diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
index c94429b469641..f601e0558740f 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
@@ -626,7 +626,7 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 
 
-
+- Bug in ``DataFrame.hist`` where ``plt.tight_layout`` caused an ``AttributeError``  (use ``matplotlib >= 0.2.0``) (:issue:`9351`)
 - Bug in ``DataFrame.boxplot`` where ``fontsize`` was not applied to the tick labels on both axes (:issue:`15108`)
 - Bug in ``Series.replace`` and ``DataFrame.replace`` which failed on empty replacement dicts (:issue:`15289`)
 - Bug in ``pd.melt()`` where passing a tuple value for ``value_vars`` caused a ``TypeError`` (:issue:`15348`)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_hist_method.py b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_hist_method.py
index 4f64f66bd3c4d..22de7055e3cea 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/plotting/test_hist_method.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/plotting/test_hist_method.py
@@ -238,6 +238,16 @@ def test_hist_layout(self):
         with tm.assertRaises(ValueError):
             df.hist(layout=(-1, -1))
 
+    @slow
+    # GH 9351
+    def test_tight_layout(self):
+        if self.mpl_ge_2_0_0:
+            df = DataFrame(randn(100, 2))
+            _check_plot_works(df.hist)
+            self.plt.tight_layout()
+
+            tm.close()
+
 
 @tm.mplskip
 class TestDataFrameGroupByPlots(TestPlotBase):