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Hotel Okura, Tokyo

The hotel showcases a collection of Japanese art. Near the main building of the hotel is one of the important private museums of Japanese art the Okura Shukokan, established in 1917 by Baron Kihachiro Okura.

Okura was an avid collector of Buddhist artwork and he built the museum on his own land to hold and display his treasures. Over the years, the collection was added to by his son Baron Kishichiro Okura, the founder of the hotel, and whose interests included modern Japanese painting, or Nihonga.

Today, the Okura Shukokan Museum of Fine Arts houses some 1,706 items and 35,000 volumes -- a collection that contains three National Treasures, 12 Important Cultural Properties, and 44 Important Artistic Properties.

The hotel is built on an historically important site: the Edo period estate of the Matsudaira Daimyo of Naebashi.

The museum building, designed by Chuta Ito, is a nationally-registered tangible cultural property, and is a unique space for art appreciation.