A Message to Museum Visitors

Welcome to Kyoto National Museum. Your cooperation with the following regulations and visitors' guidelines will be greatly appreciated and should contribute to your enjoyable experience in the museum. We will appreciate your kind cooperation in improving the visitors' manners in the museum.

The Museum's Request and Its Rationale

According to the questionnaires filled out by our visitors, we have received numerous comments concerning visitors' manners. We are determined to improve the environment so that visitors may enjoy the cultural properties preserved in the museum. However, we cannot achieve our aim of improving visitors' manners without your cooperation. We would like to ask for your support in helping us to keep a better museum environment and to respect other visitors. We thank you for your understanding and hope all our visitors may enjoy the cultural properties and exhibits. Please read and abide by the following regulations and guidelines when you visit the museum.

General Regulations and Guidelines and Their Rationale

  • Dark Lighting: Dark lighting is used to preserve the treasures in their best possible condition.

    • Japanese cultural properties are very sensitive to environmental changes. Therefore, we have a priority of preserving the cultural properties by using dark lighting and maintaining a certain level of temperature and humidity. Visitors may feel unpleasant in the dark exhibit rooms, but we would like to ask for your understanding in order to protect the treasures in the best possible condition for future generations.

  • Visitor Conduct: Please do not disturb other visitors by making noise or behaving improperly.

    • Even if most people understand this rule, the matter seems to be of the greatest concern for visitors. We understand that visitors express their feelings in front of the cultural properties, but please keep the volume level down as much as possible.

  • Writing Instruments: Please use pencils and avoid the use of other kinds of writing instruments.

    • We have received numerous comments about this matter. However, to avoid the spilling of ink, we would like for the visitors to use pencils and to avoid other kinds of writing instruments, such as fountain pens, ballpoint pens, and water or oil based pens and markers, since it is difficult to remove ink spots. Also, their use may cause trouble to other visitors and, possibly, damage to the exposed exhibits. Please understand that we would like for our visitors to use pencils only.

    If you do not have a pencil, please ask one of our uniformed staff members/room monitors for one.

  • Photography: Photography is not allowed due to the protection of the artwork/cultural property, the owner's property rights, and the maintaining of an optimum environment for our visitors.


  • Touching Exhibits/Showcases: Do not touch exhibits or showcases. Fingerprints, or hand marks, on the protective glass cases yield an unpleasant feeling to other visitors and may damage the cultural properties themselves.


  • Food and Drink: Please do not eat or drink in the exhibit rooms.

    • Particles of food, drinks, or garbage are the cause of harmful insects and fungus that might harm the preservation of cultural properties. Also, in a crowd, food and drink in exhibit rooms may cause trouble. So, we would like to ask you not to bring any kinds of food or drink into the exhibit rooms.

  • Smoking: Please do not smoke. Smoking is prohibited.

    • Many Japanese cultural properties are flammable, so any kind of fire or smoke may permanently damage the properties.

  • Mobile/Cellular Phones: Please turn off your mobile phones.

    • Mobile phones have various convenient functions. When used in dark exhibit rooms, other visitors may be bothered by the back-lighted displays. Although mobile phones with built-in cameras have become widespread, taking pictures is prohibited. Please turn off your mobile phone before entering the exhibit rooms.