The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT) is Japan’s first national art museum and is located in central Tokyo, near the Imperial Palace. The main feature of the MOMAT is that it is home to one of the largest collections in Japan, comprising over 13,000 items, including Important Cultural Properties. Other works in the collection include many Japanese masterpieces from the early 20th century to the present day as well as works from abroad.

During a turbulent age of Japan’s rapid modernization, artists continued to search for truly epoch-making modes of expression between the traditional Japanese sense of beauty and the culture found in Western art. What masterpieces were created by their efforts? The MOMAT Collection, exhibited in the collection galleries on the second, third, and fourth floors, shows visitors the answers. Each period of time addressed in the exhibition features 200 artworks selected from the collection. Together, they form the only exhibition in Japan that gives visitors an insight into Japanese art spanning more than a century in a single stroke.