Japanese museums

Japan was introduced to the idea of Western-style museums (hakubutsukan 博物館) as early as the Bakumatsu (幕末 ) period through Dutch studies.

Upon the conclusion of the US-Japan Amity Treaty in 1858, a Japanese delegation to America observed Western-style museums first-hand.

Following the Meiji Restoration, botanist Keisuke Ito, and natural historian, Tanaka Yoshio, also wrote of the necessity of establishing museum facilities similar to the ones found in the West.

In 1872, the Museum of the Ministry of Education (Monbusho Hakubutsukan 文部省博物館) staged Japan's first exhibition in the Yushima area of Tokyo.

In addition, in the years after 1877, there was great enthusiasm for establishing regional museums in Akita, Niigata, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima.

Artifacts were included in the national hakubutsukan established during the Meiji period, but were not assigned to the distinct category of art museum (bijutsukan 美術館) until after 1945.