Hiroshima Museum of Art, Hiroshima

Opened on November 3, 1978, the Hiroshima Museum of Art was established by Hiroshima Bank to commemorate the bank’s centenary. The museum adopted the theme “For Love and Peace,” expressing both a prayer for the repose of those who died in the atomic bombing and a desire to provide Hiroshima with a place of beauty, comfort, and cultural enrichment.

The museum is particularly renowned for its collection of modern European art. Its holdings trace major artistic movements from Romanticism and Realism through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Fauvism, and the École de Paris. Visitors can encounter works by such celebrated artists as Delacroix, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, and Chagall.

The collection also includes modern Japanese Western-style painting and traditional Japanese-style painting, or Nihonga. These works represent important developments in Japanese art from the Meiji period onward and include paintings by artists such as Kuroda Seiki, Kishida Ryūsei, Uemura Shōen, Yokoyama Taikan, and Higashiyama Kaii. Altogether, the museum holds around 300 works of European modern art, Western-style Japanese painting, and Japanese painting, although only part of the collection is displayed at any one time.

The museum building itself reflects its message of peace. Its circular, domed main gallery was modeled on the form of the Atomic Bomb Dome, while the surrounding corridors were inspired by those of Itsukushima Shrine. In the front garden stand several horse chestnut trees donated by Claude Picasso, the son of Pablo Picasso, in 1980 to commemorate the museum’s opening.