What other travelers are saying about Beni Museum, Minato
Very cool and completely FREE museum. It's only two small rooms, but it's packed with information about the history of commercial and traditional makeup in Japan. iPads will be given for multilingual support.
This is a very small museum in between the area from Mori Museum and Nezu Museum. It explains the history of makeup in Japan, how it used to be a ritual thing for both genders but now is ladies’ only and the influence of American culture. It’s totally free and the staff is nice so I recommend it.
Perhaps a bit more interesting for ladies with young daughters than older men.
A small but super fascinating museum where I learned so much more about Japanese history and culture than I expected. The display is in Japanese but they have an iPad with English and French (and maybe other languages), so I was able to learn a lot. This is a truly amazing process and I hope it won’t be lost to time! The ladies who work here were so kind, and it’s free!
Very nice set up. Ipad with English translation is provided making the visit thoroughly enjoyable.
I took a short bus ride and walked to the museum passing by local neighnorhood, Very easy to get to.
This is a fascinating little museum that is completely free of charge. It is run by the sole remaining maker of a type of traditional Japanese lipstick called "beni" used widely in the Edo period. This lipstick has a very important place in the history of Japanese fashion, so it is well worth dropping in to learn about it. The museum is near the Nezu Museum and the Okamoto Taro Memorial Museum - about 6-8 minutes walking from either to the south/east - so if you are already in the area it would be easy to stop by. The museum is small, so you could easily walk through in 20 minutes and still really enjoy it. The front part is a small shop where this lipstick is sold (at a high price and rightfully so based on the difficulty of producing it) and the rear section is the museum itself, which is a medium-sized room filled with beautiful, high-quality exhibits. The exhibits are in Japanese, but the staff will gladly give you a laminated pamphlet with excellent English translations of all of the displays. They also have a sample pot of the lipstick available to show you how it works (even if you are not buying anything). This is a great little museum, absolutely worth adding to your itinerary if you are visiting the Omotesando area.
Frequently Asked Questions
High-quality beni required approximately 3,600 safflower petals to produce just 3.75 grams of pigment, making it a luxury item during the Edo period.
Historical beni containers, cosmetic tools, ukiyo-e prints depicting women applying makeup, safflower processing implements, beni-dyed fabrics, and demonstrations of safflower processing stages. The shop sells Isehan Honten cosmetic products.
Visits typically require 30 minutes to 1 hour due to the museum's small, specialized focus.
Beni has distinctive color change properties—the pigment reacts with moisture and pH when applied to lips, deepening in color.
