The National Museum in Kyoto - one of the three most famous museums in Japan, the construction of which was carried out in the Meiji era in the late XIX century. At the museum in Kyoto and at this time erected a museum, which currently bear the names of the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Nara. Previously they were called imperial.

The main hall of the museum was designed by architect Tokuma Katayama, a well-known supporter of the Western trends in art. Therefore, the building was built of red brick in the style of the French Renaissance. Now there are various exhibitions. The construction of this part of the museum was completed in 1895. In the second half of the XX century the building of the Main Exhibition Hall, gates, ticketing and building a fence around the whole complex was declared an important cultural heritage of Japan.

Permanent exhibitions housed in the new building of the museum, which was built in 1966. Museum exhibits collected in three areas: fine arts (painting, sculpture, calligraphy), crafts (ceramics, lacquer, textiles, metal products, including domestic and religious use, weapons and armor), archaeological finds.

The exhibits from the National Museum of Kyoto are not only Japanese art, but art and other Asian countries. In total, the museum collection has more than 12 thousand exhibits, half of which is shown in public. In addition, the museum's collection of 230 objects have the status of national treasures of Japan. Many items formerly in the ancient temples, imperial palaces and private collections. The museum also collected an extensive archive of photographs, numbering more than two hundred thousand units. The area of ​​the museum complex - 50 thousand square meters. meters.