Amuse Museum


The Textile Culture and Ukiyo-e Art Museum – Amuse Museum, or simply Amuse Museum, is a private museum specializing in Japanese textile culture and ukiyo-e. It opened on 1 November 2009 in Asakusa, Tokyo, not far from Ueno Park, where multiple other museums are located.
The museum houses a collection of everyday clothing and other textiles from the private collection of folklorist Chūzaburō Tanaka. While only about 1500 of the items are on display at any time, the museum rotates through the collection every few months.
The talent and entertainment agency Amuse is the owner of the museum.

General information

Amuse Museum was established on 1 November 2009 as a private Japanese textile culture and ukiyo-e museum in the Asakusa district of the Taitō special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is located just east of Sensō-ji. The museum is operated and owned by the talent and entertainment agency Amuse. The concept of the museum curation, Don't be wasteful, is based on the environmental and social activism of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.
The museum's collections were started with over 30,000 everyday clothing items from the collection of the folklorist Chūzaburō Tanaka. Many of the pieces are in disrepair and appear to be loosely sewn rags. About 1500 of those items are on display at any one time, and the pieces on display are rotated out every few months.
The honorary curator of Amuse Museum is Tanaka, and the Chief Curator is Kiyoshi Tatsumi.

Access and environs

Amuse Museum is located about 5 minutes' walk north-northwest of Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line and about 8 minutes from Asakusa Station on the Tsukuba Express line. There are two bus stops with a block of the museum. The Asakusa Shrine and Sensō-ji are located just west of the museum.
Other nearby attractions within walking distance include Kaminarimon, Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden, the National Museum of Nature and Science, the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Zoo, and Ueno Park.
A bar is located on the sixth floor of the museum building offering drinks snack items.

Exhibit history

In 2010, Amuse Museum hosted the "Tsugaru – Nanbu Sashiko Kimono" collection, consisting of 768 pieces of sashiko kimonos from Tsugara and Nanbu in Aomori Prefecture.
Cloth culture is at the heart of this presentation of the handicraft of nameless artisans and ordinary women, the exhibit has been featured in media such as NHK's Bi no Tsubo and Shin Nippon Fudoki.

Permanent collection

The permanent exhibit is Miracle Textile Art "Boro", based on the donations from Tanaka.
The motifs found in the Boro exhibit inspired fashion designers such as Louis Vuitton, Hiroyuki Horihata, Makiko Sekiguchi, Joseph Altuzarra, and Junya Watanabe. Vuitton incorporated Boro motifs into his 2013 Spring/Summer Paris men's collection, and Altuzarra incorporated them into his 2014 Spring/Summer New York men's collection. Watanabe, a designer for Comme des Garçons, used the motif for his Spring/Summer 2015 collection.