The story
The National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, known as MOMAT, was Japan's first national art museum, opened in 1952 as the country rebuilt after the war and wanted a place to show its own modern art. Since 1969 it has stood beside the moat of the Imperial Palace, in a clean modern building.
Its collection traces a split that runs through Japanese art since the late 19th century, between nihonga, painting made in the traditional way with ink and mineral pigment on silk or paper, and yōga, the Western-style oil painting that Japan took up as it opened to the world. More than 13,000 works follow both lines from around 1900 to today.
A quiet room near the top of the building gives onto a wide view over the palace gardens, kept on purpose as a place to pause between the galleries.
