History of the collections

The first collector of Japanese items was Peter I: they arrived from Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, China and Holland. Later, other Russian sovereigns added to the collection - Catherine II, Alexander I, Nikolai I, Nikolai II as well as outstanding Russian and foreign travelers, scholars, seafarers and collectors. In the Soviet times the Japanese funds were enriched mostly due to the so-called inter-museum transfers: from the Museum fund (which contained items confiscated from private collections, including those of the Great Dukes), from the Leningrad Artillery Museum (today the Central Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Communication Troops), the Central Military-Marine Museum, the State Russian Museum, the State Museum of Oriental Cultures (today the State Museum of Art of the Peoples of the East, Moscow), the South-Sakhalin Regional Museum (former Japanese Museum of Karafuto Governance) and other museums and institutions.

At present the Japanese collection is one of the largest in the Museum - it contains about 10,000 exhibits. It fully represents all main aspects of the Japanese traditional national culture: main types of economic activity (rice-growing, fishing, silkworm growing, etc.), the traditional religions (Buddhism and Shinto) and cult accessories, the main festivals (Dolls' Day, Boys' Day, the traditional wedding), traditional music and theater performances (No, Kabuki, Kagura, Bunraku, tea ceremony), dwelling, the traditional costume. The pearl of the Japanese collections is the collection of Samurai weapons - swords and details of their decorations, bow and arrows, guns and pistols, spears and halberds. The Museum possesses the largest in Russia collection of Samurai armors tosei-gusoku. Many exhibits characterize the culture of the Samurai class and the culture of the Ainu people.

The Ainu. Museum exposition		18th-centiry Kunstkamera's Japanese collections. Museum exposition		The samurai. Museum exposition
Rosary. Japan. The Japanese. 18th century.		Fan “o-gi”. Japan. The Japanese. 18th century.		Instrument for a calligraphic writing. Japan. The Japanese. 18th century.
Bell. Japan. The Japanese. 18th century.		Knife of  Edo Periodю Japan. The Japanese. 18th cent.		Louis XV. Laquer plate. Japan. The Japanese. 18th cent.