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Apart from the Bikan district's historical townscape, Kurashiki's top draw is the impressive Ohara Museum of Art (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; Y1000), easily spotted by its creamy Neoclassical facade. This is the entrance to the original gallery established by local textile tycoon Ohara Magosaburo to house his collection of Western artin 1930, including works by Cezanne, El Greco, Matisse, Monet, Picasso and Rodin, which were hand-picked by his friend, the painter Kojima Torajiro, in Europe in the 1920s. The first gallery to exhibit Western art in Japan, it was a raging success and has expanded ever since, with Magosaburo's heirs adding Western and Japanese contemporary art to the collection, as well as ancient Chinese artworks and an excellent range of top-class Japanese folkcrafts. The entrance to the Main Gallery is flanked by bronze sculptures of St John the Baptist and the Burghers of Calais by Rodin, both of which were nearly melted down to make armaments during World War II. Starting with Ohara's nineteenth-century purchases, the paintings are displayed in roughly chronological order, with works by Kandinsky, Pollock, Rothko and Andy Warhol included in the twentieth-century and contemporary art sections. Despite the impressive range of artists displayed, however, there are few truly memorable works in this collection. In contrast, the Craft Art Gallery , housed in an attractive quadrangle of converted wooden-beamed storehouses, leaves a much stronger impression. The ceramics rooms display beautiful and unusual works by four potters who were prime movers in the resurgence of interest in Japanese folk arts ( mingei ) earlier this century: Hamada Shoji (1894-1978), Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966), Kenkichi Tomimoto (1886-1963) and Bernard Leach (1887-1979), the British potter who worked with Hamada both in Japan, at Mashiko , and in Britain, at St Ives. A room filled with the strikingly colourful and sometimes abstract woodblock prints of Munakata Shiko (1903-75) follows, with the last section devoted to Serizawa Keisuke, a textile dyer and painter whose exquisite work features on kimono, curtains and fans, and who designed both the craft galleries and the adjoining Asiatic  © 2003 by Rough Guides Ltd. as trustee for its Authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd. Buy the book here!
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Art Gallery . This smaller collection, on two levels, provides another change of pace with its cool displays of ancient East Asian art, including seventh-century Tang Dynasty ceramics and sculptures, and serene Buddhas. The ground floor of the Annexe , in a separate building behind the main gallery, displays unmemorable pastiches of modern Western-style art by Japanese artists, while downstairs you'll find bizarre contemporary works, made from Day-Glo perspex and the like.
Your Tips For Ohara Museum of Art
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