京都国立博物館 | |
![]() Façade of museum | |
Established | May 1897 (1897-05) |
---|---|
Location | Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto,Japan |
Coordinates | 34°59′24″N135°46′23″E / 34.99°N 135.773°E /34.99; 135.773 |
Type | Art museum |
Visitors | 384,340 (2016)[1] |
Public transit access | Shichijō Station,Keihan Main Line |
Website | www |
Kyoto Museums Four | |
TheKyoto National Museum (京都国立博物館,Kyōto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan) is one of the majorart museums inJapan.[2] Located in Kyoto's Higashiyama ward, the museum focuses onpre-modern Japanese andAsian art.
The Kyoto National Museum, then the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, was proposed, along with the Imperial Museum of Tokyo (Tokyo National Museum) and the Imperial Museum of Nara (Nara National Museum), in 1889, and construction on the museum finished in October 1895. The museum was opened in 1897. The museum went through a series of name changes, in 1900 changing its name to the Imperial Household Museum of Kyoto, and once more in 1924 to the Imperial Gift Museum of Kyoto. The current name, the Kyoto National Museum, was decided upon in 1952.
The growth and development of today's museum has been an evolving process:history[3]
The museum consists of several buildings, the most prominent being the Special Exhibition Hall (Main Exhibition Hall), designed byKatayama Tōkuma in 1895, and The Collections Hall (New Exhibition Hall), designed in 1966 byMorita Keiichi. In September 2014, the museum completed renovations on a new permanent collections hall, the Heisei Chishinkan Wing (The Collections Galleries), designed byYoshio Taniguchi, known for his redesign of theMuseum of Modern Art in New York and his design of theGallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures at theTokyo National Museum.
The regular exhibitions are shown in The Collections Galleries, while the Special Exhibition Hall is used for special exhibits. The Main Exhibition Hall, the Main Gate, and the Ticket Area have all been designated asImportant Cultural Properties in Japan.
The museum was originally built to house and display art treasures privately owned by temples and shrines, as well as items donated by theImperial Household Ministry. Currently, most all of the items in the museum are more or less on permanent loan from one of those places.
The museum focuses on mainly pre-modern Japanese works (it is said to have the largest collection ofHeian period artifacts) andAsian art. The museum is also well known for its collections of rare and ancient Chinese and Japanesesutras. Other famous works includesenzuibyōbu (landscape screen) from the 11th century, and thegakizōshi (Scroll of Hungry Ghosts) from the 12th century.
The museum is divided into three parts:
Altogether, the museum houses over 12,000 works, of which around 6,000 are on display at the museum. The museum also boasts photographic archives containing over 200,000 photographic negatives and color transparencies. In the Fine Arts collections alone, there are more than 230 pieces that have been designated as eitherNational Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.