Page 29 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Tokyo

Tokyo National Museum ❮❮ 27

ASIAN ART THEMES

With over 110,000 objects in its collection, TOP 10
the Tokyo National Museum regularly ASIAN ART THEMES
rotates its exhibits. The 1 Indian and Gandharan
Tokyokan consists of 10 Sculpture (13th–2nd
exhibition rooms divided century BC)
by regional themes. The 2 Ancient Asian
themes listed opposite Bronze Drums (6th–
the Toyokan are part 5th century BC)
of its permanent col - 3 West Asian Textiles
lection, but individual (19th century)
displays change. 4 Chinese Archeology
(2nd–1st century BC)
5 Chinese Textiles
This Gandharan (15th–17th century)
sculpture is one of 6 Chinese Ceramics
the highlights of the (Three Kingdoms
collection housed period–Tang dynasty)
in the Toyokan.
7 Chinese Ceramics
(Song–Qing dynasty)
STONE AGE TOKYO 8 Chinese Stone Reliefs
Early settlers lived along the ridges and bluffs of the from Shangdong (1st–
present-day Yamanote Hills. From here, they had 2nd century)
ready access to plentiful supplies of fish and shellfish. 9 Korean Ceramics
A pre-Bronze Age site – the Omori shell mound – in (9th–10th century)
southwest Tokyo was discovered in 1877 by the
American zoologist Edward Sylvester Morse. The 10 Central Asian
event marked the beginning of Japanese archeology. Religious Cave Paintings
(Tang dynasty)

Statue of Edward Jenner
of this tiny storehouse are decorated 0
with murals depicting bodhisattvas British physician Edward
and protective deities. Jenner (1749–1823) was the pioneer
of vaccination. This memorial
Hyokeikan
9 statue by Yonehara Unkai, a pupil
of sculptor Koun Takamura, was
A prized example of a Meiji-
era Western-style building, the white erected in 1896 as a tribute to
stone walls and green domes of this Jenner and his great achievement.
Important Cultural Property are an
impressive if somewhat sober sight. The Hyokeikan, built in 1909

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