Okayama · KurashikiNo.608★★Open in map →
Ohara Museum of Art
A private art museum standing on the bank of the Kurashiki canal, built around Western painting when almost no Japanese institution collected it. Its columned stone front faces the water, and one ticket covers several separate buildings in the old merchant quarter.
- FromKurashiki Station (JR Sanyo Main Line)
- ~15 minWalk from JR Kurashiki Station
- Ohara Museum of Art
The sweet spot
This is the best-known museum in Okayama and the anchor of a busy tourist quarter, so it is not a hidden spot. What is less obvious is its shape. The collection is split across separate buildings on a single ticket, the annex is shut long-term, and the Kojima memorial hall sits outside the main gate — so it is easy to see the front gallery and assume that was the museum.
Where it is
14 more notes in Okayama · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Kurashiki Canal frontagewillow-lined water and white storehouse walls, with the museum's columned front at the head of the canal
- The Main Gallerystone portico and classical columns, and the room holding El Greco's Annunciation
- Crafts and Asian Art Gallerycraft rooms and the East Asian and Egyptian antiquities, behind the main building
- Kojima Torajiro Memorial Halla converted former bank building given to the painter who gathered the collection
- Yurinso villaa villa across the canal from the main gate, opened to the public only for special viewings
How to actually get there
- Okayama Station → Kurashiki Station (JR Sanyo Main Line, local or rapid).
- Kurashiki Station south exit → the canal, straight down the covered shopping street on foot.
- Enter the main gallery from the canal side, then continue to the crafts and Asian art wing behind it.
- Walk back out through the main gate for the Kojima Torajiro Memorial Hall.
- On foot from JR Kurashiki Station
- Okayama Station connects to Kurashiki Station on the JR Sanyo Main Line, with local and rapid services through the day, so no timetable planning is needed. From Kurashiki Station's south exit the museum is about 15 minutes on foot: straight down the covered shopping street, then left where the canal begins. Shin-Kurashiki, on the Sanyo Shinkansen, is a short hop away on the same line.
- Return to Kurashiki Station
- Retrace the shopping street north to Kurashiki Station and take the JR Sanyo Main Line back towards Okayama. Trains run frequently through the day. If you stay in the quarter for dinner, check the last departure on the platform board rather than assuming a late service.
About the place
The Ohara Museum of Art stands at the head of the Kurashiki Bikan quarter, where white-walled storehouses line a willow-shaded canal. Its main gallery is a stone-faced building with a Greek-temple portico, designed by the architect Yakushiji Kazue, and it reads as the anchor of the whole streetscape. Behind it the collection continues in a crafts and Asian art wing, and a memorial hall for the painter Kojima Torajiro occupies a converted former bank building nearby. The holdings run from El Greco, Monet and Renoir through Japanese modern painting to Egyptian and Chinese antiquities.
How to enjoy it
Doors open at 9:00. Closing is 17:00 from March to November but 15:00 from December to February, so a winter visit wants an early start rather than an afternoon one. Budget time to walk back out of the main gate for the memorial hall — it is a separate building on the approach road, and easy to miss entirely.
Background & history
The museum opened in 1930, founded by the Kurashiki industrialist Ohara Magosaburo. Its core was assembled by the painter Kojima Torajiro, whom Ohara backed on repeated buying trips to Europe; among what Kojima brought home is El Greco's Annunciation. Ohara built the gallery to hold that collection, and it became the first museum in Japan devoted to Western art. The Kojima Torajiro Memorial Hall reopened in 2025 in a renovated former bank building on the approach to the quarter.
Before you go
- Cash
- General admission was 2,000 yen at the time of checking, 500 yen for students under eighteen and free below school age, and that ticket covers the three buildings currently open. The ticket counter takes cash, credit cards, electronic money and QR payment.
- Before you go
- The museum closes on Mondays, opening instead when the Monday falls on a public holiday, and shuts over the new year period. The annex is closed long-term, so do not build a route around it.
- Another way
- Coming from the Hiroshima direction, leave the Sanyo Shinkansen at Shin-Kurashiki and change to the JR Sanyo Main Line for Kurashiki. From Okayama Airport, a bus runs to Kurashiki Station and the walk is the same from there.
- After you get off
- Leave Kurashiki Station by the south exit and walk straight down the covered shopping street. Where the arcade ends, the canal opens in front of you and the museum's columned front faces it across the water.