Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum — Attraction in Tokyo

Visiting as a journalist for the Chartered Institute of Journalists today and serving member as a journalist of over 20 years, this place shot itself in the foot as we have decided no longer to review this place or recommend it to our readers. An appalling attitude towards foreign visitors in general, refusing to assist basic queries such as: a. visitor information in English (literally no pamphlets available) The place is resistant to foreign press. Even when I addressed them in Japanese, they were reluctant to answer basic questions, defaulting "No" and "Difficult". Zero co-operation. the receptionist became very spiteful at the desk when providing all my credentials from the Chartered Institute of Journalists, one of the oldest, most recognized institutions. All of my credentials have also been officially translated into Japanese for their ease: this made the receptionist irritated. Being featured is for this gallery a privilege, but we are withdrawing this privilege from these kinds of hostile galleries, to their detriment, sadly. They are not prepared to uphold a friendly attitude towards global visitors. I remember a similar experience years ago when I was visiting, that time with a friend in a leisurely capacity and have thus experienced this in both work and leisure. I was finally able to obtain an English listing of the works after much ado inside of the exhibition hall itself, which were poorly numbered. Only the titles were given in English, but extensive information was available in Japanese for the locals only. This is not exactly an all-encompassing global approach. The gallery staff are extremely dictatorial to the point of being kill-joys. Harassment in the gallery: I used a standard highlighter pen to highlight key titles on the artwork listing I had eventually managed to obtain, which was my paper to keep. A guard singled me out in the crowd and reprimanded me in a spiteful and patronising tone saying I was not to use a highlighter on my own paper and was only allowed to use a pencil in the building, threatening to call security if I did not put my pink highlighter away. Very petty, miserable staff. This was hilarious and Fawlty-Tower level of ridiculous. The art works were listed in a chaotic order. From a curator's perspective, it was a real mess and poorly directed. Badly chosen lighting combined with tiny text. The kind of lighting used I am sure is damaging peoples' eyesight. Everyone was seemingly struggling to read the captions on these works. The lighting was so dim that it gave Victorian candle lighting or even the dark ages a run for its money, further exemplified by when I asked a guard the way to the next section. The guard herself could not even read the directions herself in the dimmed lighting; couldn't even read her own pamphlet, therefore failing to be able help me as a visitor. This was a laughable experience and I have yet to have a positive experience in this gallery, despite my love and enthusiasm for the arts and maintaining a positive attitude with the staff in spite of their attempts to taint my visit. Regardless of the anti-western sentiment of this place, they seemed bothered by the fact I remained polite, positive and dealt with them with a calm smile. The guards and receptionists in particular with their attitudes aim to provoke negativity and induce a negative feeling and become very passive aggressive when they don't succeed. The guard was closely following foreign visitors around specifically, myself included and was acting exaggeratedly suspicious, as if they were on some kind of terrorist alert. This is nothing short of systemic racism and an anti-western establishment. Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, you do not represent Japan nicely and were very spiteful, much to my sense of humor. But in summary, you should leave your anti-western attitudes elsewhere as they have no place in an art museum of all places. Shame on you on all these 10...

Ueno Park has an incredible assortment of museums. The 東京都美術館 Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum is large! There is generally a featured exhibit and these are expertly curated although, depending on the day of the week and the popularity of the current show, the venue can be crowded. As I was leaving the last time after viewing “Vilhelm Hammershøi and Danish Painting of the 19th Century”, my eye was caught by an exhibit in one of the Citizen's Galleries. The artwork on display were carved wood calligraphy panels curated by the 日本刻字協会 (Nihon Kokuji Kyoukai) [Japan Carving Association]. The artists on view included Japanese and other Asian countries and the calligraphy was in kanji, kana, Korean Hangul characters, Chinese and even a couple with English. Photography was permitted and I took many. I actually returned the following day to spend more time in the exhibit which had hundreds of articles. Some had won prizes and there were even a couple that included paper drafts with the finished artwork. The exhibit I visited in January 2020 was the 39th such show. I was informed that it was held annually at the end of January. (Note: 2021 was different because of the pandemic.) This is a show that I will make travel plans around. I will endeavor to curb my enthusiasm and post only a score or so photographs. Photography is permitted in this exhibit and most of the artwork did not have glass covering it. The 1985 sculpture in the entrance courtyard (my sky hole 85-2 光と影 by Inoue Bukichi) is kept nicely polished for selfies. This past January 2024 I was able to view the 42nd Exhibition of the Japanese Engraving Association. There were only Japanese and Chinese compositions. I still consider this a spectacular display of art works worth scheduling a...

Perhaps one of Tokyo’s most visually impressive older museum buildings, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum opened in 1975.

The building was designed by renowned Japanese architect Kunio Maekawa—a key figure in Japanese postwar modernism.

Kunio Maekawa (May 14, 1905 – June 26, 1986) was known for blending traditional Japanese design elements with those from European modernism.

If you make your way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum via the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station, you’ll pass another building designed by Kunio Maekawa, the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan—opened in April 1961 commemorating Tokyo’s 500th anniversary.

Anyway, getting back on topic: Perhaps it’s because this is a public-supported museum, but there seem to be a lot more rules here than at other museums in Tokyo and stricter enforcement.

Definitely check the website for rules and guidelines beforehand. Museum staff must inspect you before you can enter exhibitions.

There are a lot of personal lockers for storing personal things you’re not allowed to carry in with you.

However, as the museum staff are quite strict, these lockers tend to fill up fast during popular events, so get there early and store your belongings before attempting to enter the exhibition.

Using the public lockers requires a 100-yen coin, but the coin is automatically returned to you when you insert the key to remove your belongings.

So using these public lockers is essentially free, but you must have a 100 yen coin...