Mayuyama Ryusendo Store

A Frame for Oriental Art in the Heart of Tokyo

On a quiet corner of Kyobashi, just a short walk from Tokyo Station, stands a building that at first glance could be mistaken for a minor work of mid-century modernism. Look more carefully, however, and the Mayuyama Ryusendo Store reveals itself as something altogether more considered. Rust-tinted stone frames the lower facade like the border of a scroll painting, while the upper walls gleam with a deep black plaster so refined it almost feels like lacquer. This is not a museum, not a gallery in the public sense, but the working home of one of Japan's oldest and most distinguished dealers in Oriental antiquities — and the building itself, completed in 1960, has been officially recognised by the Japanese government as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

For lovers of architecture, East Asian ceramics, or the quiet craftsmanship of postwar Tokyo, the Mayuyama Ryusendo Store is one of those rare buildings where every detail rewards attention. Its very purpose, according to its architect, was to serve as a frame — literally — for the precious objects inside.

A Century of Oriental Antiquities

The story of Mayuyama Ryusendo begins not in Tokyo but in Beijing. In 1905, a young man named Matsutaro Mayuyama travelled alone to the Chinese capital at the age of twenty-two, drawn by the international market for East Asian art that was then flourishing there. Treasures unearthed during railway construction and imperial objects scattered during the turbulent final years of the Qing dynasty were streaming into the city, attracting collectors and dealers from across Europe and America.

Matsutaro studied the trade in this cosmopolitan environment and, upon returning to Japan, pioneered a new kind of art dealership — one that dealt not in tea utensils (then the dominant category for Japanese antique merchants) but in pieces appreciated purely as works of art. He first opened in Ginza in 1916, and in 1920 moved the business to its present location in Kyobashi, where it has remained for over a century.

After Matsutaro's passing in 1935, his son Junkichi Mayuyama (1913–1999) carried the family firm forward, becoming one of the key figures who introduced masterpieces of Japanese and Chinese art to American museums in the postwar period — including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the personal collection of John D. Rockefeller III.

The Current Building: A Postwar Rebirth

The Kyobashi district was devastated by wartime air raids, and the Mayuyama Ryusendo that stands today is the rebuilt store, completed in 1960. The design was entrusted to Kenzo Tohata (1902–1998) of Tohata Architects, with construction carried out by Kajima Corporation. A large-scale exterior renovation in 1983 was followed by further work in 2017, which restored the building to its original appearance with remarkable fidelity.

The site itself is a corner plot at the intersection of two streets in Kyobashi 2-chome. The eastern face looks onto a back lane historically known among collectors as the "Naka-dori," a street long associated with antique and art dealers since the Meiji period. The northern face opens onto Kyobashi Takara-dori. This corner position is central to the design: the chamfered northeast corner, rising through three stories, is treated as the building's ceremonial front.

Why It Became a Registered Cultural Property

On May 10, 2018, the Mayuyama Ryusendo Store was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property (Building) by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The official designation notes that it is "an outstanding example of commercial architecture that coloured the dramatic postwar reconstruction of the city" — one whose facade has been consciously designed with an antique-aesthetic sensibility.

The building is valued for three interlocking reasons. First, it represents the work of Kenzo Tohata, one of the leading architects of the Kansai region who studied under Goichi Takeda and founded what remains today a major architectural firm. Second, it is a superb example of postwar reconstruction-era urban commercial architecture in Tokyo, a period whose surviving buildings are becoming increasingly rare. And third, its exterior design achieves something unusual: a modernist commercial building whose every material choice echoes the sensibility of the Oriental antiquities sold within.

Highlights and Features to Appreciate

The Andesite Frame

The most striking feature is the use of Yura-ishi, an andesite stone quarried in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. This stone wraps the ground floor and the chamfered northeast corner (from the first to the third story) in the manner of a picture frame. Rather than being polished smooth, the stone was installed with the rust stains from its sawing process deliberately left in place, giving the surface a subtle, living texture that combines with the natural colour of the rock to produce an unrepeatable patina.

The Black Shikkui Walls

Above the stone frame, the second and third floor walls are finished in black shikkui — traditional Japanese plaster — mixed with bengara, an iron-oxide red pigment long used in Japanese architecture for its anti-corrosion and anti-fouling properties. Applied with an even, almost seamless hand by highly skilled plasterers, this finish speaks directly to the craftsmanship of Japan's postwar reconstruction era. Slender vertical windows are set into this dark wall in a regular rhythm, creating a facade of austere elegance.

The Architect's Intention

Writing in the December 1960 issue of the journal Kokusai Kenchiku, Tohata himself explained his design philosophy: Mayuyama Ryusendo was a world-renowned dealer of ancient Oriental art, and its customers were connoisseurs from Japan and abroad seeking something of the enduring flavour of Eastern tradition. For that reason, he wrote, he designed the building as a frame for the objects it would contain. The building was to be secondary to the art — and in that very restraint, it achieves its own distinction.

Visiting Mayuyama Ryusendo

It is important to remember that the Mayuyama Ryusendo Store is a working antiques dealer, not a public museum. The exterior can be freely admired from the street at any time, and it makes an excellent stop on any architectural walking tour of the Kyobashi-Ginza-Nihonbashi district. Photography from the public sidewalk is entirely possible.

For those wishing to see inside, the gallery periodically hosts exhibitions — including during Tokyo Art Antiques, an annual event in which many of the antiques dealers of Nihonbashi and Kyobashi open their doors to the general public each spring. During such times, visitors can experience the building's interior and view Chinese and Oriental ceramics and metalwork of the highest order. The gallery is open from 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, and closed on Sundays and national holidays. Visitors should approach with the courtesy appropriate to any specialist dealer in fine art.

Surrounding Attractions

Kyobashi is a historic centre of Japanese art and a delight to explore on foot. Within a few minutes' walk of Mayuyama Ryusendo, visitors will find the Artizon Museum (located in the Museum Tower Kyobashi at Kyobashi 1-chome), which houses one of Japan's finest collections of Impressionist painting, modern Japanese Western-style painting, and contemporary art. A short stroll away is the National Film Archive of Japan at Kyobashi 3-chome, Japan's only national institution dedicated to the preservation and study of film.

The area's artistic associations run deep: in the Edo period, the ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige lived nearby, and the Nakabashi Kano family — official painters to the Tokugawa shogunate — had their residence in what is now Kyobashi 1-chome. Today the district is dotted with galleries and antique shops, and a short walk in any direction brings one to the Ginza shopping district to the south, Nihonbashi to the north, or Tokyo Station to the west.