This museum made more sense once I knew that it's connected to the Sukyo Mahikari religious group also headquartered in Takayama. A rather other-worldly experience both in terms of architecture and atmosphere. And, yes, along with a collection of fine art and historical artifacts, there are dinosaurs. I particularly enjoyed the current Tada Yuko exhibition, and was delighted to be offered a copy of the catalog upon leaving.
Literally found this museum while studying the driving route. A very quiet and out of the bustling touristy Takayama old town area. The building design is grand and impressive especially the B2 floor and the inca pyramid looking structure. The collection is small but there's Renoir! Monet! Wowww....
There's also several Japanese art collection. I went to find the famous wave painting but it turned out to be a big cut out for photos :)
There's also a 5mins "light show" at center of B2 during weekends, and public holidays. It's ok if you missed the show. Plenty of parking and it's free. Has a good view of the surrounding mountains.
This is a gem, it's not visited by a lot of tourists, so there are no crowds. This building itself is awesome and very much worth seeing, it has 3 floors, one of the floors has a collection of original paintings including Monet and other famous painters. Other floors include Aztec works. One caveat is that many explanations are in Japanese only. But otherwise it's awesome. Just seeing the works is very interesting. There's a small restaurant serving mostly curry. There's a great shop where you can buy painting albums, postcards and lots of Japan-themed items that are very interesting and are difficult to find in other places. I recommend this museum very much.
Strange looking museum, full of pyramide associations.
We were impressed by the building and it is worth the visit for that. The art collecion is mediocre, although the temporary Hokusai exhibition was interesting as it showed original prints.
What put us off was the top floor where the origin of the museum becomes clear. It was built by the leader of a religious cult who had enough powers of conviction to get his followers to put up all the money to fund this museum and god knows what other idiotic ideas he had. He believed all pyramids in the world were connected so he build one in Takayama with influences from Egyptian, Aztec and Maya pyramides.
Tip: the restaurant is a good place fort lunch.
A very interesting, beautiful museum filled with many art pieces and exhibitions. There is a beautiful pyramid on the top floor of the building and the restaurant near the entrance is very nice. There is also a lot of paintings and japanese scenes on the first floor. The most satisfying thing however, is the beautiful architecture of the museum. On the first floor, there was an amazing fountain that occasionally hosted a 'light show' and the design of the roof above had a brilliant design. Recommended to visit on a sunny day.
