The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, known as MOMAT, is Japan's oldest national museum for 20th- and 21st-century art. Founded in 1952, it moved into its present building by Yoshiro Taniguchi in Kitanomaru Park in 1969, a short walk from the Imperial Palace. The permanent collection holds around 13,000 works, focusing on the development of Japanese modernism and on later Yoga and Nihonga painting, with key pieces by Kishida Ryusei, Yasui Sotaro and Kawai Gyokudo as well as international artists such as Mark Rothko. On the fourth floor, a viewing room overlooks the Imperial Palace moat, a quiet spot to pause. The wider institution also runs the Crafts Gallery and the National Film Archive of Japan in nearby annexes. Special exhibitions often feature leading contemporary Japanese artists.