Gotō Art Museum

Entrance area of the museum

Buddha statue in the garden

Old gate in the garden

Stone lanterns
type Kasuga (left)
type Mizuya (right)

The Gotō Art Museum ( Japanese 五島美術館 Gotō Bijutsukan ) is a private museum of Japanese and Chinese art (painting, tea ceremony equipment, ceramics, calligraphy , old mirrors, swords) in Setagaya , Tokyo .

Overview

Gotō Art Museum was built by Gotō Keita (1882-1959), founder and long-time president of the Tokyu Railway Company , to make his collection available to the public. At first he was interested in the copies of the Buddhist sutras , so that he eventually owned the largest collection in Japan. Another area of collection was Zen calligraphy ( 禅林墨跡 , Zenrin bokuseki ) and finally Japanese traditional culture from the origins to the Middle Ages.

Even before Gotō thought of building a museum, he acquired the collection of the businessman Takanashi Nisaburō (1904–1993), to which u. a. illustrated roles included the Genji Monogatari , and those of the lawyer and collector Moriya Kōzō (1876–1953). So he expanded his collection with important works of art throughout his life. Gotō died in 1960, shortly before the museum opened. Then came u. a. Swords and writing implements too. A total of 5000 objects, including five national treasures , belong to the collection.

In 2010 the museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. The event prompted the renovation and incorporation of the Dai Tokyū Memorial Library.

The museum and the garden

The one-story museum, right next to the Gotō family residence, is located on a hill on the Tama River . The main building includes an outbuilding for events and a lecture hall. The total area of the facility is 20,000 m², in the main building two rooms (280 m² and 90 m²) are available for the exhibition.

Behind the museum there is a garden that extends to the foot of the hill and contains small ponds. At the top there are two tea houses ( Kokei-rō and Fujimi-tei ), numerous stone figures and numerous stone lanterns and a small shrine. The " Kobushi magnolia from Kaminoge" is registered as an urban natural monument on the terraced slope . A stone next to the old temple gate in the garden bears the inscription " 不許葷酒入山門 ", i. H. "No permission: with garlic or alcohol through the temple gate". In the background you can see a Nyorai Buddha in the middle of an altar ensemble halfway up. The garden also contains a larger collection of stone lanterns.

National treasures

Illustrated Scrolls of Genji Monogatari (12th century)
Fragment of the illustrated scrolls from Murasaki Shikibu's diary (13th century)
Records of Emperor Xiaojing from Ōe no Iekuni ( 大江家国 , 1073)
Sutra "Me nashi kyō" ( 目無経 , 1193)
Horse harness from the Saitobaru- Kofun ( 西都原古墳出土金銅馬具類 )

The museum also owns 50 important cultural assets .

The Dai Tokyu Memorial Library

This library ( 大東急記念文庫 , Dai-Tokyū Kinen Bunko ) was set up when the group was reorganized in 1949 and opened in 1955. The geologist, ministerial official and collector Wada Tsunashirō (1856–1920) made an outstanding contribution to the selection of the books. The library contains books from the libraries of Kuhara Fusanosuke (1869-1965), which Gotō had taken over from the University of Kyoto , and Inoue Michiyasu ( 井上通泰 ; 1867-1941) as well as books from Gotō's own collection. The important Kuhara collection, which is the core of the library, includes a. the historical records of Xiaojing, Japanese books from the Nara and Edo periods, and books from China and Korea. In contrast, the Inoue collection mainly includes Japanese poetry (waka) from the Edo period and reference material. The total stock is 25,000 volumes, including three national treasures and 32 important cultural assets.