Hiroshima Museum of Art

In detail

The Hiroshima Museum of Art, located within the city’s Central Park just south of Hiroshima Castle, is a landmark piece of contemporary architecture housing works by some of the world’s most celebrated artists. The museum’s motto, “For Love and Peace,” is meant as a prayer for the victims of the atomic bomb and to provide lasting solace for the city.

From the outside, the museum’s circular structure appears minimalist, its windowless facade interrupted only by a discreet entrance; the interior reveals an understated elegance.

Across the four galleries that surround its dome-ceilinged main hall, designed to resemble the A-bomb Dome, the Hiroshima Museum of Art displays a periodically updated selection of works from its masterpiece-filled permanent collection. The works encompass modern European painting, with a particular emphasis on French impressionists such as Monet, Renoir, and Degas, and Japanese oil painting from the Meiji era (1868–1912) up to recent decades. Four further galleries, located in an adjacent annex, host a program of themed special exhibitions that draw upon the museum’s own collection and also those of other leading Japanese art museums. Previous shows have highlighted a diverse range of subjects, from iconic twentieth-century artist and landscape architect Noguchi Isamu (1904–1988) to Beatrix Potter’s beloved character Peter Rabbit. Visitors should be sure to visit the museum’s stylish Cafe Jardin, which offers views of the surrounding greenery and sculpture-dotted grounds.