Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts — Attraction in Osaka

Not worth the visit – totally disappointing.

I went here without reading reviews, just trusted the name and assumed it would be something worth seeing. Big mistake. 2,400 yen for a ticket? Way overpriced.

The place was crowded to the point of being uncomfortable, packed mostly with elderly visitors. The line to buy tickets was long and slow, and once inside, there was no space to properly enjoy anything. The exhibition area was tiny, dark, and honestly pretty boring. Very few items on display, and none of them stood out.

To make it worse, no photography allowed inside, which is frustrating when there’s barely anything to see in the first place. There were very few toilets and almost no trash bins – which made the whole experience feel even more inconvenient.

And then the so-called “garden”? A tiny, unimpressive space, and yet they charge an extra 300 yen just to enter it. What a joke.

There are so many other places in Japan – even free museums – that offer way more than...

Fine art from the far east has been a favourite for many years and the fix I get at the NSW Gallery, the NGV and the NGA could at best be described as adequate but nothing to write home about. This museum on the other hand is the real deal, with paintings, wood block prints and paper screens decorated with wonderfully sumptuous detail you get only in this part of the world. What a delight to witness first hand the magic of Japanese, Chinese and Korean art. Strong WiFi. Housed in a fantastic building, built in 1936 and well kempt, featuring many of the original art deco details - the Osaka City Museum is a pleasure to visit. Parkland around the building is kept in immaculate...

Sept 7 '22 went to the Vermeer exhibition. It was a Wednesday, around 2:30pm, and there was quite a line going inside. Wasn't really impressed by the building itself, in spite of it being THE city fine arts museum. It was sufficient enough though for the exhibition I went to.

The lady at the reception/ticket counter was nice. I used the Kansai Grutto pass, which gave me 200yen off (making it 1900yen) on the special exhibition entrance fee. It might be worth getting the Kansai Grutto pass if you're planning to go to different museums/art facilities across Kansai. I bought mine at Junkudo Kintetsu Abeno Harukas (they still had a Vermeer memopad...