Kyushu National Museum
licensed photographnagi usano / CC BY 4.0

Fukuoka · DazaifuNo.1090★★Open in map →

Kyushu National Museum

cultureOff the trail — and worth it

A national museum on the hill directly behind Dazaifu Tenmangu, reading the making of Japanese culture from the Asian side. You reach it from inside the shrine grounds, through a tunnel of escalators and a colour-lit moving walkway.

  1. FromHakata Station
  2. ~50 minDirect bus from Hakata
  3. Get off atDazaifu bus stop (Dazaifu Liner Bus Tabito)
  4. On foot
  5. Kyushu National Museum
Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a major national institution beside one of Japan's best-known shrines, so it is not a hidden find. What differs is the clock. The museum closes on Mondays and stops admitting visitors in the late afternoon, while the shrine grounds outside keep their own rhythm. Plan the day around the museum's timetable rather than treating it as an add-on, and the visit stays unhurried.

Where it is

28 more notes in Fukuoka · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

The Rainbow Tunnelノボホショコロトソ / CC BY 4.0
  1. The access tunnel from the shrinean entrance past the shrine's treasure hall, with stairs, a long escalator and a moving walkway
  2. The Rainbow Tunnelthe moving walkway itself, its curved walls washed in slowly changing colour
  3. The roof and the glass walla single curved metal roof over a glass face that mirrors the hillside forest
  4. Ajippa, the hands-on rooma free hands-on room on the ground floor, built around objects from across Asia
  5. The cultural exchange galleriesthe permanent display on the fourth floor, arranged as a run of periods rather than by region

How to actually get there

  1. Hakata Bus Terminal → Dazaifu (Dazaifu Liner Bus Tabito, direct, no reservation).
  2. Dazaifu stop → the approach street → the grounds of Dazaifu Tenmangu.
  3. Past the treasure hall, enter the access tunnel on the right and ride the escalator and moving walkway up the hill.
  4. Come out at the top and cross to the museum entrance.
Direct liner bus from Hakata Bus Terminal
The Dazaifu Liner Bus Tabito runs from Hakata Bus Terminal to the Dazaifu stop in about 40 minutes with no change. No reservation is needed, though a full bus means waiting for the next one. The same service also runs from the international terminal at Fukuoka Airport.
Back to Hakata from the Dazaifu stop
The liner bus returns from the Dazaifu stop to Hakata Bus Terminal along the same route. The alternative is the Nishitetsu train from Dazaifu Station, changing at Nishitetsu-Futsukaichi for Tenjin. Because the museum shuts in the late afternoon, either option leaves daylight to spare.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The museum is one long building set into a wooded hillside east of the Dazaifu Tenmangu grounds. A curved metal roof runs the whole length of it, covering five above-ground floors and two basement levels, so galleries, storerooms and conservation rooms all sit under a single shell. The north and south walls are glass, and the forest around the hill is mirrored across them. The design came from the Kikutake Kiyonori architectural office working with Kume Sekkei. The entrance hall, the cafe and the hands-on room are at the bottom of the building, and the exhibition floors sit above them.

How to enjoy it

Doors open at 9:30 and close at 17:00, with the last admission at 16:30. Give most of that time to the permanent galleries, because they are the reason the building exists. Coming up from the shrine first and walking back down the approach afterwards turns the two halves of Dazaifu into a single route.

Background & history

The museum opened on 16 October 2005 as the fourth national museum in Japan, after Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara. Its founding idea was stated plainly: to look at how Japanese culture was formed from the standpoint of Asian history. That is why the permanent display is not a survey of Kyushu's own past but a long account of exchange, running from the Palaeolithic era through to the closing years of the early modern period. The site itself carries the argument, on the hill behind a shrine that has faced the continent for centuries.

Before you go

Cash
Admission to the cultural exchange galleries was confirmed at 700 yen for adults and 350 yen for university students, and free for high-school age and under, and for anyone under 18. Special exhibitions are charged separately.
Before you go
Closed on Mondays, or on the following day when that Monday is a public holiday or a substitute holiday, and over the new year period. The shrine grounds outside can be open on a day when the museum is not.
Another way
By train, take the Nishitetsu Tenjin Omuta Line from Nishitetsu-Fukuoka (Tenjin), change at Nishitetsu-Futsukaichi onto the Nishitetsu Dazaifu Line, and get off at Dazaifu Station. From Fukuoka Airport, the subway to Tenjin joins the same route.
After you get off
From the Dazaifu stop, walk east along the approach to Dazaifu Tenmangu and into the grounds. Past the treasure hall the access tunnel opens on the right, and stairs, an escalator and the moving walkway carry you up the hill, about 10 minutes from the stop in all.