Kyoto National Museum

What to know

Opened in 1897, the Kyoto National Museum (京都国立博物館, Kyōto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan) is one of Japan's oldest museums and one of only four top-level national museums alongside the Tokyo National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum.

Currently all of the museum's exhibitions are held at the Heisei Chishinkan, a modern building opened in 2014 and designed by Taniguchi Yoshio, who is also known for the Horyuji Homotsukan at the Tokyo National Museum, the Mimoca Art Museum in Marugame, and his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The museum's Meiji Kotokan, a beautiful redbrick building from the Meiji Period (1868-1912), is currently undergoing renovation works and is not open to the public.

Exhibitions from the museum's permanent collection are currently held only during short periods of the year and display a wide variety of cultural properties, including archaeological relics, sculptures, ceramics, calligraphy, costumes, and paintings. During most of the rest of the year, the museum stages special exhibitions on various themes. In between exhibitions, only the museum garden is open to the public.

The Kyoto National Museum is located across the street from Sanjusangendo, next to the Hakubutsukan-Sanjusangendo-mae bus stop (10 minutes, 230 yen from Kyoto Station by bus numbers 100, 206, or 208). Alternatively, the museum can be reached in a five-minute walk from Shichijo Station along the Keihan Line or in a 20-25 minute walk from Kyoto Station.