MangoVine - Rodin outside National Museum of Western Art, Ueno Park

21 May, 2009
Thursday

The first time we arrived at Ueno station, we saw massive queues of people for a booth that turned out to be for the National Museum of Western Art. As we walked into Ueno Park, this museum was also the first one with saw, together with even more people queuing to get it.

It was with some relief therefore, that we had decided previously that we didn't want to visit the place. We were keener on the National Science Museum next door and the Tokyo National Museum a bit further away, but still within Ueno Park.

The National Museum of Western Art is actually filled with lots of European work, amassed by the late president of a shipbuilding company (and later a politician) via his business travels to Europe.

Having ourselves come from that part of the world and already more familiar with these artists than Japanese artists, we wanted to give ourselves more time with local work. Its not surprising that the place is popular with the locals though.

However, outside the National Museum of Western Art are a few pieces by one of my favourite European sculptors - Auguste Rodin. There's a time and place for a more indepth feature of his work and this blog isn't one of them. However, his Thinker is probably one of his most well known sculptures - there are several versions around the world.

But his Gates of Hell is my all time favourite and it combines alot of his earlier sculptures together into one piece. Both can be seen in detail near the museum entrance, which incidently is also quite close to the Ueno Park entrance/exit of Ueno station.

See a few more photos of Rodin sculptures on Flickr

This entry posted in : Art. Culture. Japan.

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Rodin outside National Museum of Western Art, Ueno Park

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