Kamakura Museum of National Treasures, Municipal museum in Yukinoshita, Japan
The Kamakura Museum of National Treasures is a city museum on the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Yukinoshita, Kamakura. Its main building, designed by Okada Shin'ichirō and completed in 1928, is a two-story reinforced concrete structure with a raised-floor log-storehouse look, blue-grey tiled roof and a light facade between square pillars. It holds about 4,800 objects from the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, including five National Treasures.
The museum was founded in 1928 to protect important artworks following the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Its building design drew inspiration from the Shosoin treasure house while using modern reinforced concrete construction.
The museum's name refers to the "old" National Treasures designated before the 1950 Cultural Properties Protection Law; most of these are now Important Cultural Properties. The Ujiie Ukiyo-e Collection, established in 1974, holds about 100 nikuhitsuga paintings, including works by Hokusai. The main building's doors have a star-and-moon stained glass by Ogawa Sanchi, a motif linked to Kamakura.
The museum stands inside the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, about 12 minutes on foot from Kamakura Station on the JR Yokosuka and Enoshima Electric lines, or 3 minutes from the Kamakura Hachimangu-mae and Daigaku-mae bus stops. It opens from 9:00 to 16:30, with last entry at 16:00, and closes on Mondays, moving to the next weekday when Monday is a holiday. There is no dedicated car park.
The building blends traditional Japanese storehouse elements with reinforced concrete, reflecting design choices inspired by local shrine architecture. This combination makes the museum structure itself worth noticing as a work of design that connects past and present.
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