Nishiyo National Museum of Art

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The National Museum of Western Art was completed in 1959, with a total building area of 4,399 square meters, of which the exhibition hall area: 1,533 square meters. The museum collects and exhibits the collection of the late Koujiro Matsuyoshi and a large number of about 2,200 pieces of Western art works from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century. It is the only World Heritage Site in Tokyo's 23rd Ward and the only masterpiece in Japan by the famous French architect Le Corbusier.

The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the 17 famous architectural works of Le Corbusier listed as a World Heritage Site in honor of his “outstanding contribution to the modernist movement,” and was inscribed on the World Heritage List only 57 years after it was built.

The inauguration of the National Museum of Western Art is inextricably linked to the history of Japan with one of the most prestigious major collectors: Mr. Kōjiro Matsukata (1865-1950 まつかたこうじろう). Mr. Matsukata began to collect artworks in Europe in the middle of World War I. After years of acquiring artworks, his collection amounted to as many as 10,000 pieces. Matsukata brought some of his collection back to Japan and planned to build a museum to exhibit his collection.

However, as a result of World War II, only about 8,000 ukiyo-e prints were brought back to Japan, and about 400 Western paintings and sculptures were placed in the custody of the director of the Rodin Museum (Léonce Bénédite) in France. After the end of World War II, these works of art were nationalized by France under the pretext of “confiscation of enemy property.

In 1951, after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and France, Japan asked France for the old collection of Kōjiro Matsumata, and France eventually returned 370 of the 400 pieces to Japan, but unfortunately, Kōjiro Matsumata himself had passed away a year earlier.

In order to collect the old Matsukata collection returned by the French government, the Japanese government decided to build an art museum in Ueno Park for specialized exhibition, and the Japanese side proposed that this art museum must be designed by a French architect, and finally both sides jointly selected the French architect Le Corbusier. The museum designed by Le Corbusier is the National Museum of Western Art.

Among the various architectural prototypes designed by Corbusier, the functional architectural prototype is known as the “Museum of Infinite Growth” or the “Museum of Growing Art”. The prototype of the Museum of Infinite Growth originated from the “Musée Mondial The World Museum” proposed by Corbusier in 1929 in the Mundaneum plan. Afterwards, Corbusier continued to refine the prototype of the Museum of Infinite Growth, which was realized 30 years later in 1959 at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Japan.

The National Museum of Western Art has the basic characteristics of a museum of infinite growth, such as a visually permeable ground floor, a central inner courtyard, the organization of exhibition space by means of ramps, and the free-planning of the exhibition space for the setting of exhibits and the planning of no moving lines. However, since the construction process of the entire building was actually completed by three of Corbusier's Japanese disciples, the results of Corbusier's fieldwork in Japan were more obviously translated into the molded building.

For example, the way to enter the museum is from the ground floor into the inner atrium, and then guided by a ramp to the exhibition halls, and this organization is more completely realized in the National Museum of Western Art.

The shape of the atrium skylight is also a reflection of the French architect Corbusier's strong Japanese influence, with a triangular conical shape. Corbusier always wanted to incorporate elements that could represent Japan into the building. So the design of the pyramid-shaped roof, the side of the triangular vertical windows for lighting, in order to imitate the shape of Mount Fuji, all the daylight into the hall, all have to pass through this “Mount Fuji” before entering the interior, reflecting the sublime meaning of Mount Fuji.

If you walk in the square corridor, or exhibition hall, the most intuitive feeling is that the closed square exhibition hall goes back and forth, never ending. This is the embodiment of Corbusier's principles of “free planes” and “free elevations” in the art museum - the art museum that can grow.

At the National Museum of Western Art, it is not just about admiring an heirloom painting, but also about reading a history book written in stone and light. Its architecture itself is a crystallization of art, carrying a rich history and culture.

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