National Museum of Art, Osaka Audio Guide

National Museum of Art: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to The National Museum of Art, Osaka

   Welcome to The National Museum of Art, Osaka, known in Japanese as Kokuritsu Kokusai Bijutsukan. You are on Nakanoshima, the long, narrow island in the river in the heart of Osaka's Kita ward. The museum's address here is Nakanoshima, chapter four, number two, number 55, which is where the number in your listing comes from. This is a national museum with a clear focus: contemporary art made since the Second World War, from Japan and from around the world. It holds about 8,300 works, and it also stages special exhibitions that go beyond contemporary art. Here is the twist to keep in mind as you look around. Much of this museum is hidden. It was built as a fully underground museum, so what you see at street level is only the beginning. Over the next few stops, we will follow the story from a pavilion built for a world's fair, to a bamboo-inspired sculpture of steel, to the quiet galleries beneath your feet.

2. 02

   The National Museum of Art, Osaka: Born at a World's Fair

   The story starts well before this island, and well outside the city center. In 1970, the Japan World Exposition took place in Suita, in Osaka Prefecture. To display artworks gathered from around the world, a building called the Expo Museum was built between the Japanese garden and the Festival Plaza. Its architect was Kawasaki Kiyoshi. When the exposition ended and the pavilions were being taken down, this building was left standing, in the hope that it could live on as an art museum. There was an early idea of turning it into a prefectural museum of contemporary art, but after a good deal of twists and turns, a national museum was created instead. The dates tell the story. In April 1974, a preparatory office for a national international museum was set up within the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In December 1975, the old Expo Museum was handed over free of charge by the Japan World Exposition Commemorative Association. And in 1977, the museum opened. A world's fair pavilion became a national institution.

3. 03

   The National Museum of Art, Osaka: The Move to Nakanoshima

   For decades the museum collected contemporary art from around the world and organized many exhibitions. But the building was aging and storage space was running out. The 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake also left its mark on the old building, and a new museum became the plan. In October 1995, the Kinki regional construction bureau of the Ministry of Construction chose Cesar Pelli and Associates as the designer of the new building. The museum closed in January 2004. The old building in the Expo park was demolished, and the site became a parking lot. The new home was Nakanoshima, in the center of Osaka. The museum reopened here in November 2004, and it was a pioneer in the western part of the island, an area being redeveloped as a gathering place for culture and learning. In November 2024, it marked 20 years since this move.

4. 04

   The National Museum of Art, Osaka: Bamboo Above, Galleries Below

   Look for the sculptural landmark above ground: a huge monument of stainless steel pipes, about 50 meters high and 60 meters wide. It seems to sprout from the ground. Its motif is bamboo, and it was designed by the architect Cesar Pelli, who was born in Argentina and later worked in the United States. He is also known for an extension of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The bamboo carries two meanings. It stands for the museum's growth, a sense of the institution pushing upward and developing along with contemporary art. It also keeps alive a memory of the old site: the Expo park in Suita was once a hill covered in bamboo groves. The real surprise lies below. The museum is built underground on three levels, which is unusual even by international standards. It sits beneath the grounds of the Osaka Science Museum. The museum wanted to dispel the closed-in feeling that an underground building can have, and the monument above is part of how the building announces itself on the surface.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   The collection here centers on art made after the Second World War, and the exhibitions change from time to time. Recent programs have included a show focused on women in the museum's own collection, organized chapter by chapter around different themes, and works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois that the museum acquired in the 2023 fiscal year. When you go, look back up at the steel bamboo and try to picture it growing from the galleries below, then think of the bamboo hill in Suita where this story began. For opening hours and ticket prices, the museum's official website is the place to check, and a Nakanoshima loop bus stop near the Science Museum and this museum is close by. What do you think the museum's pavilion past leaves behind in an underground building like this? Keep that question in mind as you walk down into the galleries.