The Museum of Japanese Art on the crest of Mount Carmel is dedicated exclusively to the preservation and exhibition of Japanese art works, and is the only one of its kind in the Middle East. The Museum is a municipal foundation, set up in 1959, on the initiative of Felix Tikotin (1893-1986) from Holland, and Abba Khoushy (1898-1969), Mayor of Haifa at that time. The Museum aims to allow Israelis to learn and become acquainted with Japanese culture; to promote mutual understanding between Israel and Japan, and between East and West; and to encourage research into the arts and culture of Japan.

Felix Tikotin, an architect by profession, was an internationally renowned collector and dealer in Japanese works of art. For more than forty years he amassed his valuable and rare collection and organized exhibitions of Japanese art in many museums. During the Second World War, because he was Jewish, Felix Tikotin fled from the Nazis. He hid his collection in Holland to prevent it from falling into their hands. After the war, Tikotin decided that his unique collection should be taken to Israel, and came here in 1956 in order to donate it to one of Israel's museums. During a visit to Haifa he met Mayor Abba Khoushy, and decided that the collection should remain in Haifa, and that he would build a pavilion specifically for exhibiting it here.

Having come to this decision, Tikotin travelled through out Europe, to Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, France, England, and also to Japan, and set up a committee of supporters of the Japanese Museum in Haifa. The reason for creating the Japanese branch was to gain advice and expertise about construction of such a museum. Members of the group included museum directors such as Mr. Nagatake Asano (1895-1965); academics such as Professor Chisaburoh Yamada (1908-1984) of the Tokyo University of Art, who was also chosen to be the first Director of the Japanese Museum in Haifa; spiritual leaders such as Victor M. A. Suzuki, son of the famous Zen philosopher, and others.

At a meeting of the Haifa Municipality on May 18th 1958, it was decided to acquire the "Kisch House" and its surrounding land. The house was built by Brigadier Kisch, Chairman of the Zionist Workers' Committee in Israel and Head of the State Department from 1923 to 1931. He lived in this house from 1934 to 1939. Kisch, who commanded the Engineering Brigade of the British 8th Army, fell in battle in North Africa in April 1943, during the Second World War. The Kisch House is still the home of the offices of the Museum, the library, the creativity workshops, and a Japanese room. The 

library - the largest of its kind in Israel - comprises some 3,000 books and publications relating to Japanese art and culture.

In February 1959 plans were approved for a Japanese  pavilion, and construction began on the exhibition hall in accordance with the ideas and plans of Felix Tikotin, supervised by the architect M. Lev. The exhibition hall was designed in the Japanese spirit, and according to its specific purpose. It is spacious, and has sliding doors of paper leading to the garden, all conveying a Japanese atmosphere. On Wednesday May 25th 1960, the Japanese Museum was opened to the public for the first time, with an exhibition of works from the donor's collection. In accordance with Tikotin's wishes, a Board of Trustees of the Museum was set up and is headed today by Ilana Drukker-Tikotin, his daughter.

The Museum's collection comprises some 7,000 items of art and crafts - paintings, prints, drawings, painted screens, textiles, antique illustrated texts, ceramics, miniature carvings (netsuke), lacquer and metal work, antique swords and functional art works, mainly from the 17th to 19th centuries, as well as a collection of modern Japanese art. The collection has increased over time, and other private collections have been donated to the Museum, by Lewis B. Gutman and Daniel and Hildav Lebow of New York, by Abraham Horodisch of Amsterdam and by Shulamith and David Rubin.en of California.  More...

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