This article was updated on 19 Sep 2021 to clarify the train trip to Atami Station and the museum.
There are many museums and opportunities to visit them in Japan, especially in the major cities frequented by overseas visitors, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. However, outside of the major tourist cities, there are many large and small museums that are also worth making a trip to. There are many national, prefectural, city, and private museums that have exhibits ranging from the traditional (art, history, cultural) to the bizarre (the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Tokyo comes to mind). The MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) in Atami, Japan is easily reachable from Tokyo by Shinkansen and local bus in about 50 minutes. The museum is located on a mountain hillside overlooking Sagami Bay and requires seven escalators inside the hillside to travel from the museum's entry to the main building exhibition area. Please continue reading to find out more about this art museum, see more photographs, and how to access the museum.
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| Atami City and Sagami Bay View from the MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) |
The MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) is located at the top of a mountain hillside overlooking and providing spectacular views of Sagami Bay in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. If you arrive by Shinkansen and then take a bus to the museum (more about this later), you will enter the museum at the escalator entrance, which is 60 meters (about 200 feet) below the main exhibition building. Before paying the ¥1600 admission fee and entering the museum, take a short walk around the front of the museum to enjoy the view of Atami City and Sagami Bay.
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| MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) Escalator Entrance |
You pay the admission fee outside before entering the escalator entrance. The entrance leads to a series of seven escalators, through the interior of the hillside, that lead up to the main exhibition building. This is one of the more unique entrances for any museum that I have ever seen. To protect the environment and preserve the scenic beauty in the vicinity, the escalator passage was installed underground, which involved excavating the hillside and restoring the surface after the installation work. [1] If you think that it is just a series of escalators to the main building, you would be wrong since each of the escalator tunnels is an artwork itself. Each of the tunnels are constantly lit with changing colors to symbolize an enjoyable transitional journey. Midway through the tunnel is the 20 meter (66 foot) diameter, 10 meter (33 foot) high ceiling circular hall, presenting a projection mapping of the largest kaleidoscope in Japan, produced by artists Mitsuru and Yuriko Yoda, [1] together with music composed by Yuriko Nakamura specially for the projection mapping. [2]
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| Ticket Check and First Escalator |
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| Second Escalator |
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| Third Escalator |
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| Fourth Escalator to Circular Hall |
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| Circular Hall |
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| Circular Hall |
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| Fifth Escalator from Circular Hall to Main Exhibition Building |
As you can see from the above picture, you can see daylight from Circular Hall through the fifth escalator. Go up the fifth escalator and take the opportunity to go outside to see Henry Moore's bronze sculpture, "The King and Queen", in Moore Square, which is outside the main exhibition building at 250 meters (820 feet) above sea level. The square commands a great panoramic view over Sagami Bay and is especially magnificent in April, when the cherry orchard on the hillside is in full bloom. [3] After visiting Moore Square, go back inside to take the escalators to the main exhibition building. You can also stay outside and walk up the stairs from Moore Square to the main exhibition building.
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| Outside: To Moore Square. Inside: To Main Exhibition Building |
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| Henry Moore's "The King and Queen" Bronze Sculpture in Moore Square |
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| Sixth Escalator |
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| Seventh (and Last) Escalator |
The seventh escalator leads to the third floor entrance of the main exhibition building, where there is a wall of glass windows that presents another (indoor) overlook of Sagami Bay and Atami city. The view, as I have said before, is quite spectacular. The actual exhibitions are located on the second and first floors below. This is also the entrance if you walk up the outside stairs from Moore Square to enter the main exhibition building.
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| Main Exhibition Building Third Floor Wall of Glass Overlook |
Besides the three exhibition rooms on the second floor, there are two other notable spaces. The first space is a 501 seat Noh theater. If you have never had a chance to see the stage of a Noh Theater, this is a great opportunity. The Noh theater is made in a traditional way, with a cedar-bark-thatched roof in the hip-and-gable style and cedar is used for the stage throughout. The kagami-ita (鏡板; stage wall), with the traditional pine tree, was painted by Matsuno Hideyo, a renowned artist of Japanese painting. The theater has been built to showcase the exquisite traditional Japanese performing art Noh, and it hosts performances of different schools of Noh regularly. [4] The space also doubles as a meeting hall for large gatherings.
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| Noh Theater |
The second notable space on the second floor is the replica of the portable Golden Tea Room that Toyotomi Hideyoshi, regarded as Japan's second "great unifier", had erected in the Imperial Palace in Kyoto in 1586 in order to hold an all-gold tea ceremony for the then Emperor Ogimachi. It is thought that the original tea room was lost in the siege and fall of Osaka Castle in 1615. A visit to the tea room is a chance to appreciate at first hand the aesthetics of the Momoyama period with its contrasting features of the dazzling rich splendor of the golden world with its tranquil, restrained simplicity of the wabi style of Sukiya architecture. [5]
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| The Golden Tea Room |
This replica was created based on the written accounts of court nobles, military commanders, tea masters and foreign missionaries, and under the supervision of the top authority in the Sukiya style of architecture Dr. Sutemi Horiguchi. Just like the original, this tea room can be fully disassembled, and the size and mechanism of all its parts and components have been carefully calculated from historical documents. [5]
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| Shoji doors are applied with crimson silk with watermarked paulownia patterns |
The golden tea implements have been recreated based on the set of tea utensils (black urushi daisu shelf and bronze implements from China) held by Sen no Rikyu (considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea") and kept at Omotesenke tea house, Fushin’an. Approximately 50 grams (1.7 oz.) of solid gold is used in these implements. [5]
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| Golden Tea Implements |
There are another three exhibition rooms on the first floor of the main exhibition building, in addition to the museum shop, studio, and cafes. The first floor is also serves as the gateway to the tea houses and garden located outside of the main exhibition building. There are also two reasonably priced restaurants located in the garden.
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| Tea Houses and Garden Viewed from the Main Exhibition Building |
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| Karamon Gate |
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| Katagirimon Gate |
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| Katagirimon Gate Roof Detail |
MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) Information and Access
Name:
- MOA Museum of Art
- MOA美術館
Address:
- 26-2 Momoyamacho, Atami, Shizuoka 413-8511, Japan
- 〒413-8511 静岡県熱海市桃山町２６−2
- Japan Rail Pass (7-, 14-, 21-day):
- Valid for travel throughout Japan on Japan Rail (with some exceptions).
- Purchase outside of Japan. Must show passport and have a short-term (90 day) visitor's stamp to redeem at selected airports and rail stations. (This is changing)
- Once activated, must be used on consecutive days (i.e. cannot skip days).
- Website:
- Plan your rail trip using Hyperdia: http://www.hyperdia.com/en/.
- Atami Station is easily reached by Shinkansen from Tokyo or Osaka, and the train trip is fully covered by the Japan Rail (JR) Pass.
- From Tokyo:
- Take the Kodama Shinkansen from Tokyo to Atami Stations, which takes approx. 50 minutes. The trip is fully covered by the Japan Rail (JR) Pass, otherwise the cost is:
- Unreserved: ¥3740
- Reserved: ¥4270
- Green Seat: ¥6540
- From Osaka:
- Take the Hikari Shinkansen from Osaka (Shin-Osaka Station) to Atami Station, which takes approx. 140 minutes. The trip is fully covered by the Japan Rail (JR) Pass, otherwise the cost is:
- Unreserved: ¥12100
- Reserved: ¥12630
- Green Seat: ¥17500
- Exit Atami Station (there is only one exit), turn left, and walk to Bus Stop 8 for the MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館):
- Approx. 10 minutes by Tokai Bus A81 (for MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館)).
- ¥170 fare payable by exact change only (i.e. Electronic IC Money cards not accepted) when exiting the bus.
- Be sure to take a numbered ticket from the dispenser when entering the bus and drop the ticket with your exact change into the fare box when exiting. The numbered ticket indicates where you boarded the bus.
- The MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) Bus Stop is the last stop and is in front of the museum's escalator entrance.
- The MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) bus schedule from Atami Station can be found at this website (Japanese):
- Notes:
- The MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) bus does not run on days when the museum is closed.
- The museum is located at the top of a very steep mountain hillside, so walking from Atami Station to the museum is not recommended.
- Check the bus return schedule to Atami Station at the MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) Bus Stop before entering the museum.
- Information and prices are accurate as of the published date of this article and are subject to change.
Hours and Admission:
- 9:30-16:30 (last entrance 16:00), closed on Thursday.
- Admission: ¥1600.
- Information and prices are accurate as of the published date of this article and are subject to change.
Websites:
- Plan your rail trip using Hyperdia:
- Japan Rail Pass (7-, 14-, 21-day):
- MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) English website:
- MOA Museum of Art (MOA美術館) bus schedule from Atami Station (Japanese):
Map:
References
[1] MOA Museum of Art. "Escalator Entrance". Last accessed: 08 Mar 2020. http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/about_moa/facility/escalator/.
[2] MOA Museum of Art. "The Circular Hall". Last accessed: 08 Mar 2020. http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/about_moa/facility/hall/.
[3] MOA Museum of Art. "Moore Square". Last accessed: 08 Mar 2020. http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/about_moa/facility/mua/.
[4] MOA Museum of Art. "Noh Theater". Last accessed: 11 Mar 2020. http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/about_moa/facility/honkan2f/nohgakudou/.
[5] MOA Museum of Art. "The Golden Tea Room". Last accessed: 11 Mar 2020. http://www.moaart.or.jp/en/about_moa/facility/honkan2f/kincha/.
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