National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

Overlooking the Imperial Palace moat, this is Japan's first national art museum, opened in the early 1950s and devoted primarily to modern and contemporary Japanese art. Its permanent collection traces painting, sculpture, prints, and photography from the Meiji era to the present, with rotating selections drawn from thousands of works. A quiet room with a wide window frames the palace greenery as a living picture. The museum anchors a cluster of cultural buildings and pairs well with the adjoining crafts gallery.