Sumida Hokusai Museum

Sumida Hokusai Museum

The Sumida Hokusai Museum opened in 2016 in Sumida, Tokyo, and is dedicated to the life and works of ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai. The museum contextualizes Hokusai alongside figures such as Utagawa Hiroshige, Kitagawa Utamaro, Ando Hiroshige, Kano Eitoku, Tawaraya Sotatsu while connecting to institutions like the Tokyo National Museum, British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Louvre, Rijksmuseum and practices represented by collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Freer Gallery of Art. It links Hokusai’s influence to creators and movements including Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet.

Overview

The museum focuses on Katsushika Hokusai and his major series such as Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, presenting prints, paintings, sketches and illustrated books that relate to Edo-period patrons like Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Kabuki theatre actors such as Ichikawa Danjūrō, and woodblock publishers like Tsutaya Jūzaburō. It situates Hokusai within networks including Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Kunisada, Suzuki Harunobu, Torii Kiyonaga, Tosa Mitsunobu, Hishikawa Moronobu and Kano school artists, while referencing collectors and scholars such as Ernest Fenollosa, Okakura Kakuzō, Henri Cernuschi, Robert de Vauga, and Felix Beato. The museum engages with institutions including the British Library, Smithsonian Institution, Bibliothèque nationale de France, National Diet Library and Victoria and Albert Museum.

Architecture and Design

Designed by SANAA principals Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the building reflects contemporary Japanese architecture trends found in works by Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma, Kenzo Tange, Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa. The minimalist facade and stacked galleries recall projects by Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto while responding to Tokyo urban contexts like Asakusa, Ueno, Nihonbashi and Roppongi. Interior materials and light treatment evoke comparisons with museums such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Landscape and site planning intersect with Sumida River promenades, Ryōgoku Bridge vistas, Edo-Tokyo Museum perspectives, and public spaces developed near Tokyo Skytree and Ueno Park.

Collections and Exhibitions

Permanent holdings emphasize Hokusai prints including The Great Wave off Kanagawa alongside preparatory sketches, surimono, emakimono and manga volumes that connect to print culture exemplified by publishers like Eirakuya Toshiro and Hon'ya. Rotating exhibitions have featured loans from the British Museum, Rijksmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and private collections formerly held by collectors such as Samuel Courtauld, Alfred East, and Yamanaka Sadajirō. Curatorial themes link Hokusai to Hiroshige landscape studies, Utamaro bijin-ga portraits, Meiji-era transitions exemplified by Yokohama photography, and Western responses by Paul Gauguin, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustav Klimt, and Pablo Picasso. Exhibitions have explored technical processes like bokashi, nishiki-e, chūban format, and karazuri printing methods, and have presented comparative displays with works by Ando Hiroshige II, Ogata Kōrin, Maruyama Ōkyo, Bizen pottery, and Arita porcelain.

Educational Programs and Research

The museum runs workshops, lectures and symposia linking researchers from Waseda University, University of Tokyo, Keio University, Tokyo University of the Arts, Kyoto University, and international partners including Courtauld Institute of Art, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. Programs address conservation practices from the Getty Conservation Institute, Institut national du patrimoine, and National Institute for Cultural Heritage while collaborating with printmaking studios such as Maison de la gravure, Atelier Bow-Wow, and Sōgetsu Foundation. Research projects examine provenance studies related to collectors like Ernest Fenollosa and institutions including the Freer Gallery, and explore Hokusai’s influence on manga creators like Osamu Tezuka, Akira Toriyama, Hayao Miyazaki and contemporary artists shown at venues such as Mori Art Museum, Yokohama Museum of Art and Suntory Museum of Art.

Visitor Information

The museum is located near Honjo-Azumabashi Station and Oshiage Station, accessible from Tokyo metro lines including Toei Asakusa Line, Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line and Tobu Skytree Line, and is close to attractions such as Sensō-ji, Tokyo Skytree, Edo-Tokyo Museum, Ueno Zoo and Ryōgoku Kokugikan. Visitor services include timed tickets, multilingual guides in English, French, Chinese, Korean and Spanish, a museum shop offering reproductions, catalogues and publications by University of Tokyo Press, Kodansha, Iwanami Shoten, and a café inspired by Edo-period cuisine and seasonal menus promoted in Tokyo Guide and Time Out Tokyo. The museum coordinates with accommodations like hotels in Asakusa, Ryokan in Ueno, and transportation hubs at Tokyo Station, Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport.

Category:Art museums in Tokyo Category:Katsushika Hokusai Category:Buildings by SANAA