Six Tokyo Metropolitan museums and galleries are holding "Autumn Night Museum 2026" for the first time this autumn. On Fridays in November, the participating facilities extend their opening hours to 8:00 PM. For entry from 5:00 PM, students can see the eligible exhibitions for free, while general visitors and those aged 65 and over pay a special discounted rate. Discounts at participating restaurants and cafés inside the facilities are also available.
The event also includes mini concerts titled "Museum × Music!", created in collaboration with Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (東京文化会館) and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (東京芸術劇場).
Event Overview
- Dates: Every Friday from Thursday, November 5 to Friday, November 27, 2026. Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum also takes part on Saturday, November 21 in addition to the Fridays in this period, and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum takes part on Thursdays and Fridays. Participating days differ by facility.
- Participating facilities:
- Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum (東京都江戸東京博物館), Ryogoku
- Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (東京都美術館), Ueno
- Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (東京都庭園美術館), Meguro and Shirokanedai
- Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (東京都写真美術館), Ebisu
- Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (東京都現代美術館), Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
- Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery (東京都渋谷公園通りギャラリー), Shibuya
- Official website: https://www.rekibun.or.jp/crossing/nightmuseum/
Benefits
- Opening hours extended to 8:00 PM.
- Admission: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive a discounted rate roughly equal to the group rate. Students and visitors aged 65 and over should bring a student ID or something that shows their age. Please check the notes at the end of this article before visiting.
- Museum shops, cafés and restaurants: Extended business hours, discounts and gifts are offered. Business hours and benefits differ by facility and shop, so please see each facility's information page for details.
Mini Concerts "Museum × Music!"
Concerts planned and produced by Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre are held at the museums and galleries. Visitors can enjoy live performances by musicians in the museums and galleries at night. The concerts take place at each facility during Autumn Night Museum 2026. No advance registration is required. The program may change or be canceled depending on the weather and other circumstances. Please see the official Autumn Night Museum 2026 website for details.
- Museum × Tokyo Bunka Kaikan! Classical concerts by performers including winners of the Tokyo Music Competition.
- Museum × Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre! Young musicians from "GOA+" perform colorful music.
Edo-Tokyo Museum × Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
- Date and time: Friday, November 6, 6:00 PM to 6:20 PM and 7:00 PM to 7:20 PM
- Venue: In front of Nakamura-za (中村座), inside the Permanent Exhibition Room of the Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Admission: Free (a permanent exhibition ticket is required)
- Performers: 山本大 (cello, 3rd place in the strings division of the 22nd Tokyo Music Competition), 伊東翔太 (violin), 塚本禎 (violin), 多湖桃子 (viola)
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum × Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
- Date and time: Thursday, November 12, 6:00 PM to 6:20 PM and 7:00 PM to 7:20 PM
- Venue: 2nd-floor lobby, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
- Admission: Free
- Performers: コハーン・イシュトヴァーン (clarinet, 1st place and Audience Award in the woodwind division of the 11th Tokyo Music Competition), 滝千春 (violin)
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo × Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre
- Date and time: Friday, November 13, 5:30 PM to 5:50 PM and 6:30 PM to 6:50 PM
- Venue: 1st-floor entrance hall, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
- Admission: Free
- Performers: 近野千昌 (clarinet, GOA+ registered artist), 大田春菜 (violin)
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum × Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre
- Date and time: Friday, November 20, 6:30 PM to 6:50 PM and 7:30 PM to 7:50 PM
- Venue: Auditorium, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
- Admission: Free
- Performers: 宮楠菜穂 (saxophone, GOA+ registered artist), 村松和奈 (oboe, GOA+ registered artist), 眞塩由希子 (clarinet, GOA+ registered artist)
Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery × Tokyo Bunka Kaikan
- Date and time: Friday, November 20, 6:30 PM to 6:50 PM and 7:30 PM to 7:50 PM
- Venue: Exchange space, Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery
- Admission: Free
- Performers: 平井美羽 (violin, 2nd place in the strings division of the 22nd Tokyo Music Competition), 新井瑞穂 (viola)
Facility Information and Exhibitions
Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum (Ryogoku)
- Evening hours: Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/
Permanent Exhibition
The permanent exhibition features full-scale large models restored on the basis of careful research, scale models that faithfully recreate the scenes of the time, and a wealth of actual materials that people of the era used.
- Period: Year-round
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
- Benefit: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required)
Edo-Tokyo Museum Renewal Commemoration: NHK Taiga Drama Special Exhibition "Toyotomi Kyodai!" (豊臣兄弟！)
In connection with the Taiga drama "Toyotomi Kyodai!", the exhibition presents valuable historical materials, including items associated with Toyotomi Hidenaga and his older brother Hideyoshi, and with the people around them such as Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Kuroda Kanbei, Todo Takatora, Sen no Rikyu and Kodaiin. It brings out the lives of the brothers and the era they ran through.
- Period: Tuesday, September 15 to Sunday, November 8
- Evening opening date: Friday, November 6
- Note: The free admission and discount from 5:00 PM do not apply to this exhibition. High school students and younger are free at any time during the run.
Special Exhibition within the Permanent Exhibition: Japan-U.S. Exchange, a Bridge of Knowledge – Rutgers College and Japanese Students in the Late Edo and Meiji Periods (日米交流 知のかけはし―ラトガース・カレッジと幕末明治の日本人留学生―)
Rutgers College, one of the oldest universities in the United States, is also well known for having accepted many Japanese students in the late Edo and Meiji periods. Centered on the museum's own collection, the exhibition focuses on the exchange between the students who went to the U.S. and their teachers, and introduces the history of the early days of Japan-U.S. exchange.
- Period: Saturday, October 24 to Sunday, December 6
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
- Benefit: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required)
Events during evening opening
- Video projection at Edo Tokyo Hiroba (江戸東京ひろば) on the 3rd floor. Please check the facility website for projection times.
- Visitors who come during evening opening hours receive an "Edo-haku Original Gibo-chan Sticker" (江戸博オリジナル ギボちゃんステッカー) as a gift. Please check the facility website for details such as where to receive it.
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Ueno)
- Evening hours: Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://www.tobikan.jp/
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th Anniversary: For You to Read the World (あなたが世界を読むために)
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum was born in May 1926 (Taisho 15) as Japan's first public art museum and marks its 100th anniversary in 2026 (Reiwa 8). Commemorating this milestone, the exhibition takes "dialogue with the world" as its theme, based on the museum's mission of being "a place of creation and coexistence where people look at themselves and deepen their bonds with the world."
- Period: Thursday, November 19 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (a national holiday)
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Fridays, November 20 and 27 (the museum opens in the evening on Fridays during the run)
- Note: Admission is free for everyone during the run
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th Anniversary: Opening the Beginning – 100 Years of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (はじまりをひらく 東京都美術館の100年)
This exhibition focuses on the activities that were born and unfolded at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the people connected with them, looking back on the museum's history. Through valuable materials centered on the museum's archives, it offers a chance to reconsider the history and role of Japan's first public art museum.
- Period: Thursday, November 19 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (a national holiday)
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Fridays, November 20 and 27 (the museum opens in the evening on Fridays during the run)
- Note: Admission is free for everyone during the run
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th Anniversary: Musée d'Orsay, The Joy of Living Now (オルセー美術館所蔵 いまを生きる歓び)
The exhibition presents about 110 paintings, sculptures, crafts, photographs and other works from the Musée d'Orsay collection that were born in a society changing rapidly through modernization. Through pieces such as Millet's The Gleaners and Van Gogh's Starry Night, it introduces diverse kinds of "joy of living now."
- Period: Saturday, November 14 to Sunday, March 28, 2027
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Fridays, November 20 and 27 (the museum opens in the evening on Fridays during the run)
- Note: The free admission and discount from 5:00 PM do not apply to this exhibition. Visitors aged 18 and under and high school students and younger are free at any time during the run (proof required).
Events during evening opening
- Friday, November 20: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th anniversary stickers are planned to be given to visitors who arrive after 5:30 PM.
- Friday, November 20: "Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th Anniversary × Taito Fashion ZAKKA Festival" (東京都美術館開館100周年記念×台東ファッションZAKKA祭), until 8:00 PM.
Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (Meguro and Shirokanedai)
- Evening hours: Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://www.teien-art-museum.ne.jp/
Marimekko: Art of Printmaking – Beauty, Dream, Love (マリメッコ展 模様のちから)
Through valuable dresses and fabrics from various decades and materials that convey the production process, the exhibition explores Marimekko's aesthetics and the background of its creativity. It also introduces the print factory, the core of Marimekko's manufacturing, through a video installation by the art unit plaplax. The display by guest designer Minagawa Akira (皆川 明) is also a highlight.
- Period: Saturday, October 3 to Sunday, December 20
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27. The museum also opens in the evening on Saturdays, November 21 and 28, and on Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5.
- Benefit: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required)
- Reservations: Timed-entry reservation system. Same-day tickets are also sold at the ticket counter from 5:00 PM on the day, but quantities are limited and same-day tickets may not be available.
Garden
A green urban garden that harmonizes with the building through the changing seasons.
- Period: Year-round
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27. The garden also opens in the evening on Saturdays, November 21 and 28, and on Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5.
- Benefit: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required)
- An exhibition ticket also lets you see the garden.
- For safety, passage along some paths in the Japanese garden is limited to until 4:30 PM.
- From Friday, October 2 to Wednesday, March 31, 2027 (planned), the Western garden and the south garden gate are closed due to large-scale construction work.
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Ebisu)
- Evening hours: Thursdays and Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://topmuseum.jp/
Duet: Asian Contemporary (デュエット――アジアン・コンテンポラリー)
Co-planned by テン・チンユン, executive director of 三影堂厦門撮影芸術中心, and a curator of the museum, the exhibition introduces six artists from China and Japan. Using the word "duet" as a clue, it places works with different perspectives and backgrounds in the same space and explores the relationships and resonances born where multiple viewpoints, cultures, times and personal experiences intersect.
- Period: Wednesday, September 30 to Sunday, January 17, 2027
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Thursdays and Fridays, November 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27
Assembling Again: Emerging Japanese Artists vol. 23 (ふたたびくみたてる 日本の新進作家 vol.23)
Since 2002, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum has continued to hold the "Emerging Japanese Artists" (日本の新進作家) exhibition series to support the creative spirit that challenges the possibilities of photography and video, discover promising artists and provide a place for new creative activity. The 23rd edition focuses on the process in which the artists draw on memories, materials, techniques and contexts that actually existed and assemble them into new images.
- Period: Wednesday, September 30 to Sunday, January 17, 2027
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Thursdays and Fridays, November 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27
Kimura Ihei Photography Award 50th Anniversary Exhibition (木村伊兵衛写真賞第50回記念写真展)
- Period: Saturday, October 31 to Monday, November 23 (a national holiday)
- Evening opening dates during Autumn Night Museum: Thursdays and Fridays, November 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20
Benefit for all of the above exhibitions at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required).
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Kiyosumi-Shirakawa)
- Evening hours: Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://www.mot-art-museum.jp/
Tada Minami: Light, Resolute and Swaying (多田美波―光、凛と ゆれる)
The museum presents a large-scale solo exhibition of Tada Minami (1924–2014), who was active in postwar Japan as an abstract sculptor and creator. With the full cooperation of the 多田美波研究所, the exhibition surveys her work over about 70 years. It shows around 70 pieces, including early paintings, sculptures from each period and lighting works, among them chandeliers that the artist herself called "light forms" (光造形), together with archival materials such as architectural parts, photographs and sketches.
- Period: Saturday, August 29 to Sunday, December 6
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
Synchronic Constellations: Stars That Shared Their Time – Border-Crossing Artistic Perspectives (共時的星叢──時を共にした星たち 越境する芸術のまなざし)
The exhibition takes as its starting point the film 『日曜日の散歩者』 (2015; released in Japan in 2017), which is built around the historical efforts of several poets who attempted to introduce Surrealism to Taiwan during the period of Japanese rule and who wrote poetry in Japanese, and which weaves in diverse works that cut across regions, eras and genres. With the film's director, Huang Ya-li (黄亜歴 HUANG Ya-li, ホアン・ヤーリー), as guest curator, it presents about 200 works of modern Taiwanese art, about 500 materials and about 100 Japanese works, and looks anew at modern Taiwan and Japan through diverse culture and the arts.
- Period: Saturday, September 5 to Sunday, December 13
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
MOT Collection: Looking at Light from Another Time, Now (MOTコレクション いつかの光を今みている)
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo holds about 6,100 works, centered on postwar art. The "MOT Collection" is an exhibition series that introduces these works from a variety of angles in each period. Through works by 小瀬村真美, 土屋公雄, 熊谷亜莉沙, 戸谷成雄 and others, this edition turns its attention to the past contained within the present moment and considers its layered nature.
- Period: Saturday, September 19 to Wednesday, January 6, 2027
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
Benefit for all of the above exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo: For entry from 5:00 PM, students are free, and general visitors and those aged 65 and over receive the group rate (proof required).
Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery (Shibuya)
- Evening hours: Fridays until 8:00 PM
- Official website: https://inclusion-art.jp/
Art Brut 2026 Touring Exhibition "Sozo Training! – Drawing Out, Connecting, in This Place –" (アール・ブリュット2026巡回展「ソウゾウ・トレイニング！ ―ひきだす、つなぐ、この場所で― 」)
This touring exhibition, which travels to venues around Tokyo to introduce the appeal of Art Brut works with unique ideas and modes of expression, marks its 7th year. For this edition, domestic curators who are pioneers in the Art Brut field invited はじまりの美術館 (岡部兼芳, 小林竜也, 大政愛) as co-curators. The museum was founded in 2014 in Inawashiro, Fukushima Prefecture, has a track record of many exhibitions, and its activities are drawing attention.
- Period: Saturday, October 10 to Sunday, December 27
- Evening opening dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20 and 27
Notes
- "Students" includes university students, graduate students, vocational school students, high school students and others.
- The free admission and discounts from 5:00 PM do not apply to the Edo-Tokyo Museum's "Edo-Tokyo Museum Renewal Commemoration: NHK Taiga Drama Special Exhibition 'Toyotomi Kyodai!'" or the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum's "Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum 100th Anniversary: Musée d'Orsay, The Joy of Living Now."
- The student-free admission and discounts apply only to entry from 5:00 PM on the designated days. (At Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the exhibitions "For You to Read the World" and "Opening the Beginning – 100 Years of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum" are free at any time, as is Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery.)
- Discounts apply only to tickets bought at the counter on the day. Online ticket purchases are not eligible. However, tickets for Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum can be purchased online. Students and visitors aged 65 and over should bring a student ID or something that shows their age.
- Discounts cannot be combined with other discounts.
- Last admission is 30 minutes before closing (except at Tokyo Metropolitan Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery).
- The library at the Edo-Tokyo Museum is open until 5:30 PM, the art information room at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum until 5:00 PM, the library at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum until 6:00 PM, and the art library at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo until 6:00 PM.
- The mini concerts may change depending on the weather and other circumstances.
- Details may change.
Other Events
Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum "Special Night Opening: Lighting Up the Buildings" (江戸東京たてもの園「夜間特別開園 たてもののライトアップ」)
- Dates and times: Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7, 4:30 PM to 8:30 PM (last entry 8:00 PM). The park opens from 9:30 AM.
- Official website: https://www.tatemonoen.jp/event/schedule/2026/schedule101112.php
ARTE TOKYO (東京国際文化芸術祭)
- Dates: Saturday, October 10 to Thursday, December 31
- Official website: https://artetokyo.jp/
TOKYO ATLAS International Art Exhibition (国際美術展 TOKYO ATLAS)
- Dates: Saturday, October 10 to Sunday, December 20
- Official website: https://tokyoatlas.jp/
