November 3, Saturday, 2018 – January 14, Monday, 2019

The Tobacco and Salt Museum was opened by the Japan Monopoly Corporation (now Japan Tobacco Inc.) on Shibuya Koen-dori, Tokyo on November 3, 1978 (Showa 53) as a museum focusing on the history and cultures of “tobacco” and “salt,” which were government monopoly goods. Ever since its opening, it has been enjoyed by many people as a museum where reference materials on tobacco and salt are collected, surveyed, and researched and where a variety of projects and special exhibitions on wide-ranging themes are organized.
To mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of our Museum, we held an exhibition entitled Cultural History of Relaxation, which treated the theme of the tobacco culture in Austria; for our twentieth anniversary, The Galleon Trade & the V.O.C., which focused on Japan’s exchanges with foreign countries at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and for our thirtieth anniversary, Life, Delight: Genre Paintings from the Early Edo Period, which featured early-modern genre paintings. These exhibitions all proved popular.
Thereafter, we closed the museum in Shibuya in September 2013 (Heisei 25) and moved to Yokokawa in Sumidaku, Tokyo, where we celebrated the opening of the renewed Tobacco and Salt Museum on April 25, 2015 (Heisei 27).
While the new museum continues to be centered on the themes of “tobacco” and “salt,” we have also been organizing displays and events relevant to the vicinity of Sumida. Moreover, we have also been making continued efforts to become a universal design-conscious new museum.

To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the opening of our former museum in Shibuya on November 3 this year, we are pleased to be holding a special exhibition on the “Vienna World Exposition,” which took place in Austria in 1873 (Meiji 6).
The Vienna World Exposition was the first international exposition that Japan officially took part in as a state. The reference materials from the preparation stage remaining in Japan narrate how enthusiastic Japan was about participating in this Exposition. Many Japanese items exhibited at the Exposition remain in foreign museums, showing how keen the Europeans must have been on the exhibits from Japan. Many technical experts were sent from Japan to learn cutting-edge European technology. They were to contribute to the development of a variety of domestic industries and also to set up systems of patents and the registration of trademarks in accordance with international rules in order to nurture export industries.
Presented in this exhibition are reference materials on how preparations to participate in the Exposition proceeded, reference materials preserved in Japan and Austria on the works shown at the Exposition, and other references indicating consequent trends in the industrial world. Through them, we hope to be able to introduce how the “Vienna World Exposition” marked the dawn of the industrialization era in Japan. There is also a special display of a collection of tobacco items belonging to the former Austrian Tobacco (now JTI Austria GmbH) and esquisses by Gustav Klimt, which should give you an extensive view of the culture in Austria from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century.

[General admission fees]

General（Adults and university students）
individual:300yen
Group（20 or more）:150yen

Children and pupils of primary, juniorhigh, and high schools
individual:100yen
Group（20 or more）:50yen

Visitors over 65 years old ※Please show proof of age when entering.
individual:150yen
Group（20 or more）:100yen

※ With age certificate, visitors over 65 years old are admitted for half price.
※ With disability certificate, free admission for disabled persons and one accompanying attendant.

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  Meerschaum Decorative Pipe Bowl
  JTI Tobacco Collection Vienna

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  Large vase with Mt. Fuji and court carriage design in underglaze and maki-e
  Arita Porcelain Park