Okamoto Taro Museum of Art

About

In the Ikuta Green Space of Kawasaki's Tama Ward stands a museum built almost entirely underground. It opened on October 30, 1999, founded on 1,779 works that the artist Taro Okamoto donated to the city of Kawasaki, and above ground only one structure rises: the 30-meter "Mother's Tower," a symbolic tower Okamoto himself designed in 1971. Designed jointly by Kawasaki City's Urban Development Bureau and the Kume Sekkei architectural firm, the building has a floor area of 4,993 square meters. Its permanent exhibition arranges Okamoto's paintings, writings, performances, and fieldwork by theme rather than chronology, creating an immersive experience rather than a conventional gallery walk. Cumulative visitors have passed the two-million mark since opening. Getting the museum built was not simple: from 1997 to 2001, residents and local species were named as plaintiffs in an environmental lawsuit aimed at protecting the green space's biodiversity.