The Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum

Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum is a new museum that opened on April 6th, 2010. Original planning during the Meiji era called for construction of an art museum in the Marunouchi district. Almost a hundred years later, the original plan has become a reality with the opening of this museum.

The Mitsubishi Ichigokan was designed in 1894 by the English architect Josiah Conder at the invitation of the Japanese government not long after the country had ended a long period of national seclusion. The structure, erected by Mitsubishi as the first Western-style office building in Tokyo's Marunouchi district, makes use of the Queen Anne style of architecture that was popular in England in the late 19th century. In addition to housing the banking department of Mitsubishi's headquarters, the three-story building, linked by stairs, was rented out for use as office space. Having aged significantly, the original structure was torn down in 1968, and now, some 40 years later, it has been reconstructed on the same lot according to Conder's original plans. As part of the restoration project, along with a review of the Meiji-era blueprints and survey maps dating from the building's dismantling, extensive surveys of various documents, photographs, and extant structural components were conducted. In addition to reusing some of the building's interior components, such as the handrails for the staircases, the structure was reproduced as faithfully as possible down to the use of specific building methods and architectural techniques. The Mitsubishi Ichigokan, symbolizing the modernization of Japan in the late 19th century, has been reborn as the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, an icon of Tokyo's Marunouchi district, in 2010.

Current Exhibition is Flore d'Odilon Redon ：ルドン秘密の花園展

Date : Thu.,February 8 to Sun.,May 20,2018

Odilin Redon (1840-1916), while being one of the generation of Impressionist painters, turned his imagination to a fantastical inner world, and it is those unique works of his that people continue to be drawn to even today. This exhibition focuses on his artistic imagery around plants, making it an unprecedented display. "Grand Bouquet", one of the largest pastel works of art ever painted, is part of the collection at Mitsubishi Ichigokan, and it was conceived as the central decoration for the dining hall in the castle of Baron Robert de Domecy. This exhibition will be a valuable opportunity to encounter the other 15 murals that graced the walls of that dining hall (Musée d'Orsay Collection). In addition, the majority of the 90 or so works in this exhibition are composed of works from the collections held by some of the greatest museums in the world including Musée d'Orsay, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, the Art Institute of Chicago, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, and the Philips Collection, making this one of the largest-scale displays of Redon art. http://mimt.jp/english/