Home » Journal » Autumn 2026 at the Tokyo National Museum: Hiroshige in Full, and the Treasures of Daitokuji

Exhibition Calendar Published 2026-11-01

Autumn 2026 at the Tokyo National Museum: Hiroshige in Full, and the Treasures of Daitokuji

Two exhibitions anchor autumn 2026 at the Tokyo National Museum: a three-part Hiroshige retrospective showing each great series in full (to 20 December), and Daitokuji's treasures for its 700th anniversary (to 6 December).

Autumn is the blockbuster season at the Tokyo National Museum, and autumn 2026 brings two exhibitions worth planning a trip around: the museum's first full-scale Hiroshige retrospective, with all three of his great print series shown complete, and the treasures of Daitokuji, one of Kyoto's great Zen temples, gathered for the 700th anniversary of its founding.

Hiroshige, complete and in three acts

'Hiroshige: New Perspectives on Edo Japan' (29 September – 20 December 2026, Japanese Gallery, Room A) commemorates the gift of the Uchiyama Susumu Collection. Its structure is the point: the exhibition rotates its entire display three times, so that each of Hiroshige's three most famous series is shown in full, in turn — 'The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road' until 25 October, 'The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Road' from 27 October to 23 November, and 'One Hundred Famous Views of Edo' from 25 November to the close. Choose your favourite series and time the visit for its window; or treat the three parts as a season ticket and come three times. Admission to the exhibition is ¥1,500 for adults.

Daitokuji's treasures, until 6 December

In the Heiseikan's special exhibition galleries, 'Daitokuji: A Zen Temple Beyond Compare' (14 October – 6 December 2026) marks 700 years since the temple's founding, bringing treasures from Daitokuji and its sub-temples to Tokyo. The same building is simultaneously showing 'Living with Horses During the Kofun Period' (until 20 December), and the Asian Gallery's 'Colorful Asia' runs until 8 November — so a single November visit can stack Zen art, ancient horse gear and a journey across Asia onto one ticket day.

The museum behind the exhibitions

The Tokyo National Museum is Japan's oldest museum, begun with an exposition at Yushima Seido in 1872. Its collection runs to about 120,000 objects, including 90 National Treasures and 652 Important Cultural Properties (as of April 2026), spread across six buildings in Ueno Park — the Japanese Gallery, the Asian Gallery, the Heiseikan, the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, the Hyokeikan and the Kuroda Memorial Hall. More than 3,000 works are on display at any time in the permanent collection exhibitions, and they are not a fixed hang: fragile works on paper, silk, textile and lacquer are rotated every four to eight weeks, partly for conservation and partly so that the displays follow the seasons. The museum you visit in autumn is, measurably, not the museum of spring.

How long do you need? The museum's own answer is honest: at least an hour, and a full day is not enough to see everything. For a first visit with limited time, its recommended shortcut is the second floor of the Japanese Gallery, where 'The Flow of Japanese Art' runs chronologically from the Jomon period to the Edo period — the whole story in about thirty minutes. The museum holds three to five special exhibitions a year on this scale, so the autumn pairing is not an exception but the rhythm of the place: plan around the special exhibitions, and let the permanent galleries fill the gaps.

Practical notes: the museum opens 9:30–17:00, staying open until 20:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays before a holiday; it closes on Mondays (with holiday exceptions), and regular admission is ¥1,000. One date to know this month: Culture Day, Tuesday 3 November 2026, is a free-admission day for the collection exhibitions. And if the autumn shows start a habit, the National Museums Members Pass (¥2,500 for a year) covers the regular exhibitions of all four national museums — Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Kyushu — each of which has its own page in this guide, alongside all [4,434 museums of Japan](/).

Sources

This article was written for this guide from the sources above. Exhibition dates and admission change — each museum's own announcements are the authoritative source.

← Back to the Journal index