Photo by Takashi Homma
Mitsubishi Ichigokan, designed by British architect
Josiah Conder (known for having designed Rokumeikan, the state guesthouse of the modern Japan) and completed in 1894 was the first office building in the Marunouchi area.
It was a red brick building of the Queen Anne style. After its completion other brick office buildings were constructed one after another. Called “Itcho London (1 mile London),” the street was familiar to many people.
More than a hundred years have passed since the birth of the Marunouchi business area, and in April 2010, Mitsubishi Ichigokan will be reborn as Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo. The project aims to reconstruct the original building of the Meiji and Taisho periods by using portions of the plans and materials from those days.
Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo focuses on modern art from the middle of the 18th to the 20th century.
It will also include a museum shop and a cafe for artists and art lovers.
Overview of Facility
Total floor area: approx. 6,000㎡
Exhibition room area: approx. 800㎡
Structure: Brick structure 3 floors above and 2 below ground
Scheduled construction completion: 2009
Profile of the director
Akiya TAKAHASHI: Born in 1953. 1980: Completed the graduate course of Western Art History, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and became a researcher of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
1984?1986: Participated in the preparation of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris as a researcher of the Japanese Ministry of Education.
After having worked as the chief curator of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Akiya Takahashi became the director of Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo.
He is an expert on 19th century French Art.
« Marcel Lender in? Chilperic » 1895 lithograph
« Divan Japonais » 1893 lithograph, poster
« Eldorado, aristide BRUANT » 1892 lithograph, poster
About Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec & Maurice Joyant's Collection
Of the works housed in the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, the Maurice Joyant Collection is of particular importance, as it contains a large number of lithographs and posters by the late 19th-century French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Numbering over 200 works, the collection consists of pieces from Toulouse-Lautrec's personal store that were inherited by Joyant (1864-1930), a gallery owner and close friend of the artist, and thus, includes many of the graphic works which define the art that Toulouse-Lautrec produced during his brief life.
The time in which Toulouse-Lautrec lived and worked coincides precisely with the construction and use of the Mitsubishi No. 1 office building, designed by the British architect Josiah Conder. Toulouse-Lautrec's work, which depicts a wide range of urban lifestyles in Montmartre, Paris, links this museum, located in Marunouchi in the heart of Tokyo, to the wider world, and for the new directions it suggests, is an incomparable collection.
Sponsor : Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo; The Yomiuri Shimbun, and others
Cooperation : Musee d' Orsay
Exhibition commissioners : Akiya TAKAHASHI, director of Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
Caroline MATHIEU, chief curator of Musee d' Orsay
Period : Early April ? July 2010
Venue : Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo (under construction)
logotype design: Kazunari Hattori
