Tokaido Hiroshige Art Museum

The basics

The Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum of Art holds a collection of around 1,400 of Hiroshige’s landscape woodblock prints. Exhibits are rotated monthly so that even repeat visitors can see something new each time. Among the collection are several works from the artist’s significant “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” series.

Although the museum might seem a bit out of the way—around 12.5 miles (20 kilometers)—from central Shizuoka City, it’s actually entirely appropriate: the Yui Honjin Park, where the museum sits, is an old post-station town on the ancient Tokaido Highway that linked Kyoto and Tokyo. Museum visitors can be immersed in the modern-day version of the landscape Hiroshige depicted in his art. Travelers typically visit independently.

Things to know before you go

• There’s an entry fee to the museum, but students and children get reduced entry, and preschool kids are free.

• Travelers with disabilities get free entry upon presentation of an accepted passbook or ID card.

• Gallery talks are typically held every few weeks, on a Sunday afternoon, with a museum curator. They’re an excellent way to learn more about the collection, but they are only in Japanese.

How to get there

The museum is about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) from the center of Shizuoka City. The nearest JR station is at Yui, on the JR Tokaido Main Line. The museum is about a half-hour walk from the station or a short taxi ride. It’s also easily accessible by car from the east (Yokohama, Tokyo) and the west (Nagoya, Osaka).

When to get there

The museum is open every day except Mondays, from morning until early evening. If a public holiday falls on a Monday, the museum will be open, but it will close on the following weekday instead. It’s also closed between Dec. 28 and Jan. 4.

Explore Yui Honjin Park

The museum sits within Shizuoka’s Yui Honjin Park, which is worth exploring before or after a visit to the museum. The park was once a post-station town on the Tokaido Highway, and a “honjin” was a facility where feudal lords stayed while traveling through. The park's gates, walls, and fences retain their Edo-period appearance, and visitors can get tea at a traditional teahouse.