Idemitsu Museum of Arts

The Museum opened in 1966 having at its core, representative works of Eastern Asian antiques, gathered by Sazo Idemitsu (1885-1981), founder of the Idemitsu Kosan Co.,Ltd., an oil company in Japan. The museum is located on the 9th floor of the Imperial Theater Building –designed by Yoshiro Taniguchi– looking down over the Imperial Garden in Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Special exhibitions are held about five to six times a year, with themed exhibitions of selected works from the Idemitsu Collection of Japanese painting and calligraphy, and East Asian ceramics. Other attractions include a year-round exhibition of major works by Georges Rouault (1871-1958), the French master of religious paintings who is famous for the series called “Passion” depicting the last days of life of Jesus Christ. The museum also offers to the public, the Sherd Room where fragments of pottery collected from kilns around Asia and Egypt (Fustat site, Cairo) are displayed. This extensive and qualitative collection includes Japanese painting (yamato-e, rimpa, bunjin-ga, ukiyo-e, and works by Sengai and modern painter Kosugi Hōan, etc.) and calligraphy, East Asian ceramics (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean wares, and works of modern potter, Itaya Hazan, etc.). Regarding Western art, apart from Georges Rouault, the collection also has works of the American artist Sam Francis. The total works number some fifteen thousand items, including two National Treasures and fifty-four Important Cultural Properties. | Photos by Martin Grossmann and other sites, October 2019 | URL: http://idemitsu-museum.or.jp/en/