Nara National Museum

The Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall (former Main Building) houses approximately 100 Buddhist statues, including national treasures and important cultural properties.

The Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall was designed in 1894 by Katayama Tokuma, a Meiji-era court architect who also designed the Akasaka Imperial Villa (State Guest House), and is designated as an Important Cultural Property.

It has many exhibition facilities, including the Nara Buddhist Sculpture Hall, the Bronzes and Bronzes Museum, the East Wing, the West Wing, and an underground corridor. Special exhibitions are held in the East and West Wings in spring and summer, and the “Shosoin Exhibition” is held every year in autumn.

The museum boasts a total collection of 1,911 items, including 13 national treasures and 114 important cultural properties. In addition to the museum’s collection, the museum houses 1,974 items, including 52 national treasures and 306 important cultural properties deposited by temples, shrines, and individuals in Nara Prefecture.

The Nara National Museum, which opened in 1895 as the Imperial Nara Museum, was established primarily for the purpose of protecting cultural properties amidst the destruction and theft of cultural properties and the dispersion of treasures as a result of the abolition of Buddhism.

In 1875, the Nara Exposition was held and was a great success, displaying the Shosoin treasures, calligraphy, paintings, antiquities, plant and animal specimens, machinery, etc., in the Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji Temple and the surrounding corridors.

In 1889, the museum under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Household Ministry in Ueno, Tokyo (the predecessor of the Tokyo National Museum) was renamed the Imperial Museum, and it was decided to establish Kyoto and Nara.

Construction of the main building of the Imperial Nara Museum was completed in 1894 at the present site, the former precincts of Kofukuji Temple, and the museum opened the following year.
The museum was renamed the Nara Imperial Museum in 1900 and became the Nara National Museum in 1952.