Amuse Museum

The museum housed a collection of everyday clothing and other textiles from the private collection of folklorist Chūzaburō Tanaka. While only about 1500 of the items were on display at any time, the museum rotated through the collection every few months. The talent and entertainment agency Amuse was the owner of the museum.

• Name — Textile Culture and Ukiyo-e Art Museum – Amuse Museum • Native Name — 「布文化と浮世絵の美術館」アミューズミュージアム • Established — 2009 11 01 • Location — Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan • Type — Art museum • Key Holdings — Miracle Textile Art "Boro" • Curator — Kiyoshi Tatsumi • Owner — Amuse, Inc. • Website —

Amuse Museum was established on 1 November 2009 as a private Japanese textile culture and ukiyo-e museum in the Asakusa district of the Taitō special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is located just east of Sensō-ji. The museum was operated and owned by the talent and entertainment agency Amuse. The concept of the museum curation, Don't be wasteful, was based on the environmental and social activism of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. The museum's collections were started with over 30,000 everyday clothing items from the collection of the folklorist Chūzaburō Tanaka. Many of the pieces were in disrepair and appeared to be loosely sewn rags. About 1500 of those items were on display at any one time, and the pieces on display were rotated out every few months. The honorary curator of Amuse Museum was Tanaka, and the Chief Curator was Kiyoshi Tatsumi.

Amuse Museum was located about 5 minutes' walk north-northwest of Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line and about 8 minutes from Asakusa Station on the Tsukuba Express line. There are two bus stops within a block of the museum's former location. The Asakusa Shrine and Sensō-ji are located just west of the former museum site. Other nearby attractions within walking distance included Kaminarimon, Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden, the National Museum of Nature and Science, the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Ueno Zoo, and Ueno Park (which contains the four museums above, as well as the zoo). A bar was located on the sixth floor of the museum building offering drinks snack items.

In 2010, Amuse Museum hosted the "Tsugaru – Nanbu Sashiko Kimono" collection, consisting of 768 pieces of sashiko kimonos from Tsugara and Nanbu in Aomori Prefecture. Cloth culture is at the heart of this presentation of the handicraft of nameless artisans and ordinary women, the exhibit has been featured in media such as NHK's lit. "The Mark of Beauty" and lit. "New Japan Culture".