Best Museums around Tokyo and Surroundings Spot List

An open-air museum where historical buildings having high cultural value are restored and displayed on a large site.

A museum specializing in nihonga (Japanese paintings) with a collection of about 1,800 works consisting mainly of modern and contemporary Japanese paintings. It holds various special exhibitions as well.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is in Ueno Park. Special exhibitions of domestic and foreign famous paintings, variety of planned exhibitions, and exhibitions of works by the general public are held there.

A museum located in Ueno Park. Visitors can enjoy a variety of artworks including ones designated as Important Cultural Properties.

The National Film Center is the only national institution devoted to cinematography. It keeps movie films as well as many valuable materials related to movies. They are shown on the screens or displayed in the exhibition hall.

Amuse Museum is an art complex where a museum of the textile culture and ukiyoe (paintings of everyday life in the Edo period 1603 – 1868), a select shop of Japanese-style products, and an event hall are combined.

Museum to appreciate the works of painter and poet Yumeji Takehisa.

A unique art museum displaying future works and commanding a magnificent view of Lake Ashino-ko in Hakone.

You can experience the world of Mitsuo Aida, a poet and calligrapher who emphasized the preciousness of life with his own phrases and unique styles of calligraphy.

A museum that displays precious references to sumo wrestling — a form of traditional culture dating to the era of Japanese myths.

The Railway Museum displays 37 real railway cars and lets you try out rail car operations yourself.

It has over 5,000 pieces of Japanese and Oriental antique art. The building in the shinden-zukuri aristocratic architectural style (developed between the late 7th to early 11th century) and the Japanese garden are worthy of a viewing.

This is Japan's only national art museum, where you can view various Western artworks, including the Matsukata collection, which mainly consists of French artworks.

This museum owns over 38,000 artifacts relating to the culture and history of tobacco and salt both from Japan and overseas.

Hakone Garasunomori Museum, or the Venetian Glass Museum in Hakone, is the first museum of this kind in Japan. The glass exhibitions that change each season are worth seeing.

This art museum has the longest history in the Hakone area. On the premises, there is a tea ceremony room from which you can enjoy the landscape of each season.

A museum inside the building of Tokyo University of the Arts, the best out of all the art universities in Japan. It stores approximately 29,000 items of mainly Japanese modern arts.

Japan's first national art museum located next to the Imperial palace, and it houses more than 12,500 artworks.

The Philatelic Museum in Tokyo is one of the rare museums in Japan, and visitors can discover the fun and charm of postal stamps from all over the world.

It is an art museum in Marunouchi that holds Japanese contemporary art oriented exhibitions.