Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Art museum in Marunouchi, Japan
The Idemitsu Museum of Arts is an art museum on the ninth floor of the Imperial Theater Building in Marunouchi, Japan. The space offers views of the imperial garden and houses galleries for rotating exhibitions of Asian art.
Sazo Idemitsu began collecting at 19 with a Sen'ya Gibon painting bought at a sale in Fukuoka. The museum opened in 1966 on the ninth floor of the Teigeki Building and became a foundation in 1972. In 1983 it acquired the National Treasure Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, and in 2019 it bought 190 Edo-period works from the Price collection. It closed on 25 December 2024 for the building's reconstruction.
The collection bears the name of its founder and displays works from Japan, China and Korea across several centuries. Visitors can view ceramics, calligraphy and lacquerware that once belonged to private hands and are now open to the public.
The museum has been temporarily closed since 25 December 2024 because the Teigeki Building is being demolished and rebuilt, and no reopening date has been announced. The galleries occupied the ninth floor of that building in Marunouchi, with the lobby looking out over the Imperial Palace Outer Garden. The Moji branch in Kitakyushu reopened on 28 October 2016 in a renovated three-storey reinforced-concrete building after seismic work and expanded exhibition space.
A dedicated gallery displays shards of ancient pottery from Egypt and Asia, including pieces from Fustat near Cairo. The fragments come from kilns that operated over centuries and offer insight into old craft techniques.
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