The Artizon Museum
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One of the cool things about living in a city as gigantic as Tokyo is that you constantly discover new things you had no idea were there. You might be messing around on Google Maps and suddenly find an incredible taco place or a humongous roast beef sandwich.
We found ourselves in exactly that situation this past week: messing around on Google Maps, looking for another place to get lunch near Tokyo Station, relatively close to where we recently tried Gino Sorbillo, I saw a dot for a museum I’d never heard of. We love going to art museums (did you know I’ve been to Paris???), and this one was a revelation.
Introducing the Artizon Museum
Formerly known as the Bridgestone Museum of Art (because it was founded by the founder of Bridgestone Tire Co.), the Artizon Museum has actually been around more than 70 years. I’m not sure why we’d never heard of this place, but we hadn’t, and it looked cool online, so I texted Eriko to meet me at the coffee shop next door so we could have a fun Wednesday outing.
Next door to the museum is Gallery & Bakery Tokyo 8分, a spacious coffee shop with walls adorned with artwork. The coffee shop is also a City Bakery, one of the better bakery chains in Tokyo. I ate a tiramisu pastry and a peanut butter cookie before Eriko showed up because I’m trying to eat healthier and also I’m a bad person. Once Eriko arrived, she tried the spicy tuna melt, which was actually really good.
Eriko got our tickets to the museum online. You book for a specific time slot, and can enter at any time during that hour. On a random Wednesday in February, there were plenty of tickets available, so we booked for the next available hour and went right in. If you buy your tickets online before going in, you actually save money, so use that fancy phone of yours and get the discounted tickets online. The museum also has an official app with a free audio guide that I didn’t use.
The building is pretty cool-looking and had plenty of staff to direct us where to go. First stop was a visit to the lockers, which unlike some other museums are free at Artizon. There’s also a gift shop so you can buy postcards of paintings you just saw and already took pictures of.
The museum is on three floors. You go up to floor 6 for the fist of three exhibits and work your way down. There were some people there on a Wednesday afternoon, but not that many. The longest we ever had to wait to get a good view at a certain painting was maybe a minute, if that. And as soon as you get to the top floor, you get to do one of my favorite museum activities.
It’s time to play my favorite museum game: IS IT ART?
When you get to floor 6, the art starts right away… maybe. See, the first exhibit in the museum during our visit was a contemporary art exhibit, and as I’ve explained about contemporary art, it’s sometimes… weird. So weird that I can’t exactly be sure what is art and what isn’t.
Is that couch art? Or is it just a couch?
What about that other couch there? Is THAT art? Am I supposed to sit on it? Is that part of the art experience? It’s tough to tell.
Here’s another one:
Are these stairs art, or just stairs? I mean, you have to walk down the steps to get to the rest of the exhibit, so maybe they’re just stairs.
Wait! A Coke can!
There’s a bunch of Coke cans underneath the stairs! That’s art! It’s making a statement about… something!
Aren’t you glad we got to play this game?
The On Physis exhibit, like most contemporary exhibits, was hit or miss. There were some interesting-looking things, and also some stuff that was just plain weird: a bunch of radios blaring nonsense, toilet paper and beer bong sculptures, video projections… it really ran the gamut. It was okay, but things really got good once we went down to floor 5.
Portrait exhibit at the Artizon Museum
On this floor was Looking Human: The Figure Painting, which was all about portraits throughout history. It included ancient Greek vases, Roman tiles, and a whole lot of paintings from really famous artists. I enjoy paintings more than any other kind of visual art, so this was really up my alley. And because so many eras were represented, you’re bound to find something that resonates with you personally. That certainly happened to me.
I usually prefer pre-war Picasso. Oh, do you not have a specific time period of Picasso you enjoy? I guess I’m just more cultured than you.
Whenever I visit a museum, there’s always one painting that stops me in my tracks. At the Artizon Museum, it was this Picasso of the artist and his model. Something about this really hit home with me. I like the colors, the shapes, the feeling that comes from it. I don’t have to explain myself to you. This one was my favorite.
There were a lot more portraits and self-portraits, especially from the past 200 years, and the artists included some heavy hitters: Degas, Renoir, Manet, Derain, Matisse, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, and more. You might think it would get boring to look at so many portraits, but because the exhibit was made up of so many eras and styles, it really didn’t matter that they were all portraiture. I was amazed at how many major artists were in there - definitely a good spot to perform a big-time art heist.
The special section exhibit at the Artizon Museum
On the third floor was Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection Special Section Matisse’s Studio. The Ishibashi Foundation must be pretty loaded, since this one again had some major artists: Suerat, Monet, Munch, Rosseau, Signac, Kandinsky - and this time they weren’t all portraits. There were water lillies, nature scenes, lots of beautiful stuff.
Both the portrait exhibit and the special section were slated to end four days after our visit, so we got there right under the wire. I guess that means you at home can no longer see these, but… I’m sure the stuff they’ll have when you visit will be good too.
Matisse’s Studio
The Matisse’s Studio section was relatively small, but it had a wide range of paintings from Matisse, including some abstract pieces that I found really interesting. I had no idea Matisse had done anything like that. One of the nice things about exhibits from specific artists like the Picasso exhibit we saw in Tokyo, the Rodin Museum in Paris, or the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is that you get to see the breadth of work these artists produced. They didn’t always do the thing they’re most famous for, and witnessing the variety in skill is pretty cool.
Highlights from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
The rest of the third floor had some Japanese artists who were clearly inspired by the major European names, and more from the 20th Century: Pollock, Krassner, Modigliani, Gorky, Miro, and more Picasso. This is the era of art that I really enjoy, so I absolutely dug it. With so many well-known artists over such a long period of time, I find it impossible to believe that anybody would not enjoy this exhibit.
Verdict: is the Artizon Museum worth adding to your Tokyo itinerary?
We definitely had a good time at this museum and would recommend it to anyone. It wasn’t too expensive, wasn’t too crowded, and had a ton of inspiring art. That said, you’ll need to check the current exhibits to see if what’s on currently is something you want to see. But for a museum we didn’t know existed before last week, the Artizon gets a good review from us.
There’s obviously a lot of art to see in Tokyo with the Mori Art Museum, TeamLab, the Yayoi Kusama Museum, and the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (while it lasts), but the one thing the Artizon Museum has over those others is accessibility. By that I don’t just mean that it’s close to Tokyo Station - I mean there’s a lot of art here that’s easy to “get.” It’s not all super-confusing contemporary pieces or messy modernism or blurry impressionism - there’s a great variety that should satisfy everyone in your group. If you’re in Tokyo, consider putting this on your itinerary.
Where to find the Artizon Museum in Tokyo
Address: 1 Chome-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0031
Phone: 505-541-8600
Website: artizon.museum
Hours: T-Th & Sat-Sun 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-8pm, closed Monday
Ticket cost: 1,800 yen (less than $12/person as of this writing)
The museum is very conveniently located thanks to its proximity to Tokyo Station and Marunouchi. The exhibits at the Artizon Museum change quite frequently, so check here to see what’s on when you’re planning to visit.
