Tokyo National Museum

I've made it a sort of tradition to try and visit the national museum of every country that I visit.

I've been to the national museums in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia, and when in Tokyo, I spend my first afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum, which is conveniently located right inside Ueno Park!

The Tokyo National Museum

The museum is a huge complex made up of many different galleries.

The main gallery at the museum is housed in a huge western-style building, and admission is surprisingly cheap ($6) for how amazing the collection is and how expensive Tokyo tends to be.

The most interesting building is the Hyokeikan, a domed building that was constructed and dedicated in 1909 to celebrate the marriage of the Meiji Crown Prince. This building is used only for special exhibits.

the Hyokeikan

The museum's collection is huge, displaying everything from samurai swords and helmets to ancient scrolls and silk paintings. The National Museum was founded in 1872, making it one of the oldest museums in the country.

a Japanese scroll

I had plenty of time, as it was still way too early to check in to my capsule hotel, so I spend the late morning and early afternoon exploring the half dozen museum buildings and the hundreds of exhibits that they hold.

It also has one of the world's finest collections of ancient Greco-Buddhist art.

During the period of Alexander the Great, who was declared "Lord of Asia", Greek influence spread throughout India and western Asia. At the time, Buddhism did not create or venerate images of the Buddha. The Greeks, upon being introduced to the Buddhist faith during their conquest, began making images of the Buddha in the Greek style. This is why Buddha statues even today tend look a lot like the statues of the ancient Greek pantheon!

Buddha carvings in the Greco-Buddhist style

There's a sort of park on the land behind the museum. From a deck at the museum, you can look across a small pond to see a tiny tea house in the distance. When I looked at my museum map, I noticed a small trail leading from behind the building and winding its way past five tea houses, all hidden in the woods behind the museum.

a tea house in the museum's gardens

a

traditional tea house behind the National Museum

The short trail went past the pond and the beautifully manicured Japanese garden, passive the five historic tea houses that are managed by the National Museum. Today, the tea houses can be reserved for formal functions, but are not generally open to the public.

a close-up look at a tea house

At the far side of the museum, I came upon the Kuromon, known as the "Black Gate".

The Black Gate

The heavy wooden gate was once the front gate of an Edo-period samurai clan mansion, and is one of only two such structures remaining (the other is maintained by the University of Tokyo).

Black Gate at the Tokyo National Museum