Tokyo / Roppongi & Azabu / Museum
Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art
東京ミッドタウンとサントリー美術館 とうきょうみっどたうんとさんとりーびじゅつかん
A garden of a daimyo estate, a museum of lacquer, glass and tea utensils, and the design galleries around it.
Worth itArt · Craft · Architecture · Nature · High-end · Rainy day
Tokyo Midtown was built on the grounds of the Mori clan's Edo mansion and kept the park: Hinokicho, with a stream and a pond, beside a lawn that hosts outdoor art in summer and an ice rink in winter. Inside, the Suntory Museum shows the traditional decorative arts — lacquer, kimono, Edo glass, tea ceramics — in Kengo Kuma's rooms with paper-and-wood walls, with a small tea house for lessons. Down the hill is 21_21 Design Sight, Tadao Ando's half-buried design gallery, and the Fujifilm Square photography gallery is free. It is the calm, adult end of Roppongi.
Don't miss
- Suntory Museum's lacquer and Edo glass, shown in low light against paper
- 21_21 Design Sight — small, sharp exhibitions about one idea
- The lawn at dusk in summer, when the towers light up around the park
- Tip
- The Suntory's tea room offers a short tea-ceremony session on selected days; book on the website.
- Best time
- Weekday afternoon; December for the illumination in the garden.
- Allow
- 120 min
- Station
- Roppongi (Oedo line, exit 8, direct; Hibiya line, exit 4a)
- Official site — hours, prices, closures
- www.suntory.com/sma · Map
Appears in
In this area: Roppongi & Azabu
Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View森美術館と東京シティビュー
Contemporary art on the 53rd floor, a 360-degree view on the 52nd, and an open-air roof above them both.
150 min · Roppongi (Hibiya line, exit 1C; Oedo line, exit 3)
The National Art Center, Tokyo国立新美術館
Kisho Kurokawa's wave of glass — no collection, only exhibitions, and a restaurant on an inverted cone.
90 min · Nogizaka (Chiyoda line), exit 6, direct; Roppongi, 5 minutes
Azabu-Juban shopping street麻布十番商店街
A village high street between the embassies — taiyaki since 1909, a soba house since 1789, and a public bath.
75 min · Azabu-juban (Namboku / Oedo lines), exit 4