Tokyo · Central Tokyo
Mitsui Memorial Museum
The collection comes from the Mitsui family, which gathered art objects over about 350 years, starting in the Edo period. The museum itself first opened in 1985 as a wing of the Mitsui Bunko archive in Tokyo, and moved to Nihonbashi on 8 October 2005, to floor 7 of the Mitsui Main Building (三井本館), a neoclassical building from 1929 that was the Mitsui bank and is designated an Important Cultural Property.
The collection holds about 4,000 items: six National Treasures, 75 Important Cultural Properties and 4 Important Art Objects. The core is tea utensils, led by the 'Shino' tea bowl known as 'Unohanagaki' (卯花墻), one of the six National Treasures in the collection.
Good to know
- The museum is closed on Mondays, but if Monday is a holiday it is open and closes on the following weekday instead.
- There is no fixed permanent exhibition: before you come, check on the website which exhibition is running, because the price and the content change.
- The entrance on floor 7 feels like walking into a corporate office, inside the former bank building. The lobby of the building itself, with huge neoclassical columns, is worth a look even if you do not go into the museum.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Mitsui Memorial Museum.
- HereMitsui Memorial Museum
- ~2 min
Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store More to see
Mitsukoshi's flagship department store, with a lion statue at the entrance from 1914, inspired by Trafalgar Square in London. The pipe organ in the central hall is played Friday to Sunday, at noon, 15:00 and 17:00.
- ~3 min
Yamamoto Noriten Nihonbashi Honten Shopping
A nori seaweed shop since 1849, at the northern end of Nihonbashi Bridge near exit B6 of Mitsukoshimae, with a hand-roll counter from 11:00. The tea shop Yamamotoyama is a different business, in Takashimaya south of the bridge.
- ~4 min
Nihonbashi Taimeiken (3rd Generation) Food
A Western-style Japanese restaurant from 1931, currently in a temporary building next to the bridge since 2021, while it waits for its permanent building. The signature dish: Tampopo omurice, named after the film 'Tampopo' by Juzo Itami, about ¥2,800.
- ~4 min
Bank of Japan Currency Museum More to see
A free museum on the history of money in Japan, one minute from Mitsukoshimae Exit B1. 09:30 to 16:30, closed Mondays (open on holidays).
- ~5 min
Nihonbashi Kiya Honten Shopping
A shop for knives and metal tools from 1792, today on the ground floor of Coredo Muromachi 1. Japanese chef's knives and hair-cutting blades. 11:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, 10:30 to 19:00 on weekends.
- ~5 min
Ninben Nihonbashi Dashiba Food
A shop for shaved bonito (katsuobushi) from 1699, with a counter for tasting hot dashi in a cup. In Coredo Muromachi 1. 11:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, 10:30 to 19:00 on weekends.
- ~6 min
Fukutoku Shrine More to see
A small Shinto shrine from the 9th century, which was moved four times because of disasters and development and stands today next to Coredo Muromachi Terrace. Known as a place for luck with money, because in the Edo period it ran a lottery under the patronage of the shogunate.