Description of the attraction
For a glimpse of contemporary Japanese art, you can visit the museum located in the Chiyoda Special District. The National Museum of Modern Art is also known by the acronym MOMAT (Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). Exhibition halls and its own art library, as well as the Crafts Gallery and the National Film Center, are part of it.
First of all, the museum is known for its collection of modern Japanese art, which includes works in both the Western style and the nihonga style - the Japanese direction, whose masters use traditional themes, techniques and materials - silk, ink and others.
The Museum of Contemporary Art was opened in 1952 at the initiative of the Japanese Ministry of Education. The building was designed by Kunio Maekawa, a student of the famous architect Le Corbusier. Later, two adjacent premises were bought for the museum, and he expanded the areas of his exhibition halls and storage facilities.
The museum contains about 8,000 Japanese ukiyo-e prints, including from the collection of the famous collector, politician and businessman Matsukata Kojiro, who at the beginning of the 20th century searched for these prints all over the world and collected 1,925 samples.
The works of famous Japanese artists are presented here starting from the Meiji era - for example, Ai-Mitsu, Ai-Kyu, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Kagaku Murakami and others. In the collection of the National Museum there are canvases of outstanding Western painters such as Francis Bacon, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and many others.
The Crafts Gallery is a section of the museum, which appeared in 1977 in an additional room. Here are collected items of textiles, ceramics, lacquer, not only Japanese artisans, but also masters from all over the world.
The National Cinema Center is also a branch of the museum; its collection includes 40,000 films and other materials.
