Poster for the 2026 fall Collection Room display A Museum's Story

[2026 Fall] Collection Room – Special Display: A Museum's Story — The Birth of the Kyoto City Museum of Art

Now showing9 October 2026 – 13 December 2026¥730

Collection display on the museum's 1933 founding as the Kyoto Enthronement Memorial Museum of Art, with its earliest acquisitions and archive material.

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On now All of November 2026

Room 105a holds the museum's number ones. Sakakibara Shiho's Lion screen is Nihonga no. 001, shown with Western painting no. 001, crafts no. 001 (a Kiyomizu Rokube V vase) and sculpture no. 001, a plaster portrait of the Zen master Mokurai.

The museum opened in autumn 1933 as the Kyoto Enthronement Memorial Museum of Art, funded by Kyoto's business and civic circles, with Takeuchi Seiho among its trustees. Its 1934 exhibition drew art groups from across Japan, and the best entries were bought afterwards. You walk through those purchases in room 101, a streamlined lacquer table clock among them, with archive material alongside. Two smaller themes share the floor: animals and autumn leaves.

It's on 1F of the main building's North Wing. Non-residents pay ¥730, Kyoto residents ¥520 with ID, under-elementary children nothing. On 15 November the director, architect Aoki Jun, talks about the 1933 building (free). Cafe ENFUSE's seasonal sweet copies that building's Western walls and Japanese roof, so you can eat the subject of the show.

Look for

Sakakibara Shiho, Lion (1927)
Look for the lion on a two-panel silk screen 3.66 metres wide, the first work in the museum's Nihonga register.
Hattori Kizo, Old Ceramics (1934)
An oil of Asian ceramics on Indian chintz, including a Ming dish with two phoenixes circling a peony; the real dish is at Kyoto National Museum.
Zoo keepers' captions
In the animals room, paintings such as Takeuchi Seiho's Bear (1910) carry one-line notes from a museum curator and a Kyoto City Zoo keeper.
Makino Katsuji, Fallen Leaves (1903)
Coloured leaves caught mid-fall, set in a deep perspective that pulls your eye into the picture.
Itani Kenzo, Afterglow on Mount Yufu (1955)
An active volcano in autumn colour, painted in the light brown known as "Itani red".

Good for

Cheap Culture
Locals Who've Seen It All
Nerding Out

With kids

Under-elementary children are free, as are school pupils who live or study in Kyoto; others pay ¥300. Until 13 December, Kyoto City Zoo has panels beside the animals painted in the animals room.