The Sumida Hokusai Museum in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, focuses on the Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of Katsushika Hokusai.

The location of this art museum is where Katsushika Hokusai, a towering figure in the world of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, spent most of his life from the 18^th to the 19^th century.  Known all over the world by the masterpiece in the second photo, his numerous artworks had a significant influence on the Impressionist painters in Europe.  Such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Gustave Moreau adopted adventurous perspective for their own basic composition.  Compared to the oil paintings in Europe before Impressionism in the 19^th century, those works of Impressionism are very popular among Japanese people because there is remarkable similarity between Ukiyo-e and their works.  It is also said that the major Impressionists were enthusiastic collectors of Ukiyo-e.  This art museum focuses on the artworks of Hokusai and the number of the collections reaches over 1,000 works.  The uniquely designed building in the first photo is by Sejima Kazuyo, a famous architect in Japan.

As the elevation around here is almost zero meters, the storage for the precious masterpieces is located above the second floor of the building just in case of flooding.

http://tour-guide-japan.jp/