Japanese Museum Is Underground Hit

An unusual, $215-million art museum, built mostly underground by renowned architect I.M. Pei to minimize its environmental impact, opened this month in Shigaraki, Japan, about 20 miles outside Kyoto.

The Miho Museum houses a varied collection of more than 1,000 objects from ancient Egyptian, Asian, Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations. A selection from it, shown last year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was praised by Times critic William Wilson as “breathtaking� and a “symbolic new opening� of Japan to Western history and culture.

The museum was built by the Shinji Shumeikai, often called the Shumei Family, a religious group based on the principles of “truth, virtue and beauty� that claims 300,000 adherents worldwide. The museum’s generally secular art collection was also assembled by the group.

Pei, who designed the controversial glass pyramid outside the Louvre Museum in Paris, modeled much of the Miho’s glass, steel concrete and limestone design on his trademark pyramid. Nearly 80% of the structure is tunneled into the side of a mountain. Visitors travel by foot or electric car through a mountain tunnel to a 400-foot-long bridge (over a valley) that leads to the museum. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Monday. Adult admission is about $8.50. Information: tel. 011-81-748-82-3411; fax 011-81-748-82-3414.