Nezu Museum combines galleries of premodern Japanese and East Asian art with a garden of paths, teahouses, lanterns, and wooded slopes. The collection began with businessman Nezu Kaichirō, who acquired the Aoyama site in 1906 and hoped to share his art with the public.
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The garden gives the museum a second kind of gallery, where stone lanterns and winding paths replace labels and frames. Nezu Kaichirō bought this hilly Aoyama land in 1906, drawn to its varied terrain, and the garden’s original design aimed to evoke deep mountains and secluded valleys.
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- Nezu Kaichirō purchased the Aoyama site in 1906.
- The garden and residence burned during the 1945 air raids.
- The museum reopened in a new building in 2009.
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