The Roppongi Art Triangle
Various · 2007 to present
The National Art Center is the largest corner of a triangle of museums that has made Roppongi, once known only for its nightlife, into the art district of Tokyo. Ten minutes' walk to the south, on the fifty third floor of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills, is the Mori Art Museum, which shows international contemporary art and shares its lift with an observation deck that looks over the whole city. Five minutes to the east, inside the Tokyo Midtown complex, is the Suntory Museum of Art, a jewel box of Japanese lacquer, ceramics, textiles and glass in a building by Kengo Kuma.
The three museums launched the Roppongi Art Triangle, usually shortened to ATRo, in 2007, and the deal is simple: show a ticket stub from one and you receive a discount at the others. The walk between them is part of the pleasure. From the National Art Center you pass through the quiet streets behind Nogizaka, cross into the towers and gardens of Tokyo Midtown, and then continue past the Roppongi crossing to the spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at the foot of the Mori Tower. Public art, galleries and design shops line the whole route, and the neighbourhood organises an annual Roppongi Art Night with open-air installations.
The photograph shows the entrance to the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hills, whose ticket also includes the Tokyo City View deck, one of the best places to see the National Art Center from above, its wave of glass lying like a green ribbon along the edge of the trees. If you have a whole day, start at the Suntory for the old, come to the National Art Center for whatever is on, and finish at the Mori for the new and for the view at dusk.
Did You Know? The Mori Art Museum is one of the highest art museums in the world, and its lift takes visitors to the fifty third floor in under a minute.
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