The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, one of the UNESCO World Heritages in Japan

National Museum of Western Art

World Heritage in Japan 20
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement

National Museum of Western Art (Culture, registered in 2016)
17 architectural works of Le Corbusier in seven countries were registered as World Cultural Heritage.

Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965) was born in Switzerland and worked mainly in France. He is regardes as one of the top three modern architects as well as Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. His philosophy was that the residence is a machine to live in and he built many architectural works using reinforced concrete.

This time, 17 architectural works in 7 countries which are France, Bergium, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina and Japan have been registered. National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo is the only Corbusier's work existing in East Asia. He visited Japan in 1955 and made basic plan of the museum. He also made general plan of the large area around the museum, but by the financial reason, only museum was constructed. You can see his charactristics of his work in the museum such as Modulor, piloti lighting system and so on.

In front of the museum, you find sculptures of Rodin, etc. As permanent exhibition, you can see variety of western arts such as impressionists works. Also, they often held special exhibitions.


How to access
1 minutes walk from JR Ueno Station (Koen Exit)
7 minutes walk from Keisei Ueno Station