Yamatane Museum of Art

Art
Hiroo

Wednesday 15 January 2025

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Time Out says

Founded in 1966 as Japan’s first museum to specialise in the exhibition of Japanese paintings, the Yamatane Museum of Art was first located in Nihonbashi-Kabutocho. The museum focuses on contemporary works, having over 1,800 items in its collection. Thanks to a renovation, it now has two new exhibition halls (one for special exhibitions and one for their permanent exhibition) located on the first basement level of the basement, which together give the museum approximately twice its previous exhibition space; furthermore, a giant moveable wall, incorporated into the new special exhibition hall, allows an additional capacity with which to house particularly large-scale exhibits. In addition to offering visitors a chance to view some particularly high-class Japanese works of art, the museum also has its own café – named Cafe Tsubaki – located on the first floor, which offers a special wagashi (Japanese confectionary) and matcha (ceremonial green tea) set that includes sweets produced by Kikuya, a well-established confectionary shop located in Aoyama. However, if matcha isn’t your style, another set well worth trying is the café’s organic coffee and confectionary set, which includes a rice-based sweet made by pâtissier Jun Honma.

Details

Address: 3-12-36 Hiroo, Shibuya; Tokyo

Transport:: Ebisu Station (Yamanote, Shonan-Shinjuku, Saikyo lines), east exit; Ebisu Station (Hibiya line), exit 2

Opening hours:: 10am-5pm / closed Mon (Tue if Mon is a holiday)

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What’s on

Love: Japanese Paintings of Adorable Things – Kaburaki Kiyokata’s Romance, Okumura Togyu’s Love of Animals –

The Yamatane Museum of Art’s heartwarming winter exhibition celebrates the many forms of love expressed in modern and contemporary Japanese painting. From romantic passion to familial tenderness, and from nostalgia for one’s hometown to affection for animals, ‘Love’ reveals how artists have captured its subject’s diverse and intimate dimensions. Highlights include Kiyokata Kaburaki’s Light Snow (from the Fukutomi Taro collection), inspired by Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s tragic love story The Courier for Hell; Gyoshu Hayami’s Peach Blossoms, painted to commemorate his daughter’s first festival; and Togyu Okumura’s Rabbit, radiating the artist’s affection for living creatures. Works by Tsunetomi Kitano, Terukata Ikeda and Shoko Kawasaki further expand this exploration of emotion and beauty. You’ll also encounter Kokei Kobayashi’s eight-panel Kiyohime series, a masterful retelling of a tragic love legend, and selections from the distinguished Fukutomi Taro Collection. Timed with the season of Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day, the exhibition invites audiences to rediscover love as a timeless muse for Japanese artists and their poetic visions of life. All exhibited works are from the Yamatane Museum of Art collection unless specified otherwise.

Until 15 Feb 2026