Schloss Eggenberg has a Japanese “twin”

On 2nd October 2009, during the President of Austria’s state visit to Japan, the two directors of the Universal Museum Joanneum in Graz concluded a twinning partnership agreement between Ôsaka Castle and Schloss Eggenberg. The partnership seals the close collaboration and scholarly ties between Japanese museums and the Joanneum Universal Museum, and creates a framework for reciprocal exhibition projects.

The reason for the partnership – Schloss Eggenberg is incidentally the only castle outside Japan to have the honour of being twinned in this way – is the discovery of an early 17th-century, former Japanese folding screen (byôbu) in Eggenberg palace. For 250 years it was used as a wall decoration in the Japanese Room there.