Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Art museum in Okazaki district, Kyoto, Japan.
The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art is a public art museum in the Okazaki district of Sakyō-ku, Kyoto, housed in an early 20th-century building. It displays both Japanese and international art across permanent and temporary exhibitions spread over several floors.
The museum opened in 1933 to mark the 1,100th anniversary of Kyoto becoming the imperial capital, making it one of Japan's oldest public art museums still in its original building. It reopened in 2020 after major renovation work that added new underground gallery spaces.
The museum carries the name of KYOCERA, the company that sponsored its renovation, which is a common way of funding public culture in Japan. Inside, the rooms shift between old woodwork and modern white walls, giving works a different feel depending on which part of the building you are in.
The museum sits in the Okazaki district, served by several city bus lines, with the nearest subway station a short walk away. Several other museums and gardens are close by, so a half-day visit to the area is easy to plan around a single trip.
The 2020 renovation added new gallery rooms by digging under the building's front plaza, so the historic facade looks unchanged from the outside. Visitors often only realize how far the museum extends once they are inside.
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