Matsukata Kojiro × Tokutaro Yamamura Exhibition at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art Until December 27; Two Collectors’ Collections Shown Together for the First Time

An exhibition that sets the collections of two collectors in dialogue is on view at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Chuo-ku, Kobe) until Sunday, December 27. Its full title is “National Museum of Art Collection Dialogue: Matsukata Kojiro × Tokutaro Yamamura, A Passion for Collecting – Rodin to Japan, Gutai to the World.” Rodin’s sculptures and other works come from the Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, and postwar avant-garde art centered on the Gutai Art Association comes from the Yamamura Collection of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. According to the museum, this is the first time the two collections have been shown together, with a special focus on Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell.”

Matsukata Kojiro and Tokutaro Yamamura: who were the two collectors?

Matsukata Kojiro (1866–1950) was born the third son of Matsukata Masayoshi, an elder statesman of the Meiji era, and became the first president of Kawasaki Dockyard in 1896. He began collecting while staying in London during World War I and, over the following 11 years, gathered a wide range of works from the Renaissance to the latest art of the day. The total is said to have exceeded 10,000 works.

Matsukata aspired to build the “Kyoraku Museum of Art” and spread Western art in Japan. However, his collection was dispersed after his company’s business faltered in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake and the Showa financial crisis. After the war, about 370 works that had been kept in Paris were returned to Japan as a donation, and the National Museum of Western Art was established in 1959 to house and display them.

Tokutaro Yamamura (1926–1986) was born in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and became head of the Yamamura Glass Bottle Works in 1948 and president of Yamamura Glass Co., Ltd. in 1955. He began collecting art with his mother, Haru, and from the mid-1950s, based in the Kansai region, he collected modern art from Japan and abroad at first, and later postwar Japanese avant-garde art. He donated eight works by overseas artists to the National Museum of Western Art.

He stepped down as president in 1983 to accelerate his collecting but died three years later with his ambitions unfulfilled. The following year, his collection of 164 works (with three more added later) entered the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, and it is now held by the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. The museum notes that Yamamura spent about 30 years building one of Japan’s leading collections of avant-garde art.

Why see it now? The 160th and 100th anniversaries of two men with ties to Hyogo

The exhibition marks the 160th anniversary of Matsukata’s birth and the 100th anniversary of Yamamura’s birth, and was realized as part of “Collection Dialogue,” a joint program of the National Museum of Art. The museum explains that the two men, hoping to give people the chance to appreciate great art, collected modern Western art and contemporary Japanese art respectively. Their works were taken into museums in Tokyo and Kobe.

Both men also have ties to Hyogo. The first candidate site for the Kyoraku Museum of Art that Matsukata envisioned was Kobe, where he lived at the time. Yamamura, born in Nishinomiya, also continued collecting from his base in the Kansai region.

Highlights: four chapters, with a special focus on Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell”

Chapter 1, “The Matsukata Collection,” consists of two sections: Matsukata’s plan for a museum and his relationship with Rodin. Behind the plan was his encounter with the British painter Frank Brangwyn, whose works, including “Portrait of Matsukata Kojiro” (1916), are on display. Paintings include Claude Monet’s “Poplars in the Sun” (1891) and Paul Gauguin’s “Breton Landscape” (1888). Gustave Courbet’s “Woman with Bare Shoulders” (1867) and Brangwyn’s “Bird’s-Eye View of the Kyoraku Museum of Art Plan, Tokyo” are also exhibited.

According to the museum, “The Gates of Hell,” one of Rodin’s masterpieces that was never completed in his lifetime, could be cast in bronze thanks to Matsukata’s commission. The exhibition presents “The Thinker” (1881–82) and 35 works from “Les Dessins d’Auguste Rodin” (“Album Fenaille”), published in 1897.

Chapter 2, “Collection Dialogue,” takes up dialogues between works in the collections of the National Museum of Western Art and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. Rodin’s “The Age of Bronze” (1877) and George Segal’s “Rush Hour” (1983) show how the concept of sculpture expanded in the 20th century. Both museums own a cast of Rodin’s “Orpheus,” one cast in 1921 (National Museum of Western Art) and the other in 1971 (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art), offering a way to think about the multiplicity of sculpture and questions of casting.

Chapter 3, “The Yamamura Collection,” consists of three sections: modern Western art, postwar contemporary Japanese art and the Gutai Art Association. Jean (Hans) Arp’s “Ring–Forest” (1961) is a work Yamamura donated to the National Museum of Western Art. Works such as Waichi Tsutaka’s “Mother and Child” (1951) and Ushio Shinohara’s “Motorcycle Mama” (1971) are also on display. According to the museum, Yamamura put quality before quantity in his collecting.

Regarding the Gutai Art Association, the museum explains that Yamamura bought back works that had gone abroad, encouraged artists to remake lost works and also collected related materials. The list of works includes Kazuo Shiraga’s “Tenisei Sekihatsuki” (1959) and Atsuko Tanaka’s “Work” (1958), as well as works by Jiro Yoshihara, Sadamasa Motonaga, Shozo Shimamoto, Saburo Murakami and others. Some works, such as Kazuo Shiraga’s “Red Log” and Atsuko Tanaka’s “Work (Bell),” are dated “1955/85.”

Chapter 4, “Epilogue: The Dream Continues,” shows works such as Rodin’s maquette for “The Gates of Hell” (third model, c. 1881–82). The museum presents the dispersed Matsukata Collection as having supported the operation of the then newly founded Musée Rodin and helped raise the cultural standing of Japan, which had no public art museum at the time. As for Yamamura, it explains that he formed his collection with a cutting-edge sensibility, for example by proposing that past performances be turned into paintings.

Tickets and prices, free for high school students and younger

Same-day tickets cost 1,800 yen for adults, 1,200 yen for university students and 900 yen for those aged 70 and over; high school students and younger are admitted free. Holders of a disability certificate or similar pay 450 yen (adults) or 300 yen (university students), and one caregiver is admitted free. Groups of 20 or more pay 1,600 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for university students and 800 yen for those aged 70 and over (advance notice required one month ahead). Advance ticket sales ended on Friday, October 9.

The collection exhibition requires a separate ticket, and a combined discount is available with this exhibition. Showing a viewing passport for “Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2026 beyond” gives adults and university students 100 yen off (until November 29, at the museum’s ticket counter only). The art festival is introduced in our article on Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2026 beyond.

The audio guide costs 800 yen, with commentary by Hitoshi Kubota, narrator of the TV program “Jonetsu Tairiku.” The official catalogue (modified B5, 192 pages) costs 2,000 yen and is sold at the special shop at the venue on the 1st floor and at the museum shop during the exhibition.

Related events and access

On Sunday, November 1, from 13:00 to 17:15, a commemorative symposium, “The Use and Care of Sculpture in Art Museums,” will be held in the KOBELCO Museum Hall. On Monday, November 23 (national holiday), from 14:00 to 15:30, Megumi Jinnooka will give a commemorative lecture, “The Matsukata Collection and Rodin’s Sculpture (tentative title),” in the same hall. Both are limited to 150 people on a first-come, first-served basis, and an exhibition ticket is required.

On Saturday, October 24, from 14:00 to 15:00, Yoshiko Suzuki will give a special lecture, “Gutai in the Yamamura Collection” (80 people, first come, first served). Gallery talks by curators are held on Saturdays, October 24, November 7 and December 19, from 11:00 to 11:45.

The museum is located at 1-1-1 Wakinohama Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe (in HAT Kobe). It is about an 8-minute walk south from Iwaya Station on the Hanshin Line, about a 10-minute walk south from the South Exit of JR Nada Station and about a 20-minute walk southwest from the West Exit of Oji-koen Station on the Hankyu Line. From the Sannomiya terminal, Kobe City Bus (Routes 29 and 101) takes about 15 minutes (about 34 minutes at some times of day) to the “Kenritsu Bijutsukan-mae” stop. There is an underground parking lot for 80 cars, costing 400 yen for up to two hours and 200 yen for every 30 minutes thereafter.

Editor’s perspective

As the subtitle “Rodin to Japan, Gutai to the World” suggests, the exhibition reexamines the provenance of the works through the intentions of two collectors. Matsukata’s collection led to the founding of the National Museum of Western Art, and Yamamura’s collection was passed on to a museum in Hyogo. The two museums’ holdings let visitors see for themselves how collecting has been bound up with the founding of museums.

From Tuesday, October 20 to Tuesday, February 23, 2027 (national holiday), the museum also holds Collection Exhibition II. Marking 40 years since the 1986 exhibition “Japon des avant-gardes 1910–1970” in Paris, which prompted a reappraisal of modern and contemporary Japanese art, it looks back on the “avant-garde.” Exhibitions in the Kansai region are introduced in our [Autumn/Winter 2026] Exhibitions in Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Hyogo, and Western art exhibitions in our [2026–2027] Guide to Western Art Exhibitions in Japan.

Overview

Name: National Museum of Art Collection Dialogue: Matsukata Kojiro × Tokutaro Yamamura, A Passion for Collecting – Rodin to Japan, Gutai to the World
Dates: Saturday, October 10 – Sunday, December 27, 2026
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (last entry 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Mondays (open on Monday, October 12 and Monday, November 23, national holidays; closed instead on Tuesday, October 13 and Tuesday, November 24)
Venue: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, 1F galleries
Address: 1-1-1 Wakinohama Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe (in HAT Kobe)
Admission: Adults 1,800 yen, university students 1,200 yen, 70 and over 900 yen, free for high school students and younger (groups of 20 or more: adults 1,600 yen, university students 1,000 yen, 70 and over 800 yen)
Organizers: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, National Museum of Western Art, National Center for Art Research, The Kobe Shimbun
Special sponsors: Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Nihon Yamamura Glass Co., Ltd.
Official website: https://www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp/exhibition/t_2610/index.html
*Information as of October 19, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Auguste Rodin, “The Thinker,” 1881–82, bronze, National Museum of Western Art (Matsukata Collection). Photo: © Norihiro Ueno / Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Photo: © Nobutada Omote (from a press release by the National Center for Art Research, Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on information on the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art’s official website and its list of works (as of October 19, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team