Regular exhibitions at Tokyo National Museum are rotated almost every week. This page provides the latest information on the change of exhibits.
* Some works are exhibited for a longer period of time.
The courtiers were strongly involved in the arts through the Heian and Muromachi periods, their aesthetic tastes playing a great role in Japanese art history. Literature works such as waka poems and other calligraphy written by courtiers, and e-maki narrative picture scrolls displayed in this room with decorative art objects.
Bugaku is a ceremonial dance performed at temples, shrines, and the imperial court since ancient times. The art form entered Japan in the late 8th century from the Asian continent and gradually became more Japanese in style. In dances originally transmitted from China, red forms the underlying tone of the dancers’ robes. In dances from Korea, blue/green is dominant. In this exhibition, costumes worn in a Korean-style dance called Nasori and in a Chinese-style dance known as Ryo’o take center stage. The sophisticated colors and designs of these robes provide a glimpse into the refined culture and taste of the imperial court in ancient Japan.
The Tokyo National Museum holds many artworks and other materials that shine light on history, with the foundation of this collection consisting of materials inherited from the shogun’s government of the Edo period (1603–1868). From the time of the Museum’s establishment in 1872, this foundation was supplemented with additional materials collected through exhibitions and surveys of cultural properties. This gallery displays albums of natural science, a discipline that thrived in the Edo period, maps created in the Edo period and the following Meiji era, ink rubbings of calligraphy inscribed into stone and metal, and a variety of other historical materials. In addition, photographs from the late 19th and early 20th century, which show the people and scenery of the day, as well as expositions and cultural properties, are also shown periodically.