Tokugawa Art Museum

• Established: 1935
• Japanese: 徳川 美術館 (Tokugawa bijutsukan)

The Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya houses and displays many of the treasures of the Tokugawa clan, particularly those (formerly) owned by the Owari branch of that clan.

Founded in 1935 by Marquis Tokugawa Yoshichika, 19th head of the Owari Tokugawa, and run by the Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation he established four years earlier, the museum is chiefly organized around conserving and displaying that family's collection of artifacts.

The original museum building was divided into three sections, each displaying a different genre of works from the collection. Early exhibitions included ones which emphasized Tokugawa lineage and its connections to the Imperial family. The Shôwa Emperor made a formal visit to the museum in 1937, two years after its opening.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu served as director of the museum from 1976 into the 1990s.

References

• Morgan Pitelka, Spectacular Accumulation, University of Hawaii Press (2016), 167-169.