The Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art houses, inside the Villetta Di Negro, a very rich heritage of Japanese and oriental art, collected in Japan during the Meiji period by Edoardo Chiossone.

Chiossone , from whom the museum takes its name, was an Italian engraver and professor of drawing : born in Arenzano (Genoa) in 1833, he spent most of his life in Japan where he arrived in 1875 and worked intensely engraving more than 500 stamp plates , government bonds, banknotes and monopoly bubbles. He died in Tokyo in 1898 but arranged for his artistic legacy to be donated to the municipality of Genoa which used it for the creation of the museum as early as 1905.

Some of the works created by Chiossone are now also exhibited at the Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo, including portraits and drawings of illustrious figures of the time such as Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

The Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art houses Japanese works from various eras: painting (from the 11th to the 19th century), weapons and armour, enamels, ceramics, lacquer, porcelain, polychrome prints, musical instruments, theatrical masks, costumes and fabrics, bronzework and a rich collection of large sculptures from Japan, China and Siam.