The National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park, Tokyo, is the only national museum focusing on western art.

The museum, built in 1959, owns a variety of western art collected by Matsukata Kojiro, who was a president of present time Kawasaki Heavy Industries, before the Second World War.  His vast collection of western art, the so-called Matsukata Collection, mainly consists of Impressionists works, and most of them were left in France at that time.  The French government confiscated them right after the war as Japan gave up the war.  In response to the return request from the Japanese government, the French authorities decided to return them, but insisted on the condition that a new museum capable of housing and displaying them should be built.  Hence, the museum designed by Le Corbusier was built in Ueno.  After a full-scale seismic retrofit work in 1998, it was designated as a national important cultural property in 2007.  In 2016, thereafter, it was placed on the World Heritage List as one of the masterpieces by the architectural giant.  The original purpose of the museum was just for the Matsukata Collection though, the museum has advanced to purchase additional western art.  So, it has completed systematic western art collection from the Renaissance times to the Early-modern times.

The second photo shows “The Gate of Hell” by Auguste Rodin standing in the front yard of the museum , which is one of the seven copies in the world.

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