Nezu Museum

The Nezu Museum is a private art museum located in the Minami-Aoyama district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It preserves and displays the pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art collection assembled by industrialist and railway magnate Nezu Kaichiro. Established in 1940, the museum is recognized for the exceptional quality and scale of its holdings, which rank among the finest of any private museum in Japan. The institution is also highly regarded for its traditional Japanese garden and its modern architectural design by Kengo Kuma, creating a tranquil cultural retreat at the end of Tokyo's upscale Omotesando boulevard.

Nezu Kaichiro, who served as president of Tobu Railway, purchased the Aoyama land in 1906 and spent decades assembling a vast collection of Japanese and Oriental antiquities. Following his death in January 1940 at the age of 80, his son, Nezu Kaichiro Jr., established the Nezu Museum Foundation in November of that year according to his father's will. The museum officially opened to the public in 1941 with an initial collection of 4,643 works. As World War II intensified, exhibitions were suspended in 1944 and the collection was evacuated to the suburbs, saving it from destruction. In May 1945, an air raid burned down the Nezu residence and original museum buildings. Exhibitions resumed in 1946 at a temporary building, and a new exhibition hall was completed in 1954. The museum underwent further expansions in 1964 and 1990. Nezu Koichi, the founder's grandson, became director in 2000. The museum closed in 2006 for a large-scale renovation to improve earthquake resistance and exhibition conditions, reopening in the fall of 2009 with a completely new building designed by Kengo Kuma. Over the decades, the collection has grown through purchases and donations to exceed 7,600 objects.

The Nezu Museum's collection encompasses more than 7,400 cultural objects, a number that has grown to over 7,600 according to recent counts. The holdings cover a broad range of disciplines, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, lacquerware, wooden and bamboo crafts, textiles, armor, and archaeological artifacts. The collection is particularly strong in tea ceremony utensils, reflecting Kaichiro's devotion to the practice, as well as ancient Chinese bronzes and Japanese sword fittings. The Japanese government has designated seven works in the collection as National Treasures, 87 to 88 as Important Cultural Properties, and 94 to 96 as Important Art Objects. Due to the fragility of many paper and textile works, the museum rotates its displays seasonally.

The museum considers the byobu (folding screen) Irises by Ogata Korin to be the centerpiece of its collection. Acquired by Kaichiro in 1914, this National Treasure is displayed annually from April to May to coincide with the blooming of the irises in the museum garden. Another National Treasure is the Kamakura-period hanging scroll Waterfall at Nachi, an anonymous Buddhist painting depicting the deified Nachi Falls. The museum also holds a significant collection of 1,200 Japanese sword fittings from the collection of Meiji industrialist Mitsumura Toshimo, making it one of the largest such collections in Japan. Its world-renowned ancient Chinese bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties include the Important Cultural Property Double-Ram Zun, a rare bronze vessel from the 12th to 13th century BC. Only one other similar vessel exists, held by the British Museum. Other notable works include an 8th-century Nara period calligraphy scroll and a gilded bronze statue of Seated Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna dating to 489 AD. In 2025, it was reported that a bell in the collection had been taken from Korea during the Japanese colonial period, though the museum declined to comment on the matter.

The current museum building, completed in 2009, was designed by architect Kengo Kuma. The design incorporates large glass walls and a tiled ceiling, utilizing the Japanese principle of borrowed scenery to harmonize the interior with the surrounding landscape. Kuma drew inspiration from sukiya-zukuri, the traditional architecture of tea houses, employing natural materials like cypress columns and black-tiled roofs. A bamboo grove and walls inspired by bamboo lattice line the approach from the street, creating a serene transition from the city. The museum is set within a roughly 17,000-square-meter traditional Japanese garden. Restored after wartime damage, the garden features a shinzan-yukoku style of rolling hills and deep valleys, a pond, stone lanterns, a 10th-century Korean stone Buddha, a stupa, a suikinkutsu (water harp cave), and four historical tea houses. A glass-walled cafe within the garden allows visitors to view the landscape.

The Nezu Museum is located at 6-5-1 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo. It is less than a ten-minute walk from Omotesando Station, which is served by the Ginza, Hanzomon, and Chiyoda subway lines. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m., and is closed on Mondays. General admission is 1,400 yen for adults and 600 yen for university students with valid identification, while high school students and younger are admitted free of charge. Same-day tickets cost an additional 200 yen. The museum features a gift shop and the NEZUCAFE, which is located in the garden and reserved for museum patrons. Photography of the exhibits is prohibited inside the galleries, except for the stone Buddhas on display in the first-floor hall, though photography is permitted in the garden.