Tokyo National 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)
The Tokyo National Museum, located in Ueno Park, is one of four top-tier national museums in Japan, along with museums located in Nara, Kyoto, and Dazaifu (Kyushu).
The buildings which comprise the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) are often cited as important examples of Western-style Meiji period architecture, while the museum's collections are easily among the greatest in Japan, both in size and in artistic or historical significance; numerous National Treasures are housed at the museum.
Architecture
The Hyôkeikan, today the Archaeological Wing of TNM, is a Neo-Baroque structure topped with a copper dome. It was completed in 1909, 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 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. Nevertheless, the gift was intended to symbolize a growing public connection to the Crown Prince, and loyalty to him.[1]
The museum's main hall (Honkan) stands on the former site of the honbô (Abbot's Residence) of Kan'ei-ji; the gate to the honbô remained in place after the museum's construction and served as the main gate to the museum from 1878 until 1923. When the museum was rebuilt following the 1923 Great Kantô Earthquake, the gate was relocated, and now stands before the Ueno Rinnô-ji.[2]
Collections
The museum's collections include extensive collections of Chinese and Japanese artworks and artifacts, as well as objects from Korea, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.
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 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 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 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.
References
- Gallery labels on-site.