Tokyo National Museum Honkan, Renovation

The current main building replaced the old main building, designed by Josiah Conder, which was damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. It was built after a call for design proposals made under the condition that the design must be “oriental style, based on Japanese taste” to commemorate the enthronement of Emperor Showa. It opened in 1938. The design, by Jin Watanabe, placed a tiled roof on top of a concrete building. It became the representative building of the Imperial Crown Style, which strongly asserts oriental style. It was designated as an important cultural property in 2001. It was a precondition for this project to remodel it while preserving the original building as an important cultural property. We fully refurbished the underground repository with the latest conservation technologies in 2006, while preserving the existing building. In 2014, we renewed lighting systems and display cases, concentrating on remodeling the decor of the permanent exhibition rooms (rooms 15 through 18) on the first floor, adding functions necessary for modern exhibition planning. We also improved airtightness with measures such as new automatic doors on the main entrance and a windbreak room for moving in and out of the Japanese garden. We updated the elevators, remodeled the toilet on the first basement floor for barrier free movement, redecorated the lecture space on the same floor to improve educational outreach functions, and made other changes. “Protect a national cultural treasure and hand it down to future generations, while using the latest technologies of the time to the full.” That was our constant concern in remodeling the Tokyo National Museum.