[Autumn/Winter 2026] Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi Art Guide: Asakura Museum of Sculpture, Takehisa Yumeji Museum, Mori Ogai Memorial Museum and More

Yanaka, Nezu, Sendagi and the surrounding area in Tokyo are home to the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, the former studio-residence of sculptor Fumio Asakura; SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, a contemporary art gallery in a converted public bathhouse; the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum, which showcase illustration and the work of Takehisa Yumeji; the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum, built on the site of Ogai’s former residence; and the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall, the former home of Yokoyama Taikan. We have compiled the exhibitions on view as of Saturday, October 31, 2026, the schedule through December, opening hours, closing days and admission fees, as well as how to get around from the stations. The Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop, a Meiji-era liquor store building open to the public, is free to enter.

What are the art venues in Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi like?

Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi are also known collectively as “Yanesen,” from the first syllables of their names. Yanaka, Uenosakuragi and Ikenohata belong to Taito City, while Nezu, Sendagi and Yayoi belong to Bunkyo City. The nearest stations are Nippori Station on the JR and Keisei lines, Yushima, Nezu and Sendagi stations on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, and Todaimae Station on the Namboku Line; on the Chiyoda Line, Yushima, Nezu and Sendagi are three consecutive stops.

Many of the venues are places where artists lived and worked, or have inherited old buildings. The Asakura Museum of Sculpture is the studio-residence that Fumio Asakura designed himself, the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall is the house where Taikan lived until his death, and the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum stands on the site of “Kanchoro,” where Ogai lived. SCAI THE BATHHOUSE is a gallery converted from a public bathhouse, and the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop is an exhibition space in a relocated Meiji-era liquor store building.

As of October 31, the main closing dates and the opening dates of upcoming exhibitions are as follows.

• Wednesday, November 4: Nobuko Tsuchiya’s “Ace of Hearts” opens at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (closed for exhibition changeover as of October 31)

• Friday, November 6 – Wednesday, November 11: The Asakura Museum of Sculpture is temporarily closed for construction work

• Sunday, December 20: The Goujin Ishihara exhibition at the Yayoi Museum and “Yumeji’s Japan” at the Takehisa Yumeji Museum close (the next exhibitions open on the 26th)

• Friday, December 25: “The Beauty of Japan as Painted by Taikan” closes at the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall

• Sunday, December 27: The special exhibition “ASAKURA ZOO 2026” at the Asakura Museum of Sculpture closes (the museum will be closed in January 2027 for construction work)

• Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday): The special exhibition “Kanchoro Poetry Gatherings” at the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum closes

Closing days differ from venue to venue, and many are closed on Mondays. Autumn and winter exhibitions across Tokyo are introduced in 20 recommended exhibitions in Tokyo.

Exhibitions, opening hours and admission at each venue (as of October 31)

Asakura Museum of Sculpture: Special exhibition “ASAKURA ZOO 2026” until December 27; rooftop garden closed for construction

Operated by Taito City, this museum opens the studio-residence of sculptor Fumio Asakura (1883–1964) to the public. According to the museum, Asakura set up a studio and home in Yanaka in 1907, the year he graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts), and repeatedly extended and remodeled it. The current building, designed by Asakura himself, was completed in 1935: a reinforced-concrete studio wing and a wooden residential wing surround the “Goten no Ike” pond in the central courtyard. Asakura trained his students here at his “Asakura Sculpture School.” His family began opening the house to the public in 1967, and it was transferred to Taito City in 1986. The building was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, and in 2008 the entire site was designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty as the “Former Fumio Asakura Garden.” In 1948, Asakura became the first sculptor to receive the Order of Culture.

The special exhibition “ASAKURA ZOO 2026” brings together animal sculptures, which the museum describes as Asakura’s starting point as a sculptor, and displays decorative art objects from Asakura’s collection depicting familiar animals and insects. During the exhibition, exterior painting work on the studio wing continues, and the rooftop garden and south terrace are closed until December. Visitors follow the same route used on rainy days, and scaffolding may make the exterior and the Goten no Ike pond difficult to see. The museum will be temporarily closed from Friday, November 6 to Wednesday, November 11 due to the work (dates may change depending on the weather). Visitors remove their shoes inside.

Dates: Saturday, July 18 – Sunday, December 27, 2026
Hours: 9:30–16:30 (last entry 16:00)
Closed: Mondays and Thursdays (or the following weekday if a national holiday). In November: 2nd, 5th–12th, 16th, 19th, 24th, 26th and 30th; in December: 3rd, 7th, 10th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 24th and 28th–31st. Closed in January 2027 for construction work
Admission: Adults ¥500; elementary, junior high and high school students ¥250. Free for elementary, junior high and high school students living or studying in Taito City (proof required), and for holders of a disability certificate and one caregiver. A combined ticket for five museums (also valid at the Shitamachi Museum, Ichiyo Memorial Museum, Former Tokyo Music School Sogakudo and Calligraphy Museum) costs ¥1,000 and is valid for one year from the date of purchase
Address: 7-18-10 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Access: 5-minute walk from the West Exit after leaving the North Ticket Gate of Nippori Station (JR, Keisei Line, Nippori-Toneri Liner)
Official website: https://www.taitogeibun.net/asakura/

SCAI THE BATHHOUSE: Nobuko Tsuchiya’s “Ace of Hearts” from November 4, also part of Art Week Tokyo

According to the gallery, this contemporary art gallery was founded in 1993 by converting “Kashiwayu,” a public bathhouse with a 200-year history. Natural light falls softly into its white, high-ceilinged space. It has held exhibitions by Lee Ufan, Toshikatsu Endo, Mariko Mori and others, and has also introduced young and international artists. Following the Lee Ufan exhibition, which ran until October 10, the gallery is between exhibitions and was closed as of October 31.

Nobuko Tsuchiya’s solo exhibition “Ace of Hearts,” opening Wednesday, November 4, is one of the special presentations of “AWT FOCUS,” part of “Art Week Tokyo” (November 4–8), in which museums and galleries across Tokyo take part. It is curated by Martin Clark, director of Camden Art Centre. According to the gallery’s introduction, Tsuchiya’s works are small, engine-like objects made of various fragile materials; arranged so that they spread across the walls and floor, they interact with one another to form a dense network. In his essay, Clark takes Edwin A. Abbott’s “Flatland” (1884) as a point of departure. The gallery is closed on Sundays, Mondays and national holidays, but will be open on Sunday, November 8, during Art Week Tokyo. An overview of Art Week Tokyo is available in our article on Art Week Tokyo 2026.

Dates: Wednesday, November 4 – Saturday, December 19, 2026
Gallery hours: 12:00–18:00
Closed: Sundays, Mondays and national holidays (open on Sunday, November 8). Also closed during exhibition changeovers
Admission: Not stated on the exhibition page
Address: Kashiwayu-Ato, 6-1-23 Yanaka, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Access: From the South Exit of JR Nippori Station, walk through the tree-lined avenue of Yanaka Cemetery, turn left at the traffic light at the end, and the gallery is on the right at the next traffic light (Yanaka Police Box). From Exit 1 of Nezu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, walk along Kototoi-dori, turn left at the “Uenosakuragi” traffic light, and the gallery is on the left at the first traffic light (the English-language directions give about 5 minutes from Nippori Station to the end of the avenue, and about 10 minutes uphill from Nezu Station)
Official website: https://www.scaithebathhouse.com/

Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum: The Goujin Ishihara exhibition and “Yumeji’s Japan” until December 20

The Yayoi Museum was founded in 1984 by lawyer Takumi Kano to exhibit his collection of works by illustrator Kasho Takabatake. In addition to Kasho, its special exhibitions feature publishing art such as illustrations, magazines, manga and magazine supplements. The Takehisa Yumeji Museum, opened in 1990, always displays around 200 to 250 works from Kano’s Yumeji collection. The two museums share a building and can be visited one after the other on a joint admission ticket. In the Kasho Room on the 3rd floor of the Yayoi Museum, “Let’s Go! Kasho’s Great ★ Adventure ★” is on view until December 20.

The Yayoi Museum’s “Goujin Ishihara: Fictional Worlds Rendered Real — A Grand Gathering of Fantastical Illustrations from around the 1970s” brings together works by Goujin Ishihara, who depicted mysterious villains, monsters and paranormal phenomena in the large illustrated feature pages of boys’ magazines around 1970. Alongside works by illustrators of the same era, it explores a period that depicted both future-oriented themes such as “space” and “robots” and apocalyptic worlds such as “the last day of Earth.”

The Takehisa Yumeji Museum’s “Yumeji’s Japan: An Idealized Land in Pictures” traces the Japanese landscapes and culture idealized by Takehisa Yumeji (1884–1934), who won popularity with his “Yumeji-style beauties,” through works based on memories and nostalgia from his boyhood, the world of ukiyo-e, theater and classical literature. Works on display include “Legend of a Snowy Night” (1926) and “Daikon Riverbank” (1908), and on the 1st floor, the newly discovered and acquired Japanese-style painting “Night Song of the Kamo River” is on special display until December 20. Gallery talks by curators will be held at 14:00 on Sunday, November 8 and Saturday, December 5. Works from the museum’s collection have also been lent to “Takehisa Yumeji—An Artist Who Defined His Era” at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (until January 11, 2027) (our article on the Takehisa Yumeji exhibition). There is no elevator or coin locker in the building.

Dates: Saturday, October 3 – Sunday, December 20, 2026
Hours: 10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30)
Closed: Mondays (open on Monday, November 23 [national holiday] and closed on Tuesday, November 24), during exhibition changeovers, and over the New Year holidays (December 30 – January 4, 2027)
Admission: Adults ¥1,200; university and high school students ¥1,000; junior high and elementary school students ¥500 (valid for both museums). Cash only
Next exhibitions: Saturday, December 26, 2026 – Sunday, March 28, 2027. At the Yayoi Museum, “Ikuko Hatoyama × Kazunori Akita: Dreaming Contrepoint — A Microcosm of Manga and Graphic Design”; at the Takehisa Yumeji Museum, “Modern Sheet Music Illustration 1920–30: Women, Tokyo and the Beauty of Art Deco Expressing Music”
Address: Yayoi Museum: 2-4-3 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; Takehisa Yumeji Museum: 2-4-2 Yayoi
Access: 7-minute walk from Exit 1 of Nezu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line or Exit 1 of Todaimae Station on the Namboku Line
Official website: https://www.yayoi-yumeji-museum.jp/

Bunkyo Mori Ogai Memorial Museum: Special exhibition “Kanchoro Poetry Gatherings” until January 11, 2027

The museum opened on November 1, 2012, on the site of “Kanchoro,” the house where Mori Ogai lived from 1892 until his death in 1922. According to Bunkyo City, it opened to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Ogai’s birth. The house was destroyed in air raids in 1945 and other events; a bust, a ginkgo tree, the paving stones of the gate and the “Stone of the Three-Person Banter” remain. The building, designed by Fumio Toki, sits low along Dangozaka, and is entered through an alley-like space that connects to the “Yabushita path.”

The special exhibition “Kanchoro Poetry Gatherings: Ogai’s Observations of the Tanka World” focuses on the poetry gatherings Ogai held at his home for about three years from March 1907. According to the museum, Ogai, who was interested in tanka, sought to narrow the divide between poetic schools and invited Sachio Ito of the Negishi Tanka Society, Hiroshi Yosano of the Tokyo Shinshisha and Nobutsuna Sasaki of the Chikuhakukai, among others. A total of 21 people took part, including Hakushu Kitahara, Takuboku Ishikawa, Mokutaro Kinoshita and Mokichi Saito. Once a month, participants circulated their own poems with the authors’ names withheld, then selected and critiqued them. No official record survives, and the exhibition reconstructs the gatherings from diaries, letters and memoirs. A lecture will be held on Saturday, November 28 (advance application required, applications must arrive by November 13), and gallery talks will be held at 14:00 on Wednesday, December 9 and Wednesday, January 6, 2027 (no application needed; a same-day admission ticket is required).

Dates: Saturday, October 10, 2026 – Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday)
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30)
Closed during the exhibition: Tuesday, November 24 and Wednesday, November 25; Monday, December 21 and Tuesday, December 22; Tuesday, December 29 – Sunday, January 3, 2027
Admission: Adults ¥600. Free for junior high school students and younger, and for holders of a disability certificate and one caregiver
Address: 1-23-4 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Access: 5-minute walk from Exit 1 of Sendagi Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, 10-minute walk from Exit 1 of Hon-komagome Station on the Namboku Line, 15-minute walk from the West Exit of JR Nippori Station
Official website: https://moriogai-kinenkan.jp/

Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall: “The Beauty of Japan as Painted by Taikan” until December 25; open Thursday to Sunday

This memorial hall opens to the public the former home and garden of Japanese-style painter Yokoyama Taikan on the shore of Shinobazu Pond. According to the memorial hall, Taikan moved here in 1908, and in 1919 a Kyoto-style sukiya house and garden of his own design were built. He lived and worked here until his death in 1958. Although most of the house was lost in air raids, it was rebuilt in almost its original form in 1954 and opened to the public in 1976. The former residence and garden are designated a national Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty. In 1898, Taikan took part in founding the Japan Art Institute in Yanaka with Okakura Tenshin and others.

“The Beauty of Japan as Painted by Taikan,” on view from October 22, takes as its starting point Taikan’s words that Japanese painting is born against the backdrop of a mild climate, beautiful mountains and rivers, and the nature of the four seasons, and introduces works depicting winter landscapes, the sea and pine trees. Hanging scroll works are displayed as they are in the tokonoma alcoves, and the display is changed every three months. Visitors remove their shoes inside.

Dates: Thursday, October 22 – Friday, December 25, 2026
Hours: 10:00–16:00 (last entry 15:30)
Closed: Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Also closed for exhibition changeovers
Admission: Adults ¥1,000; 70 and over and university students ¥800; junior high and high school students ¥500; elementary school students free
Address: 1-4-24 Ikenohata, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Access: 7-minute walk from Yushima Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, 12-minute walk from Ueno-hirokoji Station on the Ginza Line, 15-minute walk from JR Ueno and Okachimachi stations and Keisei Ueno Station
Official website: https://taikan.tokyo/

Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop: A Meiji-era liquor store building open free of charge

An annex exhibition space of the Shitamachi Museum (Ueno Park) operated by Taito City. The building of “Yoshidaya,” a family that ran a liquor store in Yanaka 6-chome for generations from the Edo period, was relocated to its current site in Uenosakuragi. Dating from 1910 (Meiji 43), the building retains features of merchant architecture from the mid-Edo to the Meiji period, such as dashigeta-zukuri construction with projecting eave beams and the agedo shop front, whose wooden and lattice doors are raised and lowered. Inside, the tools and materials of the sake trade are displayed, including scales, funnels, wooden measuring boxes, barrels, sake bottles, and advertising posters and signboards.

Hours: 9:30–16:30
Closed: Mondays (or the following weekday if a national holiday), December 29 – January 3
Admission: Free
Address: 2-10-6 Uenosakuragi, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Access: 10-minute walk from Nezu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line. 1-minute walk from the “Yanaka” stop of Toei Bus route Ue-26, or the “Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop” stop of the Taito City East-West Megurin loop bus
Official website: https://www.taitogeibun.net/shitamachi/shitamachi_annex/

Nezu Shrine: Seven structures, including the main buildings completed in 1706 and the tower gate, are national Important Cultural Properties

According to the shrine’s history, it is said to have been founded in Sendagi by Yamato Takeru more than 1,900 years ago. When the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, named Ienobu, later the sixth shogun, as his heir, he donated land to the shrine, which was Ienobu’s guardian shrine, and carried out a major reconstruction; in 1706 (Hoei 3), the shrine moved from its former site in Sendagi. The gongen-style main hall, offering hall and worship hall completed that year, together with the Karamon gate, West Gate, openwork fence and tower gate, survive intact and are designated national Important Cultural Properties. The shrine describes its tower gate as the only surviving tower gate of an Edo-period shrine in the city. According to the introduction to the “Stone of the Literary Masters” on the grounds, Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai were also parishioners. The opening hours of the Karamon gate and other information are provided on the official website.

Address: 1-28-9 Nezu, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Access: 5-minute walk from Nezu and Sendagi stations on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line, or Todaimae Station on the Namboku Line
Official website: https://www.nedujinja.or.jp/

The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts: Free exhibitions continue in Ueno Park

The museum is a 10-minute walk from both the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station and Exit 1 of Nezu Station on the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line. In the Chinretsukan Gallery, Kiyoshi Furukawa’s retirement exhibition “Resonating Sound and Media: Media Art Music Today” is on view until Sunday, November 8 (open every day during the exhibition). It will be followed by “Bunponichi 2026” (November 11–15), “Future Art Research Field Exhibition 2026” (November 20 – December 2) and “Tokyo University of the Arts and Chinese International Students: From Hu Gentian to the Present” (November 21 – December 5). Admission to all is free, and hours are 10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30). The museum is closed outside exhibition periods. The museums in Ueno Park are introduced in our guide to museums in Ueno.

Address: 12-8 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Official website: https://museum.geidai.ac.jp/

Getting there from Nippori, Nezu and Sendagi, and suggested routes

Venues closest to each station

From Nippori Station, you can walk to the Asakura Museum of Sculpture (5 minutes from the West Exit via the North Ticket Gate) and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (through the tree-lined avenue of Yanaka Cemetery from the South Exit). Nezu Station on the Chiyoda Line is close to Nezu Shrine (5-minute walk), the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum (7-minute walk from Exit 1), the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop (10-minute walk) and The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts (10-minute walk from Exit 1). The next station, Sendagi, is closest to the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum (5-minute walk from Exit 1), and Yushima, on the other side, is closest to the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall (7-minute walk).

Suggested half-day routes

The Asakura Museum of Sculpture is closed on Mondays and Thursdays, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE on Sundays, Mondays and national holidays, the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall from Monday to Wednesday, and the Yayoi Museum, Takehisa Yumeji Museum and Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop on Mondays. From November 4, these five venues and the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum are all open on Fridays and Saturdays (the Asakura Museum of Sculpture is also closed from November 5 to 12). The area is easier to explore when divided into two parts: Yanaka and Uenosakuragi, and Ikenohata, Yayoi, Nezu and Sendagi.

Yanaka and Uenosakuragi course (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays)

1. 9:30 Asakura Museum of Sculpture (last entry 16:00)

2. Morning: Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop (opens 9:30, free)

3. From 12:00: SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (November 4 – December 19)

4. Afternoon: Head to The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts in Ueno Park (only on days with an exhibition), or return from Nezu Station

Ikenohata, Yayoi, Nezu and Sendagi course (Thursdays to Sundays)

1. 10:00 Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall (last entry 15:30)

2. Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum (last entry 16:30)

3. Nezu Shrine

4. By 17:30: Mori Ogai Memorial Museum (last entry 17:30)

On Fridays and Saturdays, you can also combine the two courses in a single day. In that case, keep an eye on the last entry time of the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall (15:30). It is a good idea to check the travel times between venues on a map in advance.

Editors’ perspective

In this area, places where artists lived and created have themselves become exhibition spaces. According to the museum, the rooftop garden of the Asakura Museum of Sculpture was a place where students of the Asakura Sculpture School grew familiar with the soil and trained their eye for observing nature by tending plants, based on Asakura’s own educational philosophy. At the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall, works hang in the tokonoma alcoves of the house built under Taikan’s own direction, and are shown together with the garden. The memorial hall notes that many works are thought to have drawn on elements of the garden. Being able to experience works together with the spaces in which they were born is what sets this apart from viewing them in a gallery.

Another characteristic is the depth of the area’s publishing and literary heritage. The Yayoi Museum features the art of publishing, such as illustrations, magazines, manga and magazine supplements, in its special exhibitions, and this season covers the illustrated feature pages of boys’ magazines around 1970. In the same building, the Takehisa Yumeji Museum displays works by Yumeji, known as a symbol of Taisho Romanticism. The Mori Ogai Memorial Museum uses archival materials to portray poetry gatherings at which poets of different schools met at Ogai’s house and critiqued one another’s work anonymously. Nezu Shrine, too, has its “Stone of the Literary Masters,” which records that Soseki and Ogai were parishioners. Here, materials related to literature and publishing can be seen in the very places where they were born.

Each venue has also inherited its building in its own way. SCAI THE BATHHOUSE converted a public bathhouse into a white, high-ceilinged exhibition space and has presented contemporary art there for more than 30 years. The Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop relocated a Meiji-era liquor store and opens it to the public together with the tools of the trade, while the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum keeps its building low along Dangozaka so that the large ginkgo tree and the Stone of the Three-Person Banter, reminders of the former residence, can be viewed from the alley. Walking around, you can compare different approaches to creating exhibition spaces that carry on the memories of old buildings and places. The architecture of the museums in Ueno Park is introduced in our guide to museum architecture in Tokyo.

Frequently asked questions

Which venues are open on Mondays?

The Mori Ogai Memorial Museum is open on Mondays (its closing days in November and December are November 24 and 25, December 21 and 22, and December 29 – January 3, 2027). Kiyoshi Furukawa’s retirement exhibition at The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts is also open every day until November 8. The Asakura Museum of Sculpture, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall, the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum, and the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop are closed on Mondays. However, on Monday, November 23 (national holiday), the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum, and the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop are open, and they close on Tuesday the 24th instead.

Are the venues open on Tuesday, November 3 (national holiday)?

The Asakura Museum of Sculpture, the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum, the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum, the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop and The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts (Kiyoshi Furukawa’s retirement exhibition) are open. SCAI THE BATHHOUSE is closed because it is a national holiday, and the Nobuko Tsuchiya exhibition opens the next day, the 4th. The Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall is closed on Tuesdays. National museums that offer free admission on Culture Day are listed in our article on museums with free admission on Culture Day.

Which venues require you to remove your shoes? Is photography allowed?

At the Asakura Museum of Sculpture and the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall, visitors remove their shoes. Socks are required at both, and because the Asakura Museum of Sculpture has lacquered floors and tatami corridors, it asks visitors to wear socks without non-slip soles. At the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, photography is limited to certain areas and times, and flash, tripods and monopods, selfie sticks, telephoto lenses and video recording are not permitted. The Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall prohibits photography and video recording on the 1st floor.

Which exhibitions can be seen for free?

Admission to the Former Yoshidaya Sake Shop is free. The four exhibitions held at The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts from October 31 to December 5 are also free. Even at paid venues, admission is free for junior high school students and younger at the Mori Ogai Memorial Museum, for elementary school students at the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall, and, at the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, for elementary, junior high and high school students living or studying in Taito City.

*Information as of October 31, 2026. Please check each venue’s official website for the latest information.

*Top image: The tower gate of Nezu Shrine, 2018 (Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on the official websites of the Asakura Museum of Sculpture, Taito; SCAI THE BATHHOUSE; the Yayoi Museum and Takehisa Yumeji Museum; the Bunkyo Mori Ogai Memorial Museum; the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall; the Shitamachi Museum, Taito; Nezu Shrine; and The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts; the websites of Taito City and Bunkyo City; a press release (May 28, 2026) from Contemporary Art Platform, the general incorporated association that organizes Art Week Tokyo; and the websites of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Tokyo Metro (all accessed October 31, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team