Yūrinkan Museum

The Yurinkan Museum, formally known as the Fujii Saiseikai Yurinkan, is a private museum of East Asian art located in the Okazaki area of Sakyō-ku, Kyōto, Japan. Established in 1926, it holds the distinction of being the second oldest private museum in Japan, following the Okura Shukokan. The institution is particularly significant for its extensive collection of Chinese art spanning from the Shang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, a holding that includes one National Treasure and nine Important Cultural Properties. Its name is derived from the Analects of Confucius, expressing a sentiment of good neighborly relations.

The museum was established in 1926 by the entrepreneur and politician Fujii Zensuke (1860-1934) to house his collection of Chinese art. The institution emerged during the early Showa era, with its main building specifically constructed to accommodate Fujii's growing holdings. In 1928, coinciding with the enthronement of the Showa Emperor, the museum expanded its footprint by relocating a western-style building from the Yokoyama Mining Office in Kanazawa to its Kyōto site to accommodate the Minister of Finance.

The museum's holdings are notably strong in Chinese art, encompassing a broad chronological span from the Shang to the Qing dynasties. The collection covers a wide array of mediums, including bronzes, ceramics, Buddhist statues, seals, calligraphic works, textiles, and paintings. A particularly distinguished component of the collection is its assemblage of nearly a hundred manuscripts from Dunhuang. Among these Dunhuang manuscripts, twenty-three are written in Uighur, with others in Tibetan, Mongolian, and Sanskrit, highlighting the museum's strength in Central Asian and Buddhist textual traditions.

Among the museum's most significant individual works is its sole National Treasure, a fragmentary Tang dynasty manuscript of a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. Beyond this manuscript, the institution's collection includes nine works designated as Important Cultural Properties, underscoring the historical and artistic value of the assemblage. These designated works represent the high points of the museum's broad Chinese art holdings.

The museum complex consists of two main structures and an associated storage facility. The main building, formally known as the Fujii Saiseikai Yurinkan Building No.1, was built in 1926 to a design by the architect Takeda Goichi. It features a Chinese architectural style both internally and externally, crowned by an octagonal pavilion roofed with thirty-six thousand yellow glazed tiles dating to the time of the Qianlong Emperor. This building is a registered Municipal Tangible Cultural Property. The annex, or Building No.2, dates to the beginning of the Taisho era (1912-1926) and was formerly the western-style building of the Yokoyama Mining Office in Kanazawa before its 1928 relocation. Both the annex and the 1928 storage facility are registered National Tangible Cultural Properties.

The Yurinkan Museum is located at 44 Okazaki Enshojicho, Sakyō-ku, Kyōto. Public access to the museum is highly restricted. It is open to the public only on the first and third Sundays of each month, with exceptions in January and August. During these open days, operating hours are typically from 11:00 to 15:00. The museum is accessible via public transit, including a short walk from the Higashiyama metro station on the T line, or from nearby bus stops such as Okazaki Koen/Bijutsukan and Heian Jingu-mae.