Being one of the world?s biggest cultural centers, Tokyo houses more than 400 art and picture galleries. The art galleries of Tokyo, as well as other such establishments in Japan, can be state, municipal or individually owned, but in the majority of cases they are owned by huge Japanese corporations, which gives the national art more opportunities.

Among Tokyo?s most famous and most frequented art galleries there can be named:

? National Museum of Western Art
? Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum
? Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
? Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu Garden Place
? Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space
? Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills
? Museum of the Imperial Collections

National Museum of Western Art (NMWA) accommodates a vast number of art works by European artists. Its collection is unique and inimitable. NMWA is a public art gallery by its nature. Like Tokyo National Museum, NMWA is located Taito-ku district of Tokyo in a museum and zoo complex.

The famous Rodin?s Thinker sculpture is set by the gateway to the museum. The main building is divided into sections which display different schools of art. The museum collects, houses and preserves paintings by Veronese, Rubens and Fragonard, the celebrated XVIII century artists, a great variety of paintings by XIX and XX century artists like Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Moreau. The museum also features some works by the next generation of paiters, Marquet, Picasso, Soutin, Ernst, Miro, Dubuffet and Pollock are among them.

Another Tokyo art gallery is Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum situated in Minato Ward in the western part of Miguro Station. The building which houses the gallery was completed in 1933 and served as a residence of Prince Asaka. In the course of its lifespan, the building was given a new lease of life as a museum run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture.

Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum exhibits list includes the pieces of old Noritake ceramic pottery, prints, ceramics and sculptures by Katsura Funakoshi, art deco in the former residence of Prnce Asaka and his princess Nobuko, paintings by Paul Poiret and Mariano Fortuny.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is an art gallery in Meguro-ku locality in the southwest part of Tokyo featuring numerous photography art works by modern and classic artists.

The gallery was started back in 1990. Its peculiarity is enhanced by the fact that the majority of photography galleries in Japan feature works by a single artist while The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum is dedicated to the works of numerous photographers. The gallery holds thematic exhibitions periodically. Thus, in 1990 the gallery displayed works by Berenice Abbott,  in 1993-1994 there was a number of exhibitions devoted to the photography by Tadahiko Hayashi, and in 2007 and in 2008 there took place exhibitions showing the works by the living photographers Martin Parr and Hiromi Tsuchida respectively.