Tokyo / Nihonbashi / Museum
Artizon Museum
アーティゾン美術館 あーてぃぞんびじゅつかん
The Bridgestone collection reborn in a 2020 tower — Impressionists to Japanese modernism, in generous rooms.
Worth itArt · Rainy day · Quiet · Modern
The Ishibashi family's Bridgestone Museum, a Tokyo institution since 1952, reopened in 2020 as the Artizon, three floors of galleries in the base of a new tower with ceilings high enough for the Monets and the Zao Wou-Kis to breathe. The collection runs from Manet, Cézanne and Picasso through the Japanese painters who went to Paris — Fujita, Aoki — to postwar abstraction, and the museum has quietly become one of the best-run in the city: timed entry, no crowds, good chairs. Ten minutes on foot from Tokyo Station's Yaesu side.
Don't miss
- The Impressionist room, with Monet, Renoir and Caillebotte at eye level and no crowd
- Aoki Shigeru's "A Gift of the Sea", the painting Japanese art students grow up with
- The sixth-floor terrace over the Nihonbashi rooftops
- Tip
- Book the timed slot online; the first slot of the day is the quietest.
- Best time
- Weekday opening slot.
- Allow
- 90 min
- Station
- Kyobashi (Ginza line) or Tokyo (Yaesu side)
- Official site — hours, prices, closures
- www.artizon.museum · Map
In this area: Nihonbashi
Nihonbashi Bridge日本橋
The zero milestone of Japan — a 1911 stone bridge with bronze kirin, under an expressway that is finally coming down.
30 min · Nihombashi (Ginza / Tozai / Asakusa lines) or Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)
Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store日本橋三越本店
Japan's first department store, a 1914 palace with a pipe organ, a five-storey atrium and lions at the door.
60 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines), direct from the basement
The old shops of Nihonbashi日本橋の老舗
One thing, made for centuries — knives, chopsticks, seaweed, dried bonito, paper, brushes, all within four blocks.
90 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)