Ohara Museum of Art

The museum faces the willow-lined canal at the heart of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter, about 15 minutes on foot from Kurashiki Station. The businessman Ohara Magosaburo opened it on November 5, 1930, in memory of his friend the painter Kojima Torajiro, who had died the year before. Kojima had gone to Europe to buy paintings so that young Japanese art students could see Western work without leaving the country, and his picks, El Greco, Gauguin, Monet and Matisse among them, are still the core of the main gallery; El Greco's Annunciation and one of Monet's Water Lilies are the names people come for. A pottery hall followed in 1961, galleries for Serizawa Keisuke's dyed textiles and Munakata Shiko's prints in 1963, and an Asian art hall in 1970; these now form the Craft and Asian Art Gallery. The Kojima Torajiro Memorial Museum, in a former bank branch, had its grand opening in April 2025. The annex is closed long-term. Tickets are sold only at the desk, by cash, card, e-money or QR code, and each building stamps yours, so you can finish another day. No photos without permission, and the 2,000-yen ticket adds up for a family.