About MOMAT

Located in central Tokyo near the Imperial Palace and Kitanomaru Park, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo is surrounded by natural beauty and Japanese culture. The Museum is Japan’s first national art museum, established in 1952. As such, it collects and preserves artworks and materials with a focus on Japanese modern and contemporary art dating from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Museum aims to share the value of art with people around the world through exhibitions, publications, and learning programs based on its own research.

1. Collection

The Museum combines social contexts and global perspectives when adding to the collection that is focused on Japanese modern and contemporary art dating from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Museum also lends works to exhibitions at other art museums in Japan and overseas.

Kishida Ryusei, *Road Cut through a Hill*, 1915, National Important Cultural Property

2. Collecting and Sharing Art Resources

As a library specializing in materials on modern and contemporary art, the Art Library collects art-related publications and magazines, exhibition catalogs, art books, and photography books from Japan and overseas. The Art Library is open to the general public free of charge. The library also shares the outcomes of museum research online through the repository of MOMAT.

3. Research

Aiming to promote and enhance the practice of fine arts, researchers affiliated with the Museum engage in research, occasionally in collaboration with other institutions. The outcomes are communicated through exhibitions, exhibition catalogs, lectures, the newsletter Gendai no Me, research bulletins, catalogs of holdings, research reports, and through publications and lectures organized by external organizations.

4. Exhibitions

The MOMAT Collection

This is one of the largest collection exhibitions in Japan, displaying about 200 works selected from holdings of more than 13,000 including Nihon-ga (Japanese style) paintings, Western paintings, block prints, sculpture, photographs, and videos. It is one of the best exhibitions in Japan for tracing trends in Japanese art from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Museum constantly refreshes perspectives by rotating the works of art on display and by organizing MOMAT Collection Focus, a focused exhibition within the Collection Exhibition.

Special exhibitions

These carefully planned exhibitions are organized several times a year. They include solo exhibitions by renowned Japanese and international artists, and thematic exhibitions exploring the times and society.

5. Education and Outreach

As well as organizing lectures, symposiums, and gallery talks to accompany each special exhibition, the Museum also offers guided tours of collection exhibitions by volunteers. The Museum designs detailed programs tailored to the purposes and characteristics of school groups, workshops for families including preschool children, appreciation and cross-cultural exchange programs in English, and appreciation workshops for business people.