it was built on the premises of kyoto gyoen as a japanese-style building in contrast to the western style of the state guest house in akasaka , tokyo . 洋風の赤坂迎賓館とは対照的な和風建築として、京都御苑の敷地内に建設された。
of the facilities , the original museum building was completed in 1894 after the design of a court architect , tokuma katayama who had designed akasaka rikyu (the guest house in akasaka ), etc ., and has been designated an important cultural property as a representative example of western-style architecture of the meiji period . このうち本館は、赤坂離宮(迎賓館)などを手がけた宮廷建築家・片山東熊の設計により1894年(明治27年)竣工したもので、明治期の洋風建築の代表例として国の重要文化財に指定されている。