★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Okura Museum of Art
2,500 treasures survived one of Japan's worst disasters! You're standing outside the Okura Museum, Japan's very FIRST private museum that sits right on the fifth floor of this fancy hotel. The original building got completely smashed in 1923's Great Kanto Earthquake - imagine your whole house shaking apart like a LEGO tower! But here's the super cool part - they rebuilt it in classical Chinese style with special earthquake-proof walls, like a treasure fortress that can't be knocked down. Inside, you'll find a thousand-year-old statue of a Buddhist figure riding an actual elephant - it's taller than your dad! This place started when one brave man named Kihachiro Okura decided to save Japanese art from being shipped overseas forever. Ready to hunt for some ancient treasures that are older than your great-great-great-grandparents times ten?
Did You Know?
- The Okura Museum of Art was the first private museum in Japan established as a foundation in 1917 by industrialist Kihachiro Okura, who began collecting Japanese and East Asian artworks in the late 19th century to prevent their loss overseas during a period of rapid modernization and cultural change.
- The museum’s current building, designed in classical Chinese style by renowned architect Ito Chuta after the original was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property—look for the dramatic dragon engraved on the ceiling of the second-floor exhibition room and phantom animals on the pillars, hidden artistic details that delight visitors of all ages.
- Among its 2,500 treasures are three National Treasures, including the exquisite ‘Mokuzō Fugenbosatsukizōzō’ (Wooden Samantabhadra on an Elephant statue) from the Heian period—a masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture where even the elephant and pedestal are original, making it a rare and educational highlight for families and children interested in ancient art and craftsmanship.