Genoa has one of the richest and most wide-ranging museums of Japanese art in Europe including paintings, prints, weapons and armour, enamel objects, ceramics, lacquerware, porcelain, musical instruments, theatre masks, costumes, fabrics, bronzes, large Japanese, as well as Chinese and Siamese statues. Edoardo Chiossone, an expert Genoese engraver, put this collection together while living in Japan, where he was employed by the Security Printing Works of the Finance Ministry in Tokyo from 1875 to 1898.
The museum building, an architectural masterpiece in the rationalist style by Mario Labò, is set within Villetta Di Negro park, where Marquis Gio.Carlo Di Negro’s long-gone home once stood. Though not huge, the grounds are nevertheless extremely fascinating, a corner of green in the very centre of Genoa with rare species of trees and a magnificent view of the city.