The Matsuoka Museum of Art is a private museum located in Shirokanedai, Minato, Tokyo, founded by Japanese developer Seijiro Matsuoka in November 1975.
The museum took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to close for renovations, reopening on 26 January 2022 with an exhibition featuring many of the original pieces acquired by Matsuoka himself, and form the basis of the museum's collection.
The Museum initially opened in Shinbashi, but was moved to the site of Seijiro Matsuoka's private residence following his passing in April 2000.
Seijiro Matsuoka (1894âÂÂ1989), was a real estate developer who initially made his fortune as a jewelry dealer in the 1920s, then expanded his fortune through real estate holdings in office buildings, frozen food storage, and hotels following World War 2. He was known as a collector of Chinese ceramics, Gandhara Indian sculptures, Impressionist paintings, sculptures, and antiquities.
Acquisition of a significant Ming era Jingdezhen porcelain bottle from Sotheby's in 1974 for the then record price of ã420,000 (250 million yen in Japanese yen at the time) convinced Matsuoka of the need to establish a museum to share his collection with the public.
The collection includes contemporary sculptures by Bourdelle and Henry Moore, Gandhara stone sculptures and medieval Hindu sculptures, oriental ceramics from China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, Japanese paintings from Muromachi ink paintings to Showa, Renoir, Modigliani, and modern French paintings such as Vlaminck.
Western paintings<br> Claude Monet, Country Road in Normandy, 1868<br> Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Lucien Daudet, pastel, 1879<br> Eugène Boudin, Pilot of the Sea, 1884<br> Armand Guillaumin, The Rocks of Agay, 1893<br> Hippolyte Petitjean, Landscape with Nymph, 1901<br> Camille Pissarro, Afternoon of the Carousel Bridge, 1904<br> Henry Moret, Whirlpools, Finistère, 1911<br> Amedeo Modigliani, Bust of a Young Woman (Lady Martha), circa 1916-7<br> Paul Signac, Port of Saint-Tropez, 1923<br> Georges Rouault, Inside Brittany, 1938<br> Maurice de Vlaminck, Sunset in the Forest, 1938<br> Albert Marquet, Port of Algiers, 1942<br> Paul Delvaux, Orpheus, 1956<br> <br> Japanese paintings<br> Hokke Mandala Figure, late Heian<br> Takebayashi Kanaizu, paper book sumi-tansai with the appreciation of Takean Taien (Important Cultural Property)<br> Kano Sanraku, Oromatsu Furugi Flower and Bird Drawing Screen, Early Edo period<br> Maruyama Okyo, Yui Koi Waterfowl Figure Screening Screen, 1974<br> Ikeda Shoen and Terukata Co-operation Sakurabune and Autumn Leaves Hunting Screen, 1912<br> Hiroyo Terasaki Snowboard in the Sea of Spring in the Sea, 1914 Hidene Ikegami, Gangami Cormorant Folding Screen 1972<br> <br>
15 minutes walk from JR Meguro Station East Exit. 6 minutes on foot from Tokyo Metro Shirokanedai Station
The museum has published a number of books about its collection and special exhibitions, including the following: