its original form as the "Sky Courtyard," and the north courtyard became the glass-roofed "Hall of Light." The new wing, Higashiyama Cube, rebuilt from the storage building, has galleries suited to contemporary art.

The collection centers on Japanese-style paintings, Western-style paintings and crafts. Well-known works include Takeuchi Seiho's "The First Subject for a Painting" (an Important Cultural Property), Uemura Shoen's "Waiting for the Moon," and Asai Chu's "Willows at Grez." Collection exhibitions are held alongside large special exhibitions. The Japanese garden was laid out in 1909 by the seventh-generation Ogawa Jihei (Ueji). In 2020 the main building, the main gate and other structures were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

The museum is open from 10:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays (open if it is a national holiday) and from December 28 to January 2. Last admission varies by exhibition, so check the official site before visiting. A museum cafe, ENFUSE, and a shop, ART RECTANGLE KYOTO, are on site. In the Okazaki area, where the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Kyoto City Zoo and Heian Jingu stand close together, it suits a half day or full day of walking alongside an exhibition.