Cross Takebashi from Palaceside Building and you reach the National Museum of Modern Art (photo taken from Palaceside Building rooftop in cherry season). After the Great East Japan Earthquake, its collection exhibitions ran a "Thinking of Tohoku" series featuring artists linked to the northeast; the final installment, through May 6, shows works from the 1970s onward (general ¥420, university ¥130, high school and below free). Last summer's first series included a special display "Tenshin, Izura, and the Japan Art Institute," introducing Okakura Tenshin, who founded modern Japanese art as head of the institute, and the "Hexagonal Hall" he designed at Izura on the coast of Kita-Ibaraki—swept away by tsunami in this earthquake.
The craft gallery exhibition "Japanese Crossing Borders—Craftsmen Who Dreamed of Asia, 1910s–1945" also relates to Tenshin. It introduces many craftsmen who traveled to the continent from Taisho through early Showa, aiming to convey the "Asia-ist current" in Japanese craft represented by Tenshin's words "Asia is one." In Meiji, when rapid Westernization surged, Tenshin recognized the value of traditional Japanese art. The exhibition shows how greatly he influenced modern Japanese art. Through July 16. General ¥500, university ¥300, high school and below free. This year is the museum's 60th anniversary—birthdays grant free admission including the main building.