Suntory Museum (Osaka Culturarium at Tempozan)

Suntory had this museum built on the Tempozan (天保山) waterfront in Osaka as a cultural undertaking. Three clients were involved: Suntory, the company Osaka Waterfront Development and the City of Osaka. Tadao Ando and his office designed it, and Takenaka and Obayashi built it. Construction ran from September 1992 to August 1994, and the museum opened to the public on 3 November 1994.

Originally the site did not touch the sea. The scheme took in the embankment, which falls under the City, and the bay, which is under the management of the national government.

The museum showed modern and contemporary art and had a 3D IMAX theatre. Suntory closed it on 26 December 2010 and gave the land and the building to the City of Osaka. Renamed 大阪文化館・天保山 (Osaka Culturarium at Tempozan) in 2013, it was run from April 2013 by ORIX Real Estate (オリックス不動産) under a ten-year lease with the City, and since April 2023 it has been run by a Japan–China cultural and economic exchange company (株式会社日中文化経済事業団). A theatre, TEMPO HARBOR THEATER, opened in February 2024 in place of the former IMAX theatre.

The building is an assembly of geometric forms. Two rectangular volumes house the gallery and the restaurant; the gallery juts out over the plaza. An inverted-cone drum encloses a faceted dome that housed the theatre, a spherical hall 32 metres in diameter. The building has nine storeys above ground and one basement level; outside, one sees exposed concrete and stainless-steel panels.

In front of it lies Mermaid Plaza (マーメイド広場), stepped, 100 metres wide and 40 metres deep, which opens onto the bay. In 1997 the museum and this plaza together received a special prize in the BCS Prize (建築業協会賞).

Inside, the gallery on the fourth floor opens onto the bay through a glazed wall, and a roof terrace looks out to sea.

The museum collected and exhibited modern and contemporary art: works by Monet, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Cassandre and Hockney, and posters from around the world. At its opening it held about 8,000 posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Cassandre and others.

Today the building houses shops, a restaurant and TEMPO HARBOR THEATER, a multi-purpose space for music, theatre, lectures and workshops. The main lobby, the theatre, the exhibition spaces, the panoramic gallery, the seminar and meeting rooms, the terrace and the roof can be used for events of all kinds.

The building is open from 9:00 to 21:00, every day of the year; the shops, the restaurant and the theatre keep their own hours. It has no car park of its own (paid car parks are nearby) and no parking for bicycles and motorbikes.

Address: 1-5-10 Kaigan-dōri, Minato-ku, Osaka. Osakako station (大阪港駅) on the Osaka Metro Chuo Line is about a 5-minute walk away, by exit 1. The Kaiyukan aquarium (海遊館) is next door.