Ryukoku Museum: Buddhist art and Buddhist culture Museum
- Highlight
- At the Bezeklik Cave Temples Restoration Exhibit, experience what it would have been like to walk through a cave temple’s corridors.
Buddhism from its Birth to Today
The Ryukoku Museum is a comprehensive Buddhist museum that was opened to mark the 370th anniversary of Ryukoku University’s founding. It holds and exhibits precious cultural assets and academic materials primarily related to Buddhism.
Concept exhibitions present in an easy-to-understand fashion how Buddhism, after emerging approximately twenty-five hundred years ago in India, spread throughout Asian countries, was transmitted to Japan in the sixth century, and subsequently developed. Special and focus exhibitions use themes to examine Buddhism from a variety of angles and share the results of academic surveys and research with the general public.
On the second floor are life-size recreated murals from the walls of the Bezeklik Cave Temple’s Cave 15, which is located on the outskirts of Turpan in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. On the third floor is a museum theater where visitors can enjoy original movies regarding exhibition content and Buddhism.
The museum also features a cafe and shop.

Reproduction of a cloister in the Bezelkik Cave (Photo: Kiyohiko Higashide)

Seated Buddha

View of courtyard garden
What did Shakyamuni do for Dīpaṃkara Buddha whose legs were going to get dirty in the mud?
Address | Horikawa-dori Shomen-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku (opposite Nishihonganji Temple) |
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TEL | 075-351-2500 |
FAX | 075-351-2577 |
URL | http://museum.ryukoku.ac.jp |
Hours | 10:00 ~ 17:00(entry by 16:30) |
Closed | Mon (following day if Nat Hol) |
Adm | Concept exhibits: Adults ¥500, College students and Senior citizens (over 65 years old) ¥400, High school students ¥300, Special or focus exhibitions charged separately |
Access | A 2-min walk from Nishihonganjimae Stop of City Bus/A 3-min walk from Nanajo-Horikawa Stop of City Bus |
Facilities near by

Horino Memorial Museum
The taste of famed water enjoyed in a townhouse that was a sake brewery

Shoyeido Incense Co. (Tour of Incense Studio and Kunjyukan)
Learn about and enjoy the world of fragrance

Raku Museum
Feel the charm of Raku bowls

The Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall
History of the science that underpinned the modernization of Kyoto