Unlike many private museums in Japan, which are based on collections assembled in the modern era by corporations or entrepreneurs, the Tokugawa Art Museum houses the hereditary collection of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan, which ruled the Owari Domain in what is now Aichi Prefecture.

The architectural plan for the museum main building and southern archives were drawn up by Yoshio Yoshimoto, and construction was completed in 1935.

[1] The permanent exhibition also shows historical reproduction of the Nagoya Castle Ninomaru palace living quarters of the Owari Tokugawa daimyō, allowing visitors to view the objects as they were actually used in settings such as a Japanese tea-house or the Noh stage of the palace.

The museum also mounts temporary exhibitions in a building that has been declared a national cultural property.

Along with one other scroll from the same set, now preserved at the Gotoh Museum, they are the earliest extant depictions of the epic tale and are National Treasures of Japan.