Meiji Jingu Museum shuts Monday 9 November through Friday 13 November 2026 for exhibition changeover. The mid period of the Gaien centenary mural show ends Sunday 8 November. The late period, Western-trained painters look at Meiji, opens Saturday 14 November and runs to Sunday 6 December. If you meant to go this week, Sunday is the last mid-period day. Thursday is already the weekly close, so the changeover swallows a whole work week.
What the late period actually is
The museum is showing real murals from Seitoku Kinen Kaigakan while that hall is closed for repair through 2027. Six canvases rotate two at a time. Late period walls are Wada Eisaku’s Constitution promulgation and Kanokogi Takeshiro’s Mukden. Hours stay 10:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:00. Closed Thursday, except 22 October this run, which was a Thursday and stayed open. Adults ¥1,000, students and groups of 20 ¥900, under elementary free. Suukeikai members, three people including the member, free. Kengo Kuma’s hall is a five-minute walk from JR Harajuku Omotesando gate, inside the grounds.
The official museum account posted the 9 to 13 November close on 8 November. The exhibitions page had already printed both changeover weeks, 12 to 16 October and 9 to 13 November, when the show was announced. This is not a surprise shutdown. It is the week the mid-period paintings leave and the late-period paintings arrive.
Monday 9 November is a bad museum day in Jingumae
Ota Memorial Museum is also closed 9 November. That date is on the ukiyo-e calendar with the other November dark days, 2, 4 to 6, 9, 16, 24, 30. Ōi’s nightscape late period started 7 November and runs to 6 December, but the 9th is still a closed day. If you planned a two-museum Monday, both buildings are dark. Ota is cash only, last entry 17:00, no elevator, behind Laforet. It reopens on a day the official calendar does not mark closed. The museum in the forest reopens the 14th.
The shrine grounds do not close with the museum. November gates are 6:10 to 16:10. The Inner Garden is 9:00 to 16:00, ¥500, every day. Goshuin at Nagadono from 9:00 until close. Niinamesai is 23 November, a Monday holiday, no ticket. That is a rite, not a substitute mural.
After the 14th
Late period runs 14 November to 6 December. Then the mural show ends. Hatsumode hours are a different table. 1 January the museum opens 10:00 to 18:30 even if that day is Thursday. Do not use the November changeover as a guess for New Year. Read the hatsumode page in December.
Design Festa Gallery in Jingumae 3-chome is 11:00 to 20:00 and does not follow Thursday museum logic. Togo is open 6:30 to 17:00 in winter with no weekly close. Those are neighbourhood rooms. They are not the Kaigakan canvases. If the mural is the job, wait until the 14th or use Sunday 8 November.
Practical Details
- Closed: 9 to 13 November 2026
- Late period: 14 November to 6 December 2026, 10:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:00
- Weekly close: Thursday
- Adults: ¥1,000
- Address: 1-1 Yoyogi Kamizonocho, Shibuya-ku, inside Meiji Jingu
- Website: Meiji Jingu Museum exhibitions
