Nikko Toshogu Museum of Art

The Nikko Toshogu Museum of Art occupies the former Shamusho, the shrine administrative office, a handsome wooden building completed in 1928 and set a little apart from the crowds at the back of the Toshogu precinct. Where the Treasure Museum focuses on armour and relics, this museum is devoted to painting, and specifically to the extraordinary decorated interiors created when the building was erected in the early Showa era. Leading Japanese-style painters of the day, including artists connected to the celebrated Yokoyama Taikan, were commissioned to adorn the sliding doors, walls and ceilings with lavish works, turning the whole structure into a walk-through gallery.

Visitors move through a sequence of tatami rooms whose fusuma sliding panels and byobu screens are painted with landscapes, birds and flowers, pine trees, waterfalls and seasonal scenes rendered in ink, mineral pigments and gold leaf. Because the paintings were made for these exact rooms, viewing them in situ is a very different experience from seeing framed art on a museum wall; the compositions were designed to be read at eye level from a seated position, wrapping around the occupant. The building itself, with its fine joinery, coffered ceilings and shrine-quality craftsmanship, is as much a part of the exhibit as the pictures.

The atmosphere is hushed and contemplative, a deliberate counterpoint to the riotous colour of the shrine gates outside. Soft light filters through paper screens onto the gold grounds, and the polished corridors invite an unhurried pace. Bilingual labels explain the artists and the seasonal symbolism, and a small tea room and shop round out the visit. Because it sees fewer visitors than the shrine itself, it is one of the quietest and most refined corners of the whole Nikko complex.

As part of the UNESCO-listed Shrines and Temples of Nikko, the museum shares the sacred mountain setting of towering cryptomeria trees, and its garden is lovely in both cherry-blossom season and autumn, when maples flare red against the dark cedars. It pairs naturally with the adjacent Toshogu shrine and its Treasure Museum, letting art lovers linger longer on the mountain.

To reach it, take a bus from either Nikko station up to the shrine area and walk through the precinct toward the rear; the museum is signposted and stands slightly downhill from the main halls. Allow about forty minutes, remove your shoes at the entrance as you would in a temple, and note that photography inside is generally restricted to protect the delicate pigments. The best times to come are spring for the blossoms and mid to late November for the foliage, though the painted seasons on the walls make any visit feel like all four at once.