Kitamura Museum (北村美術館)
Kitamura Museum is a private art museum mainly devoted to antiquities and tea utensils, located in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City.
Summary
In 1975, Kitamura Culture Foundation was established to store the collections of Kitamura Kinjiro (1904-1991), a businessman and tea ceremony lover, and Kitamura Museum was opened in 1977. Its collections include 14 National Important Cultural Properties.
The Kitamuras are an old family who have been engaged in forestry over many generations in Yoshino, Nara Prefecture. Besides their family business of forestry, Kinjiro KITAMURA and his wife were enthusiastic about the tea ceremony and collecting works of art. Their collection includes many fine tea utensils, such as tea bowls, because they loved the tools of the tea ceremony. The collection also includes many famous paintings and pieces of calligraphy selected by Kinjiro KITAMURA, himself an outstanding master of the tea ceremony. Hanging scrolls form part of the collection, because they were probably considered tea utensils in a broad sense, to be hung in the alcove during a ceremony.
The garden next to his house has a view of the woods of the Higashiyama area as its background, and it has two stone lanterns and a stone pagoda, which are designated National Important Cultural Properties.
Significant pieces:
Important Cultural Properties:
Figure of FUJIWARA no Nakafumi, Color Painting on Paper : one of Satake version Thirty-six Great Poets, which used be stored by Satake family in Akita
A Black Kite (a bird) and a Crow, Monochrome Light Ink Painting on Paper (a pair of scrolls) by Yosa BUSON
Writing Box with Yugao (morning glory family), Makie-lacquerware
Sutra Box with Peony Arabesques, Raden-lacquerware (Goryeo Period in Korea)
Gilt Bronze Konpei (Konpei is one of the articles used in a Buddhist altar)
Oribe Ceramic Basket with Pine Bark Diamond: formerly stored by Takashi MASUDA (also known by the pseudonym Donnou)
Ceramic Tea Bowl with scale sattern in overglaze enamels by Ninsei NONOMURA
FUJIWARA no Norimune Japanese tissue
Gofukakusa Tenno Shinkan Shosoku (Emperor Gofukakusa's Letter, of the 5th of the tenth month)
Tanba no Kuni Cho (Tanba Administrative Document) (9th of the ninth month, second year of Shohei)
Fragment of the Anthology of Japanese and Chinese Verses for Recitation, Volume 1, Deer (the Daiji Wakan Roei Shu Poetry Anthology, attributed to FUJIWARA no Kozei, a master of calligrapher)
The following three Important Cultural Properties are in the garden:
Stone Lantern: formerly owned by Hoon-ji Tmple at Ibacho, Teranouchi-sagaru, Ogawadori, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City
Stone Lantern
Hokyointo stone pagoda: formerly owned by Myoshin-ji Temple in Kugaazuma-chou, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City
Access
Ten minutes on foot from Demachiyanagi Station on the Keihan Electric Railway. 20 minutes on foot from Imadegawa Station on the Karasuma Line of the Kyoto City Subway.