Ōta Memorial Museum of Art — Attraction in Tokyo

This museum is a lovely treat in Harajuku, nestled behind the famous Laforet mall. I felt the exhibition was well curated and I thoroughly enjoyed the artwork and its presentation. The staff were also very welcoming and kind. However, I do have a few small issues with this museum which I’ll discuss below.

Many of the pieces have written commentary accompanying them and though English translations were provided for some, many pieces went without. I won’t complain much as this is Japan, after all. However, I also didn’t feel comfortable using my phone to translate because there is a no photo rule and it’s difficult to translate without accidentally taking photos of surrounding artworks due to how close everything is. Yes, this was a personal choice of mine, but I wanted to respect the no photo rule. I hope in the future, the museum curators can provide commentary translations for all the works exhibited.

Now to the main issue I experienced—the museum itself was quite crowded. I usually don’t mind crowds, however due to the size of the museum, it’s hard to fully enjoy with crowds. There is a specified route inside the museum and as the art pieces are small, you need to get close to them to fully appreciate them. This means everyone typically walks the route in order of which they entered the exhibit.

As everyone enjoys art at their own pace, expect to stop along the route a LOT. In a larger museum, this is okay because you can go around people and move to the next piece once you’re done. Due to the size of this museum, the art pieces are right next to each other and people stand shoulder to shoulder against the glass to view them. You can go around others but most of the pieces are at eye level, so you can’t fully see them unless you stand in the line along the designated route. There were many times I stood in one spot for ten minute increments waiting for the people in front of me to move along. I also felt I could not fully enjoy some of the artwork due to needing to move ahead so as to not hold up the line behind me.

Without a crowd you could view everything in 30 minutes. However due to the congestion on the designated route, I was in the museum for over 2 hours. There were many moments I wanted to just leave or exit the line and skip to the next floor, but because I paid money to enter, it felt like a waste to not stay. If you’re considering a visit, aim to arrive early.

I will visit again because I do enjoy ukiyo-e, but I will arrive at...

I loved this museum, although it has more of a gallery feel. The exhibition is on two floors, showing a variety of traditional woodblock prints from the late Seizō Ota V's personal collection. He collected them as an important cultural property of Japan.

It's ¥‎700 to enter, which sounds a lot for a small two floor museum, but it's so expertly presented it's worth it. The prints are shown in the perfect manner. The lighting is dim in the room, then the prints are lit from inside the glass cabinets. This means that the prints are clear and there isn't glare on the glass, and they're lit from an angle from lighting above so you can appreciate the subtle embossing of the paper that occurs when printed in the traditional Japanese style. Most museums don't bother lighting the prints and just allow the room lighting to do the work, which flattens the image and doesn't show the full quality.

As the prints are fragile and many of them are over a hundred and fifty years old the exhibition is rotated monthly. Check the website for what's on, and for their opening times, as they are closed inconsistently for several days a month.

It's ¥‎700 to see some of the highest quality woodblock prints ever made, in the most expert presentation I've...

The exhibition was wonderful! However, in my opinion they let too many people in. I like to enjoy art in silence, and many people there were talking. What's most disappointing though is the following: I went to the exhibition where many japanese ghosts were introduced. Most of the artworks had a little sign next to it explaining some context. However, not all of them were translated to English. I don't understand why, to me I feel like they should have all of them translated, or none. I had pulled my phone out and let Google Translate help me, but I had no internet connection in the basement floor, so I have no context to those pieces. Really sad, as I went there to learn more about japanese folkslore.

Nevertheless, the staff was friendly and I liked how the artworks were portrayed! I recommend going there, but it is best to not expect...