Architectural Materials Related to the Former Imperial Museum of Kyoto

The Imperial Museum of Kyoto (now the Kyoto National Museum) was founded in 1889 to preserve the art of Kyoto. Construction of the museum complex, including a main pavilion and front gate, was overseen by a stable of builders from the Ministry of the Imperial Household. Groundbreaking took place in 1892, and construction was complete in 1895. Against the backdrop of Higashiyama mountain, the main pavilion looks out on a garden and the main gate, with the streets of Kyoto City beyond. Viewed from the front, the building is designed to convey the image of a phoenix taking flight from the mountain. Between the central portion of the pavilion and the side wings are seven domed roofs of varying size, beneath which lie antique object display rooms connected by nine flanking corridors used to display paintings; in the center is a sculpture room set off by a row of pillars. In its outward appearance and spatial configuration, the complex reflects the pictorial and artificial baroque style of seventeenth-century European palace architecture, but in shape, color, texture and size it conveys a sense of Japanese tradition and blends well with the natural beauty of Kyoto.

Designer Tôkuma Katayama (1854-1917) was a member of the first graduating class of Kôbu Daigakkô Zôka Gakka (later part of Tokyo University), where he trained under English architect Josiah Conder (1852-1920). Katayama also designed the main pavilion of the Nara National Museum as well as the Akasaka Detached Palace (officially known as the Geihinkan, or State Guesthouse), a particularly distinguished example of Western-style architecture from the late Meiji period. From its glass-roof lighting and sturdy, fire- and earthquake-resistant structure to its use of terrain to combat humidity, this museum pavilion represented the acme of contemporary museum design. The finest techniques of the day were concentrated in its construction. Now, over a century later, the reputation of the museum as a work of art in its own right is soaring.

— Museum description: Kyoto National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.