The National Museum of Western Art

What a truly great art museum for western art in the heart of Tokyo. We caught the special exhibition of impressionist interiors, and also the Durer exhibit. The permanent collection is a fun ramp through the years with plenty of Renaissance era paintings all the way up to mid 20th century. The gift shop is one of the best I’ve encountered in any art museum worldwide. I was thrilled to see paintings by so many well-known western masters. They have an unbelievable collection of postcards and lots of fun items.

Entry including the Impressionists was 2300¥. They have a very good collection of Monet, Rodin, Picasso and many many more. It can be very busy at times around certain popular paintings. There isn’t a lot of the more modern art but plenty of older and some dating back to 1300’s. Well well worth the visit. Located a few hundred meters from the Ueno tain station

Suggest to book online, otherwise you need to waiting to buy tickets. The exhibits and displays inside the museum are quite good. Most of them can be photographed, but please note that some are not allowed to be photographed. The details about the restoration process and infrared reflectography are quite unique. For us, we took about 1.5 hours here

It's my 1st time to visit here ! I come here because of the impression gallery! The environment is nice! Many souvenirs and reference books you can buy! The venue of the gallery is nearby 上野station. I recommend all of you reserve time to come here! Remember to buy the ticket by online!

The building itself is truly beautiful—Le Corbusier’s only work in Japan—and the proportions and rhythm of the façade are outstanding. However, I noticed one small issue. The bright orange traffic cones and barriers placed in front of the entrance contrast strongly with the architectural language and disrupt the visual coherence of the exterior. They also appear prominently in photos and make it difficult to capture the building’s aesthetic as intended. If possible, it would be wonderful if the cones could be removed during less crowded hours, or replaced with guidance equipment in more subdued colors that blend better with the environment. I believe this would allow the building’s original beauty to be appreciated even more. Thank you for your continued maintenance and management.

One of my favorite places to visit whenever I'm in Tokyo! There was a Picasso exhibit when I last visited so it was great to drop by. Note: All photos shown were taken in areas where photography is allowed.

A relatively small but compelling permanent collection, and only ¥500. They almost always have great exhibitions too. They have a not insignificant amount of Impressionist paintings and a bunch of Rodin sculptures.

Corb’s only work in Tokyo feels like a hybrid of Villa Savoye and Villa La Roche. It follows the “Modulor” concept precisely, regulating the dimensions and scale of the spaces. The only disappointment was that a mandated route skips some of the areas the architect intended visitors to experience, such as the balcony on the upper level.

The National Museum of Western Art is located in Tokyo's Ueno Park and has some spectacular paintings in its permanent collection. A great variety of artists' works from many countries and time periods are represented: Monet, Manet, van Dyck, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne...countless others. They also had an exhibit of Picasso works on my visit which was fun to view. It really is a great collection and worthy of a visit for anyone interested in art. Located on a lower level, for an additional fee, they also had a limited-time, special exhibit of drawings by artists who subsequently turned them into paintings. While interesting, this multi-room exhibit was crammed with people (unlike the rest of the museum). Oddly, everybody was in one long line to view each drawing, one at a time. I guess this was meant to be polite behavior. I'm the sort of person who likes to move at my own pace in a museum so standing in this ridiculously slow line and waiting as each person stood to stare at a drawing for two minutes before moving to the next one made me impatient. After nearly an hour to get through one room I broke protocol and got out of line and just walked around to view whatever I wanted, peering over others' shoulders. A number of people soon followed my lead. Despite the unusual experience viewing drawings in the special exhibit area, the rest of the museum was totally worthwhile with many impressive paintings.

Although I had worked and lived in Tokyo for a year, I never visited the museums in the Ueno Park area. I visited three of the museums in December and really enjoyed the National Museum of Western Art. it had some great pieces of primarily west European art. It was quite fascinating to see the Rubens, Renoir, and Monet pieces. This museum is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the architect was Le Corbusier. I will look forward to one day, returning and viewing the special exhibitions being featured.

I've been meaning to visit this museum for a while now. The Matsutaka Collection was too good to miss. As it was, Matsutaka practically created the museum when he started purchasing paintings and sculpture in the 1920s and 30s. Unfortunately some had to be sold, while some were lost in a fire in London. It's still a good size collection to impress as even the regular exhibits had some fine pieces

The National Museum of Western Art is a smaller museum with traveling exhibits. I'm a little bummed that I wasn't in Tokyo the same time as the Renoir exhibit, but I did enjoy the Caravaggio somewhat. Not a cheap exhibit at ¥1600 for 51 paintings unless you're a Caravaggio fan. Sadly, the captions only had title information and very little background on the paintings. Usually, the audio guide would cover this but I asked and they only had audio guides in Japanese. No English. If I'd known that in advance, I would likely have skipped it.

I visited the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park. I went to check out the exhibit of German Renaissance painter and printmaker, Lucas Cranach the Elder. The building of the National Museum of Western Art was designed by Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), one of the pioneers of modern architecture and was added in July 2016 to the World Heritage List along with other works by Le Corbusier "for his outstanding contribution to the modern architecture movement". The museum is home of thousands of art pieces (from the Renaissance to the early 20th century) and outside is a collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures such as "The Thinker" (one of the 28 original castings in the world) and "the Gates of Hell" (one of seven in the world cast in bronze). To the left of "The Gates of Hell" is Adam, but on the right is Eve which is based on the work of Rodin, but when the original model became pregnant, Rodin abandoned the project and so, in 1901-1907, Emile-Antoine Bourdelle sculpted the marble from Rodin's plaster model. The sculptures feature six figures in despair and suffering. The Burghers hold the keys of the city in their hands, ropes around their necks and walk barefoot as they leave the city gates. The city fathers of Calais were not thrilled by the non-heroic sculpture of Rodin and thus refused it. The sculptures were purchased by the Japanese government in 1959. If you love renaissance to the early 20th century art, definitely visit the National Museum of Western Art.

Worth a trip just for the Rodin sculptures. I wasn't sure what to expect as the Tokyo National Museum ended up a little disappointing. The collection wasn't as large as the Met or Moma in NYC, but it was respectable and covered a gamut of time periods. Ticket prices are also much cheaper (600 yen for an adult). I've never been a big sculpture person but the Rodin works inside and outside blew me away. There's a tremendous sense of movement and energy through the contortion of the body in his works. Slightly exaggerated features like large hands/feet and saggy skin are used to convey the feeling of power or aging. The realism in his style is a nice contrast from traditional Greek, Roman, and Asian works. I would highly recommend for the Rodin pieces alone. Likes - Rodin, Impressionist works Dislikes - Renaissance section was not my cup of tea

The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo has got some really cool art. It was not half as packed as the Metropolitan Art Museum. Of course, there was no special exhibition in the Western Art museum. It doesn't take much time to finish seeing the art in this museum, but it is well worth the visit! Even if you are not spending much time in Japan I recommend checking it out. I took quite a few pictures here! We got to see the whole permanent collection pretty much with our general admission ticket! Some of the highlights to be seen here are: Rubens, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet (they've got a good deal of Monet works), Van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, Soutin, Ernst, and Miro. I only wish they had more 20th Century art! The architecture of this museum isn't very outstanding. What can I do without at The National Museum of Western Art? Too much Pre 19th Century art! What stands out at The National Museum of Western Art? Petrified Forest by Ernst! Four stars! The National Museum of Western Art is really ridiculously good!

Beautiful museum - both the old Le Corbusier building and the new extensions. Owns a very interesting collection and shows wonderful and well chosen special exhibitions.

The core collection housed in this 1959 Le Corbusier-designed building, Japan's only national museum devoted to Western art, was assembled by Kawasaki shipping magnate Matsukata Kojiro in the early 1900s. Considering that the collection was begun so recently, it was surprisingly good, ranging from 15th-century icons to Monet to Pollock.

Excellent place for Western Art. It's a medium sized museum with an entire room dedicated to Monet and impressionism. Other works include Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir, Manet and Pollock. Entrance fee is equivalent to just a few bucks. It's not the Met but it's pretty cool for what it is.

Incredible collection in an incredible space. Surprised to find so many quality works from the Northern Renaissance. Great seeing little schoolkids patiently engaged.