About Ohara Museum of Art
The Ohara Museum of Art is located in Chuo-ku, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, China, and is a collection of the world’s finest works of art, which was established with the financial support of the Kurashiki entrepreneur Sunsaburo Ohara and the careful selection of works by the painter Torajiro Kojima, who brought the works of famous European painters back to Kurashiki. Unfortunately, Torajiro Kojima died in 1929, and Sunsaburo Ohara opened the museum alone in 1930.
The Ohara Museum of Art was the first private art museum in Japan to focus on Western art, and the museum’s core area, the Main Building, offers visitors the opportunity to view masterpieces by such world leaders as El Greco, Gauguin, Monet, Matisse, Cecantini, Picasso, Maio, Jagometi, and Cauldre.
The museum is still in operation. The Ohara Museum of Art continues to expand its collection of world treasures, and is now known worldwide as a folk art museum that reflects the sensual nature of the Japanese people. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the museum’s founding in 2000, water lilies from the Monet Japanese Garden in Givière, France, were brought all the way to the pond next to the Craft Hall of the Ohara Museum. In spring and summer, the lotus flowers flourish and stand out, adding a lot of unexpected idyllic pleasures to visitors.
How to get there
15 minutes on foot from Kurashiki Station
Tips
I was first amazed that a Greek temple-like building was built at that time in the center of Kurashiki’s landscape protection district. I was impressed by the wealth of the Ohara family at that time.
It is very good to be able to look around masterpieces from impressionism to folk art quickly while sightseeing.
The works and the retro atmosphere of the building were wonderful everywhere I looked.
