About MOMOA
Information in EnglishAbout MOGI-HONKE MUSEUM OF ART
Mogi Shichizaemon (1907-2012), the 12th head of the Mogi Honke (main line), had been interested in art from his youth and collecting many art pieces over a long period of time. Mogi-Honke Museum of Art was founded in 2006 to share his art collection to the public so that many people can enjoy them as well.
The collection includes approximately 2,900 ukiyo-e prints featuring the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road by Utagawa Hiroshige, as well as ukiyo-e by Kitagawa Utamaro, Tōshūsai Sharaku, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and others. The collection also covers Japanese paintings by artists such as Yokoyama Taikan, Ogura Yuki and Nakajima Chinami, Western-style paintings by artists including Umehara Ryūzaburō, Wada Eisaku and Kinutani Kōji, sculptures by Takamura Kōun, Hirakushi Denchū, Yabuuchi Satoshi, and ceramic art by Itaya Hazan. A total number of art pieces owned by the Museum is approximately 4,300.
Apart from several special exhibitions per year, the museum displays around 60 to 70 items as a permanent exhibition. The museum’s architectural design was done by Hikosaka Yutaka, and the landscape was designed by Ueyama Ryōko who received the Good Design Award (Architecture and Environment Design Category) in 2002. Inari shrine of Mogi Honke is located at the end of the garden.
Mogi Honke(Main Line)

The ancestry of Mogi family traces back to Toki family, who resided in Mino province and also to Seiwagenji family. The family’s descendant Maki Genbanokami Yorinori was a samurai, who served Toyotomi Hideyori. Yorinori committed suicide at the Siege of Osaka in Summer of 1615, so his wife Shige carried their little son Heizaburō, and escaped from Osaka castle. They managed to overcome a series of challenges and finally settled in Noda in Shimousa province. This little child became the first Shichizaemon of Mogi family.
After Shige started brewing miso for living, she later started brewing soy sauce. As time passed, and the number of branch families increased, many of them worked brewing soy sauce. Noda became known as the town of soy sauce, located near Edo, which became its large-scale consumer.
In 1917, six families of Mogi, including Mogi Honke(main line), Takanashi family who started brewing soy sauce even before Mogi family, and Horikiri family who had been producing Kantō-style white sweet sake (mirin) in Nagareyama formed a coalition to establish Noda Shoyu Kabushiki Kaisha(Noda Soy Sauce Co., Ltd.), and later became Kikkoman Corporation.
Logo of Mogi-Honke Museum of Art

“Kushigata (comb-shape)” logo was one of the trademarks of the Mogi Honke (main line). It is said that the kushigata design was taken from the comb-shaped window of the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
In 1917, the six Mogi families including the Mogi Honke, Takanashi and Horikiri families merged their businesses to establish Noda Shoyu Kabushiki Kaisha (Noda Soy Sauce Co., Ltd). At the time of establishment, each family sold their soy sauce labeled with their own logos. Later on, the company unified its logo to the most popular trademark of Kikkoman (the logo used by Mogi Saheiji Family, a branch family established during the time of Mogi Shichizaemon the Second).
Upon foundation of Mogi-Honke Museum of Art, Sano Hiroshi of Mosdesign Laboratory Inc. arranged the kushigata logo once used by the Mogi Honke into a modern design. Another symbolic logo of the Museum, “MOMOA” is an abbreviation design of Mogi-Honke Museum of Art.
The historic logo dating back to the Edo Period used for soy sauce brewed by the Mogi Honke has revived as a logo of Mogi-Honke Museum of Art and merged with the Museum’s nickname, MOMOA. It is a symbol of Mogi Honke whose long-time valued philosophy is “Onko Chishin - Learning from History.”

Collection
Ukiyo-e
-
TOSHUSAI Sharaku,The Actor Sakata Hangorō III
as Fujikawa Mizuemon -
KATSUSHIKA Hokusai,Under the wave off Kanagawa,
from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji -
UTAGAWA Hiroshige,Fireworks at Ryogoku,
from the series One Hundred
Famous Views of Edo
Japanese painting and Western-style painting
-
YOKOYAMA Taikan,The sacred mountain Mt.Fuji
-
NAKAJIMA Chinami,Bamboos
-
OGURA Yuki,Grapes in the old Kutani bowl
General Information
- Opening Hours
- 10:00~17:00(admission until 16:00)
- Close
- Every Monday and Tuesday /
Long-term closure period in summer and winter - Admission
- Adults :700 yen
Person with disabilities with identification and their attendant :600 yen
Free admission for children under Junior high and Elementary school students. - Reservation
- As a general rule, guests are kindly requested to book in advance. But you are also
welcome without reservation only when there is space available.
Phone for reservation: +81-4-7120-1489 - Café MOMOA
- The Cafe MOMOA located in the museum offers tea, coffee, and lunch.
Please book for meals by 10:30 on the day of the visit.
For details, please contact Mogi-Honke Museum of Art. - Address
- 242, Noda, Noda-shi, Chiba-ken, Japan,278-0037
- Tel
- +81-4-7120-1489
- Fax
- +81-4-7120-1012
- Access
-
<By Train>
8 minutes walk from Tobu Urban Park Line Nodashi station
<By Car>
8km from Nagareyama I.C. or Kashiwa I.C.
<Parking lot guide>
Parking for 9 vehicles (free of charge)