To make Tokyo cycling tour more fun

The ruins of the house for Okakura Tenshin and the Japan Art Institute

Access: 5-7 Yanaka, Taito ward, Tokyo

Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913) was a thinker of art and a philosopher in Meiji Period. He was influenced by Ernest Francisco Fenollosa and followed him to study Japanese art. He worked to establish the Tokyo Fine Art School (currently Tokyo University of Arts), and was appointed to a president of the school in 1890. However, Tenshin resigned over a scandal, so he founded the Japan Art Institute with Yokoyama Taikan (a painter) and his company that resigned together with him.
The institute consisted of several two-storied wooden buildings, including laboratories of painting and lecture halls until it was moved to Izura (Ibaraki Pref.) in 1906.
Imitating the hexagonal hall of Izura, the hall in this park was built in 1966. The statue of Okakura Tenshin in this hall was made by Hiragushi Denchu(＿), was casted in the same mold of it in Tokyo University of Arts.

You can visit here in our Tokyo Old Down Town Cycling Tour