Kyoto National Museum

This guide to Kyoto National Museum follows the aftermath of Japan's 1868 order to tear Buddhism and Shinto apart, when reformers smashed temples and melted their statues, and broke temples began selling off what remained of their treasures. It traces the scientist Akashi Hiroakira's push for a museum to catch what was left, the 1897 opening of the red-brick, glass-domed building in front of you, and the outrage over its architect Katayama Tokuma borrowing a facade from the Louvre. Look up at the two carved guardians above the entrance before you go in.