Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
magnets, mirrors and hand-powered generators provide entertainment for the mainly
school-age audience, while down in the basement there's an aquarium. The highlight,
however, is on the second floor: sitting amid other stuffed animals, with surprisingly
little fanfare, is Hachikō, Japan's canine hero (see box, p.116). Almost all visitors, even
the locals, walk past without a second glance, unaware that this is the real one - a
rather sad end for the country's most famous hound.
Tokyo National Museum
౦ژࠃཱത
, Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan • 13-9 Ueno Kōen, Taitō-ku • Jan-March Tues-Sun 9.30am-5pm; April-Sept Tues-Thurs
9.30am-5pm, Fri 9.30am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-6pm; Oct-Dec Tues-Sun 9.30am-5pm, Fri till 8pm • ¥600 •
T
03 5405 8686,
W
www.tnm.go.jp • Ueno station
Dominating the northern reaches of Ueno Park is the
Tokyo National Museum
,
containing the world's largest collection of Japanese art, plus an extensive collection of
eastern antiquities. Though the new galleries are a great improvement, backed up by an
unusual amount of information in English, the museum style tends to old-fashioned
reverential dryness. Nevertheless, among such a vast collection there's something to
excite everyone's imagination. Displays are rotated every few months from a collection
of around 110,000 pieces, and the special exhibitions are usually worth seeing if you
can stand the crowds.
Hon-kan
It's best to start with the
Hon-kan
, the central building, where you'll find an English-
language floor guide at the lobby information desk and a good museum shop in the
basement. The Hon-kan presents the sweep of Japanese art, from Jōmon-period
pottery (pre-fourth century BC) to early twentieth-century painting, via theatrical
costume for kabuki, nō and
bunraku
; colourful Buddhist mandalas;
ukiyo-e
prints;
samurai swords; exquisite lacquerware and even seventeenth-century Christian art
from southern Japan.
4
Heisei-kan
In the building's northwest corner look out for a passage leading to the
Heisei-kan
,
where you'll find the splendid Japanese Archeology Gallery containing important
recent finds. Though some of the ground it covers is the same as at the Hon-kan,
modern presentation really brings the objects to life - the best are refreshingly simple
and burst with energy. Highlights are the chunky, flame-shaped Jōmon pots and a
collection of super-heated Sue stoneware, made using a technique introduced from
Korea in the fifth century. Look out, too, for the bug-eyed, curvaceous clay figures
(
dogū
) of the Jōmon period and the funerary
haniwa
from the fourth to sixth centuries
AD - these terracotta representations of houses, animals, musicians and stocky little
warriors were placed on burial mounds to protect the deceased lord in the afterlife.
Hōryū-ji Hōmotsu-kan
In the southwest corner of the compound, behind the copper-domed Hyōkei-kan of
1908 (used for talks and exhibitions), lurks the
Hōryū-ji Hōmotsu-kan
. This sleek newer
gallery contains a selection of priceless treasures donated over the centuries to the
Hōryū-ji temple in Nara. The most eye-catching display comprises 48 gilt-bronze
Buddhist statues in various poses, each an island of light in the inky darkness, while
there's also an eighth-century Chinese zither, inkstand, water container and spoons said
to have been used by Prince Shōtoku when annotating the Lotus Sutra.
Tōyō-kan
The museum's final gallery is the
Tōyō-kan
. Located on the opposite side of the
compound, it houses a delightful hotchpotch of Asian antiquities, with Javanese textiles
and nineteenth-century Indian prints rubbing shoulders with Egyptian mummies and a
