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[[Image:TNM-Honkan.JPG|right|thumb|320px|The second Honkan (Main Building) of the museum, built in 1938 in a Meiji-inspired style.]]
[[Image:TNM-Honkan.JPG|right|thumb|320px|The second Honkan (Main Building) of the museum, built in 1938 in a Meiji-inspired style.]]
[[Image:Hyokeikan-TNM.JPG|right|thumb|320px|The Hyôkeikan, completed in [[1909]], survived both the 1923 Great Kantô Earthquake and the 1945 bombings intact.]]
[[Image:Hyokeikan-TNM.JPG|right|thumb|320px|The Hyôkeikan, completed in [[1909]], survived both the 1923 Great Kantô Earthquake and the 1945 bombings intact.]]
*''Established: [[1881]]''
*''Former Names'': 帝国博物館 ''(teikoku hakubutsukan; Imperial Museum)'', 帝室博物館 ''(teishitsu hakubutsukan; Imperial Household Museum)''
*''Former Names'': 帝国博物館 ''(teikoku hakubutsukan; Imperial Museum)'', 帝室博物館 ''(teishitsu hakubutsukan; Imperial Household Museum)''
*''Japanese'': 東京国立博物館 ''(toukyou kokuritsu hakubutsukan)''
*''Japanese'': 東京国立博物館 ''(toukyou kokuritsu hakubutsukan)''
The first works of Chinese calligraphy and painting obtained by the museum were those from the personal collection of late [[Edo period]] scholar [[Ichikawa Beian]] (1779-1858), donated to the museum by Beian's son and grandson beginning in [[1900]]. Donations by [[Hayashi Munetake]], [[Aoyama San'u]], and [[Takashima Kikujiro|Takashima Kikujirô]] also served as important elements in the early stages of the formation of this collection.
The first works of Chinese calligraphy and painting obtained by the museum were those from the personal collection of late [[Edo period]] scholar [[Ichikawa Beian]] (1779-1858), donated to the museum by Beian's son and grandson beginning in [[1900]]. Donations by [[Hayashi Munetake]], [[Aoyama San'u]], and [[Takashima Kikujiro|Takashima Kikujirô]] also served as important elements in the early stages of the formation of this collection.
The donation of the mummy of Pasherienptah in [[1904]] by the Director-General of Egypt's Department of Antiquities, Dr. Gaston Maspero, marked the beginning of the museum's Ancient Egyptian collections. Objects brought back by [[Otani Kozui|Ôtani Kôzui]], who led expeditions to Central Asia in [[1902]]-1914, similarly serve as the core of the museum's collection of artifacts from Western China and other parts of Central Asia.
The donation of the mummy of Pasherienptah in [[1904]] by the Director-General of Egypt's Department of Antiquities, Dr. Gaston Maspero, marked the beginning of the museum's Ancient Egyptian collections. Objects brought back by [[Otani Kozui|Ôtani Kôzui]], who led expeditions to Central Asia in [[1902]]-1914, similarly serve as the core of the museum's collection of artifacts from Western China and other parts of Central Asia. These collections, along with those of objects from mainland Asian cultures, are housed in the Tôyôkan ("Oriental Hall"). Artifacts from ancient Iran/Persia were among the museum's particular priorities when the Tôyôkan was first opened in 1968.<ref>Gallery labels, "West Asia 2: Artifacts from the Iranian Plateau," Tokyo National Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/9577787355/in/dateposted-public/]</ref>
The museum's collections of Ryukyuan materials has at its core a group of objects given to the museum in [[1884]] by the [[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce]]. The Ministry had been collecting Ryukyuan ethnological objects for the German Anthropological Society, as objects to study; those objects not sent to Germany were given to the museum.
The museum's collections of Ryukyuan materials has at its core a group of objects given to the museum in [[1884]] by the [[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce]]. The Ministry had been collecting Ryukyuan ethnological objects for the German Anthropological Society, as objects to study; those objects not sent to Germany were given to the museum.
==Architecture==
==Architecture==
Prior to the construction of the Museum and its opening in [[1881]], the former site of the [[Yushima Seido|Yushima Seidô]] Confucian academy was used to house exhibitions beginning in [[1872]]; though not explicitly referred to as a "museum" (let alone a "Tokyo" "National" "Museum"), the exhibitions held at the Yushima Seidô are sometimes described as marking the beginnings of the TNM.<ref>Matsushima Masato, "Japan's Dream of Modern Art," ''Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan from the Tokyo National Museum''. Cleveland Museum of Art (2014), 15-17.</ref>
The Hyôkeikan, today the Archaeological Wing of TNM, is a two-story Neo-Baroque stone structure topped with a copper dome. It was completed in [[1909]], nominally as a gift from the people of [[Tokyo]] presented to the [[Imperial family]], in honor of the wedding of the Crown Prince (who would later go on to rule as [[Emperor Taisho|Emperor Taishô]]). In reality, this was not paid for by popular donation, or by tax revenues, but by a small coalition of political and corporate movers-and-shakers who wished to strengthen their ties with the Imperial institution. They included businessman [[Shibusawa Eiichi]], Tokyo prefectural Governor [[Senge Takatomi]], and Mayor [[Matsuda Hideo]], who headed Tokyo's "Association for the Celebration of the Crown Prince's Wedding," and who began the project as early as March [[1900]], commissioning [[Katayama Tokuma|Katayama Tôkuma]] to design the new building. Contributions were collected from 7,310 members of the association, and from 15,890 other individuals, to help fund the construction. In the end, construction was completed in about eight years, at a cost of just over 540,000 [[yen]].<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', University of California Press (1996), 212.</ref> The gift was intended to symbolize a growing public connection to the Crown Prince, and loyalty to him.<ref>Coaldrake, William. ''Architecture and Authority in Japan''. Routledge, 1996. pp213, 308n5.</ref>
The Hyôkeikan, today the Archaeological Wing of TNM, is a two-story Neo-Baroque stone structure topped with a copper dome. It was completed in [[1909]], nominally as a gift from the people of [[Tokyo]] presented to the [[Imperial family]], in honor of the wedding of the Crown Prince (who would later go on to rule as [[Emperor Taisho|Emperor Taishô]]). In reality, this was not paid for by popular donation, or by tax revenues, but by a small coalition of political and corporate movers-and-shakers who wished to strengthen their ties with the Imperial institution. They included businessman [[Shibusawa Eiichi]], Tokyo prefectural Governor [[Senge Takatomi]], and Mayor [[Matsuda Hideo]], who headed Tokyo's "Association for the Celebration of the Crown Prince's Wedding," and who began the project as early as March [[1900]], commissioning [[Katayama Tokuma|Katayama Tôkuma]] to design the new building. Contributions were collected from 7,310 members of the association, and from 15,890 other individuals, to help fund the construction. In the end, construction was completed in about eight years, at a cost of just over 540,000 [[yen]].<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', University of California Press (1996), 212.</ref> The gift was intended to symbolize a growing public connection to the Crown Prince, and loyalty to him.<ref>Coaldrake, William. ''Architecture and Authority in Japan''. Routledge, 1996. pp213, 308n5.</ref>
