MOA Museum of Art Tickets

The MOA Museum of Art crowns a hillside above Atami with one of Japan’s finest private collections, displayed in galleries renewed by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto into spaces of dark stone, raw timber and perfectly judged light. National treasures anchor a collection of thousands of works of Japanese and East Asian art, and the view down over Sagami Bay from the lobby’s vast window is an exhibit in itself.

The collection

The museum’s most celebrated holding is Ogata Korin’s Red and White Plum Blossoms screen pair, shown each year around plum season and worth planning a trip around. Ceramics, lacquer, Buddhist art and painting fill the galleries in rotating displays, and a full scale reconstruction of the golden tea room built for Toyotomi Hideyoshi glitters in its own chamber. The approach itself sets the tone, a series of enormous escalators rising through the mountain beneath a kaleidoscopic dome.

Gardens and tea

Outside, paths wander through a garden of tea houses and seasonal colour, and the in house restaurants use produce with the same care the galleries apply to art. Combined with Atami’s beaches and baths below, the museum makes the strongest single reason to stop in the town.

Getting there

Buses from Atami Station reach the museum gate in under ten minutes. Atami is a Tokaido Shinkansen stop, around 40 minutes from Tokyo, which puts the museum within comfortable day trip range of the capital.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Korin screen shown? Traditionally in the plum blossom weeks of late winter; check the exhibition calendar.

How long does a visit take? Two hours or so, more with the garden and lunch.

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