Fukuoka Camera Museum (ミュゼふくおかカメラ館)

The museum grew out of an exhibition, “Small Town, Cameras of the World” (小さなまちの世界のカメラ展), held in 1994 upstairs in a branch of the Hokuriku Bank (北陸銀行) in Fukuoka. The idea of a camera museum moved forward, with a study committee set up in March 1997, and in February 1999 the town of Fukuoka, now part of Takaoka, made it a project, as the spark for revitalising its town centre. The name begins with ミュゼ, the French word for “museum”.

Tadao Ando's office designed the building; design and construction ran from 5 April 1999 to 25 July 2000, for a total cost of 708,259,000 yen. The museum opened on 16 September 2000. A storage extension, designed this time by another office (三四五建築研究所), was built from October 2009 to March 2010 and opened on 10 April 2010.

The building is of reinforced concrete and has two storeys. The whole complex covers 951.93 m2 on the ground and has 1,325.27 m2 of floor area. The design is that of an austere space in which light and shadow are worked in effectively.

The programme includes an exhibition room of 229.2 m2, a temporary exhibition room of 67.7 m2, a multipurpose hall of 106.9 m2, an events space of 86.3 m2 and a training room of 51.3 m2. The cameras are shown in all-glass cases that can be viewed through 360 degrees.

Two activities carry the museum: collecting and showing cameras, and presenting exhibitions by leading photographers. The collection numbers about 4,000 cameras donated by collectors, spanning all periods, styles, countries and makers; around a hundred antique cameras are on permanent display, and the display changes three times a year.

Since fiscal year 2012 the museum has also run a photo contest meant to share the joy of photography across generations and regions. It is run by a Takaoka public-interest foundation for culture (高岡市民文化振興事業団).

The museum is open from 9:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:30. It is closed on Mondays (if the Monday is a public holiday, on the following weekday), at the end of the year and while exhibitions are being changed. Admission depends on the temporary exhibition; entry is free up to junior high school.

Fukuoka station is a 6-minute walk away, and the museum has a free car park of 30 spaces.