Suntory Museum of Art Audio Guide

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

1. 01

   Welcome to Suntory Museum of Art

   Welcome to the Suntory Museum of Art, known in Japanese as サントリー美術館. You will find it inside Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, in the Minato area of Tokyo. It is also connected to Roppongi Station, so you can arrive without ever stepping outside. This guide focuses on the museum's story, its guiding idea, its architecture and a couple of the treasures in its collection. It does not describe any particular exhibition, because the displays change from one special exhibition to the next. The museum is owned by the Suntory corporation, and its whole identity rests on a simple phrase: Art in Life. The collection is made up mostly of Japanese antiques, the kind of things that people once used, wore, served tea in or gathered around. Beauty here is not locked away from daily living. It grew out of it. As you go in, keep that phrase in mind. It explains why a museum inside a modern city complex can feel so close to everyday Japanese life across the centuries.

2. 02

   Suntory Museum of Art: A Collection Born from Zero

   The Suntory Museum of Art opened in 1961 in Marunouchi, the work of Keizo Saji, then president of Suntory. What makes the beginning memorable is how modest it was. Saji pointed out that, unlike other museums, this one started with its artworks at zero. It had no famous holdings to build on, only an idea. That idea was a hope. He wanted people to value the spirit of the beautiful culture of art in life that their ancestors created. So he set out to create special exhibitions that look at Japanese art of the past from a contemporary point of view. The aim was to make old objects feel alive to the people looking at them today. The museum then moved twice. In 1975 it went to the Suntory Building in Akasaka, in Minato, Tokyo. In 2007 it moved again, to its current home in Tokyo Midtown. So three homes in a few decades, and one steady purpose running through all of them.

3. 03

   Suntory Museum of Art and the Architecture of Kengo Kuma

   When the museum settled into Tokyo Midtown in 2007, the architect Kengo Kuma redesigned the space. Kuma is known for bringing natural materials into contemporary buildings, and here he made generous use of Japanese materials such as wood and Japanese paper. The result is a relaxing, modern Japanese space with a natural warmth. It sits inside a busy urban complex, in an area known for skyscrapers, luxury shops, restaurants and hotels, yet the interior is meant to calm you down rather than overwhelm you. Notice the textures as you walk through. Soft, warm surfaces suit the quiet looking that old Japanese art invites. There is a pleasing logic here. Many of the objects in the collection were made from the same kinds of materials, for rooms and daily rituals. Seeing them in a setting that echoes those materials makes the old things feel a little more at home.

4. 04

   Suntory Museum of Art: Treasures of Art in Life

   The collection holds around 3,000 objects, mainly Japanese antiques, and it includes works designated by the Japanese government as national treasures and important cultural properties. Because the museum shows its collection through changing special exhibitions, which pieces you meet will depend on when you visit. Two important cultural properties give a sense of its range. One is a ceramic container by Ogata Kenzan, made in the first half of the eighteenth century in the Edo period. Kenzan is celebrated as a potter, and a vessel like this shows how everyday objects could become art. The other is a Nanban folding screen by Kano Sanraku, from the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Nanban screens are a distinctive genre of Japanese painting. They show the arrival of foreign traders in Japan, a moment when new faces and new goods entered the country. One piece is a vessel for the hand and the table, and the other is a painted screen for a room. Both fit the museum's idea of art woven into life.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Suntory Museum of Art

   As you finish your visit to the Suntory Museum of Art, think back to the founder's starting point: a collection at zero and a hope that people would value the beauty their ancestors made in daily life. Today that hope fills a museum of around 3,000 works inside one of Tokyo's most polished districts. Before you leave, look again at the materials around you, the wood and the paper of Kengo Kuma's design, and ask yourself how they relate to the objects you saw. Think about what once sat on a table, hung in a room or stood as a screen, and imagine the lives around it. Roppongi has more to explore nearby, with other places in the area where you can experience art and culture. Let the idea of art in life travel with you as you walk on.