Asakura Museum of Sculpture

The Asakura Museum of Sculpture (台東区立朝倉彫塑館, Taitō kuritsu asakura chōsokan), also known as the Asakura Choso Museum, is a municipal art museum in the Yanaka neighborhood of Taitō Ward, Tokyo. Opened in 1967, it preserves and displays the life work of Fumio Asakura (1883-1965), widely regarded as the father of modern Japanese sculpture. Housed in the artist's former residence and studio, the museum offers a rare integrated experience of sculpture, architecture, and garden design in one of Tokyo's most historically resonant districts.

Fumio Asakura was born in 1883 in Ikeda village, Ono County, Oita Prefecture (present-day Bungo Ono City). At age 19, he moved to Tokyo where his brother Watanabe Osao worked as a sculptor, and the following year entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts), graduating in 1907. He established his studio in Yanaka immediately after graduation and gradually expanded the premises, personally designing the structures and overseeing details. The building served as the Asakura Private School (Asakura Choso Juku, or Asakura School of Plastic Arts) from 1920 to 1944, where he trained pupils in his naturalistic realism approach. The main structures were built between 1924 and 1935, with the final form completed in 1935. During the Pacific War, over 400 of his works were requisitioned and melted down for the war effort, though the building itself escaped damage. Asakura became the first sculptor to receive the Order of Cultural Merit in 1948, and died in 1964 at age 81. In 1967, his family opened the building to the public as the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, honoring his wishes. Management transferred to Taito City in 1986. The building was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, and in 2008 the courtyard and rooftop garden were designated as a National Site of Scenic Beauty under the name "the former Asakura Fumio Garden." A major renovation took place from April 2009 to October 2009 to address aging, during which a storehouse was removed to restore natural light, and original colors and materials were used to recreate the building's appearance during Asakura's lifetime.

The museum holds over 400 works encompassing sculptures, sketches, and photographs, representing the full range of Asakura's output across the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. The collection is organized into several categories: portrait sculptures, animal sculptures, mythological sculptures, religious sculptures, and outdoor sculptures. Asakura's portrait busts and full-body works depict prominent figures including Albert Einstein, Rabindranath Tagore, and Emperor Showa. His animal sculptures, particularly of cats, constitute a signature strand of his work, rooted in his early practice of sketching animals in the Ueno district when he could not afford models. The museum also preserves his extensive personal library of thousands of volumes, collections of paintings and pottery, and curios including a human skeleton. Beyond Asakura's own work, the museum hosts rotating exhibitions of contemporary Asian sculptors, including prize winners from the Oita Asian Sculpture Exhibition.

Among the most celebrated works on display are "Grave Guard" (also known as "The Grave Keeper"), "Hanging Cat," and "Flow of Time." The museum's third-floor Orchid Room, formerly a greenhouse for Asakura's orchid collection, has been converted into "The Cat Room," dedicated to his feline sculptures in bronze, captured in naturalistic poses that demonstrate his mastery of realism. The Western-style studio's main hall features a more-than-life-size statue of Shigenobu Okuma, twice Prime Minister of Japan and founder of Waseda University, depicted in academic garb. Other notable works include "Thinker" and "Mother and Child." The Japanese-style residential wing contains the elegantly sparse Sunrise Room and displays of Japanese ceramics and calligraphy from Asakura's personal collections.

The museum building is an architectural hybrid personally designed by Asakura, combining a Western-style ferroconcrete studio wing with a traditional Japanese sukiya-style residential wing constructed from cedar and bamboo. The studio features soaring 8.5-meter ceilings and skylights to admit natural light, with walls originally painted light-brown for warmth. The Japanese wing includes tatami floors and sliding doors. The complex incorporates two gardens: the central Godaishui-no-niwa (Five Water Courtyard Garden) with a carp pond on the ground floor, and a rooftop garden above the Western wing, considered the oldest extant roof garden in Tokyo. Asakura required his students to cultivate radishes, turnips, and tomatoes in this rooftop garden, believing horticulture essential for sharpening the five senses and developing "sculptor's intuition." The garden ensemble was designated a National Site of Scenic Beauty in 2008. Visitors must remove shoes and wear socks to protect the delicate interior floors; those in sandals must purchase socks at reception. Photography is generally prohibited inside, with designated exceptions in the Orchid Room and Sunrise Room.

The Asakura Museum of Sculpture is located at 7-18-10 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0001, approximately a 5-minute walk from the West Exit of Nippori Station on the JR Yamanote Line, Keisei Line, or Nippori-Toneri Liner. It is also about 10 minutes from Nishi-Nippori Station on the Chiyoda Line, or 8 minutes by bus from the Yanaka Reien Iriguchi stop on the Tōzai Megurin route. The museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with last admission at 4:00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and Thursdays, except when these fall on public holidays, in which case it is open that day and closed the following day. It also closes for year-end and New Year holidays (December 29, January 3) and temporarily during exhibition changes. Admission is 500 yen for adults, 250 yen for high school students and younger, with group rates of 300 yen and 150 yen respectively for groups of 20 or more. Admission is free for holders of disability certificates and their caregivers. The facility is not barrier-free.