About a 50-minute drive from JR Kurashiki Station, in Nariwa-cho, Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, stands a striking modern concrete art museum.
Nariwa Museum is dedicated to the achievements of Kojima Torajiro, a Western-style painter born in Nariwa-cho. However, the works on display are not limited to those by Kojima Torajiro. Its diverse exhibitions captivate visitors.
We visited Nariwa Museum to learn about its features and the ideas behind it.
The information presented here was current when this article was published in February 2025. Please note that it may differ from current information.
About Nariwa Museum
Here is an introduction to Nariwa Museum.
The history of Nariwa Museum
The first museum opened in August 1953 (Showa 28) to honor the achievements of Western-style painter Kojima Torajiro, a native of Nariwa-cho.
Honor
To make someone's achievements known to the public and recognize them
A second museum was built in 1967. In 1994, it moved to its current location and reopened in a newly constructed building designed by Ando Tadao. The current, third-generation museum marked its 30th anniversary in 2024.
The collection at Nariwa Museum
Nariwa Museum holds works and collections by Kojima Torajiro, as well as fossils and other items collected in Nariwa.
Information as of February 2025
| Collection | Number of items |
|---|---|
| Works by Kojima Torajiro | Approx. 130 |
| Paintings and sculptures by artists other than Kojima Torajiro | Approx. 70 |
| Archaeological and art collections from the Orient and Asia collected by Kojima Torajiro | Approx. 500 |
| Fossils from Nariwa and the Kenzo Watanabe Collection | Approx. 550 |
The museum focuses not only on displaying its collection but also on special exhibitions.
The beautiful building by Ando Tadao
One of the highlights of Nariwa Museum is its architecture, distinguished by its concrete walls.
A modern museum built atop stone walls, with the natural landscape as a borrowed view
Nariwa Museum stands atop the stone walls of the former Nariwa Jin'ya, dating back about 350 years (the former residence of the Yamazaki clan), a designated historic site in Takahashi City.
The surrounding mountains serve as a borrowed view, with cherry blossoms in spring and autumn foliage in fall.
Borrowed view
A technique that incorporates mountains, trees, and other features outside a property as a backdrop, depicting a garden or building as a landscape integrated with nature
This place offers a sense of Nariwa-cho's culture, history, and abundant nature. The landscape harmonizes with the modern, sharply defined concrete building.
On the day the writer visited, a large heron was resting gracefully by the water at the museum. The concrete walls also seem to be popular as a photo spot.
A long approach
After arriving at Nariwa Museum, visitors must walk along a somewhat long approach of about 50 meters (the path leading to a building) before entering.
After reaching the front of the building, you have to go all the way around to the back and walk up the approach to the second-floor entrance.
Hearing that, you might think it is an “inefficient route.”
But the time spent walking along this approach is precisely what allows you to step away from everyday life into a different world, settle your mind, and build anticipation for viewing the exhibits.
In the art world, the approach is considered one of the features that symbolize a museum. It is a place where the museum's and architect's intentions are readily expressed.
Try walking along the approach to Nariwa Museum while taking in the mountains and water and sensing the changing seasons. It may clear your mind and heighten your anticipation for the exhibits.
Harmony between concrete and nature
Ando Tadao is one of Japan's leading architects.
His many architectural works have received high acclaim, and in 1995 he won the Pritzker Prize, considered the highest honor in architecture.
A hallmark of Ando's architecture is exposed concrete walls.
At Nariwa Museum, too, the unadorned beauty of concrete stands out. The combination of simple planes makes the building a striking presence in town and enhances the artworks on display.
The first thing you see upon entering the building is a spacious atrium overlooking the courtyard, “Garden of Still Water.” Natural light streams into the museum through large windows.
One of the defining features of Ando's architecture is its harmony with nature.
He skillfully incorporates natural light into many of his buildings.
For example, at the Chichu Art Museum in Kagawa Prefecture, visitors can view artworks in natural light even though most of the building is underground.
At the Church of the Light in Osaka Prefecture, he created a space where natural light itself takes center stage.
In the Garden of Still Water, water lilies with roots in Monet's garden bloom every year around May to July.
Monet's house in Giverny, France, was also visited by Kojima Torajiro.
It is lovely to imagine Monet's famous water lily garden.
Kojima Torajiro, honored by Nariwa Museum
What kind of person was Kojima Torajiro, whom Nariwa Museum honors?
Kojima Torajiro as a Western-style painter
Kojima Torajiro was a leading Impressionist painter in Japan.
He was born in 1881 (Meiji 14) in what is now Nariwa-cho, Takahashi City. It is said that when he was four, Western-style painter Matsubara Sangoro recognized his talent for painting.
In 1901, Torajiro moved to Tokyo to study painting, and the following year entered the Tokyo Fine Arts School, now Tokyo University of the Arts.
He completed the four-year course in two years after skipping two grades, then continued his studies in the research program (what would now be called graduate school).
The work “Garden of Compassion,” which Torajiro created while a student, was purchased by the Imperial Household Ministry (as it was then known), an honor in itself (it is now held by the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan).
After graduating from the research program with excellent grades, Kojima Torajiro went to Europe to study, where he encountered Belgian Impressionism. Torajiro's style then changed dramatically, taking on vivid colors filled with light.
In 1912, he graduated at the top of his class from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.
After returning to Japan, he settled in Sakazu, Kurashiki City, and painted familiar landscapes and people using techniques he had learned in Europe. However, the differences between the climates of Europe and Japan caused him great distress.
Gradually, he began to pursue a distinctive style of expression as an East Asian and as Kojima Torajiro himself.
In his later years, he worked on murals for the Meiji Jingu Seito Memorial Art Gallery, but died at the age of 47 without seeing the murals he had devoted all his energy to complete.
Torajiro's distinctive, gentle paintings, rendered in rich colors and with a free technique, continue to captivate viewers today.
Kojima Torajiro as a collector
Kojima Torajiro was guided by the ideal of “showing authentic Western paintings to art students and ordinary people living in Japan.”
His friend Ohara Magosaburo, who later became the founder of the Ohara Museum of Art, supported him.
Torajiro traveled extensively for his painting studies and art collecting, making three trips to Europe and four to China and Korea.
In those days, a voyage to Europe was arduous, taking about a month and a half one way.
Even so, Torajiro traveled abroad energetically to collect works from overseas, laying the foundations for the Ohara Museum of Art.
The excellence of Kojima Torajiro's collecting abilities is clear from the collection at the Ohara Museum of Art.
He purchased works by many “contemporary artists of the time,” including Monet, Modigliani, and Matisse, as well as El Greco's “The Annunciation,” described as a miracle. He made full use of his exceptional eye for art.
He collected more than paintings.
Fascinated by the world's diverse cultures, Kojima Torajiro also gathered artworks from various countries. He seems to have had a particular interest in ancient Egypt, collecting numerous artifacts and artworks and even visiting Egypt himself.
Many of these items are now valuable archaeological materials.
Examples of Kojima Torajiro’s works held by Nariwa Museum
Nariwa Museum holds around 130 works by Kojima Torajiro, including the following:
- Going to School (1906)
- Belgian Girl in a Kimono (1910)
- Kanjincho (1922)
In “Kanjincho,” the use of contour lines reminiscent of ukiyo-e is combined with the texture and three-dimensional quality of the fabric characteristic of Western painting.
The spotlight often falls on his skill as a collector of artworks, which laid the foundation for the Ohara Museum of Art, but he also left behind many wonderful works as a painter.
Special exhibitions at Nariwa Museum
A museum special exhibition is an exhibition that may also be made up of collections borrowed from other institutions. This allows museums to plan exhibitions from a variety of perspectives that would not be possible using only their own collections, delighting many visitors.
Nariwa Museum also holds a variety of special exhibitions every year. Despite being in a small town with a population of just under 4,000, more than 10,000 people sometimes visit while an exhibition is on.
Past exhibitions have included, for example:
- The World of Takashi Yanase (2007)
- Infinite Nets: The World of Yayoi Kusama (2016)
- Because I Am Human: The Mitsuo Aida Exhibition (2017)
- Signposts to the World: Wild Contemporary Art—Taguchi Art Collection Exhibition (2023–2024)
- Photographic Exhibition: Mitsuaki Iwago’s Japan Cat Walk (2024)
Yayoi Kusama is, of course, a world-renowned artist. The exhibition also included an activity in which visitors created polka dots, a signature feature of her style.
At the Taguchi Art Collection Exhibition, commonly known as “TaguColle,” works by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Yoshitomo Nara were brought together, attracting more than 10,000 visitors.
Mitsuaki Iwago’s animal photography skills are world-class. You don’t need to analyze what makes them so wonderful; you can simply enjoy the photos with the thought, “The cats are so cute!”
The author has seen the following special exhibitions at Nariwa Museum:
- Kishin Shinoyama Exhibition: The People by KISHIN (2013)
- Atsuhiko Misawa: ANIMALS 2015 in Nariwa (2015)
- Opening Up the World of Beauty: Hiroshi Senju (2021)
The Kishin Shinoyama exhibition dramatically captured fleeting moments of celebrities who were in the spotlight at the time, including John Lennon, Momoe Yamaguchi, and AKB48. The exhibition was not only impressive as a collection of advertising photographs, but also enjoyable from a fan’s perspective.
The sculptures of animals in the Atsuhiko Misawa exhibition were adorable, and their large, lively forms made my heart leap. It would be enjoyable for young children, too.
The Hiroshi Senju exhibition, featuring his famous waterfall paintings, immersed visitors in a world of serene works—so tranquil and peaceful that they seemed to invite meditation. The luxury of “taking your time to face the artworks” is something you cannot experience at crowded exhibitions in the city.
The museum also holds a variety of special exhibitions related to Kojima Torajiro, each taking a different approach.
Plant fossils at Nariwa Museum
Plant fossils are plants that once lived and were buried in sediment for some reason, then fossilized. Apparently, plants are less likely than animals to leave behind fossils.
The Nariwa area yields an abundance of plant fossils dating from 230 to 200 million years ago, which are rare worldwide.
Two hundred million years ago, there was a region on the eastern coastal edge of the Eurasian continent that would later become part of Japan, and Nariwa Town was included in it.
At the time, vast forests stretched across the coastal region. These became Nariwa’s plant fossils, which are said to be the earliest forest fossils in Japan.
More than 110 species of plant fossils have been collected in the Nariwa region, 40 of which are considered new species.
It is extremely rare for so many kinds of plant fossils to be found in a single region, and the academic community has taken notice, calling it a “mecca for Mesozoic plant fossils.”
Nariwa Museum currently has a permanent exhibition of plant fossils from Nariwa.
Take your time to admire plants from the unimaginably distant past, more than 200 million years ago.
Museum shop at Nariwa Museum
On the first floor, there is a museum shop with an adjoining cafe.
You can visit even without paying the admission fee.
Product information is current as of February 2025.
Products for sale
Nariwa Museum’s original products are stylish, including goods featuring the building as a motif and memo pads inspired by Nariwa’s geological strata.
One popular limited-time offering is a line of collaborative products with students from the Faculty of Design at Okayama Prefectural University.
They are sold in limited quantities each year from around July or August.
For design students, this is a practical opportunity to learn how to translate a museum’s distinctive features into products and receive real-world feedback.
For consumers, it is a chance to discover items that showcase young talent.
There are also products that make perfect souvenirs from Takahashi City.
Takahashi black tea, an organic tea that has become an established Okayama specialty, is a mildly sweet Japanese black tea suited to drinking straight.
The area’s large temperature differences between day and night and frequent fog from spring to early summer help produce high-quality tea leaves.
“Omoi no Take Chocolate” is a new kind of chocolate containing bamboo shoot powder from Takahashi and Takahashi black tea leaves.
The shop also sells products related to current special exhibitions, such as postcards and books.
Cafe
If you’d like to take a short break, why not relax at the cafe?
In addition to drinks, they offer cake sets, and Belgian chocolate cake and Setouchi lemon cake are said to be popular.
Depending on the season, the terrace seating is also recommended.
We interviewed director Sawahara Kazushi about the history and vision of Nariwa Museum.
Nariwa Museum Information
| Name | Nariwa Museum |
|---|---|
| Address | 1068-3 Shimohara, Nariwa-cho, Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Contact | 0866-42-4455 |
| Parking | Available About 90 spaces (shared with the adjacent Taikomaru Plaza) |
| Opening hours | 9:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (last admission 4:30 p.m.) |
| Closed | Mondays Open if Monday is a public holiday; closed the following Tuesday |
| Admission (tax included) | Admission fees vary depending on the exhibition. |
| Payment methods |
|
| Smoking | Entirely non-smoking |
| Restrooms | Western-style restrooms, accessible restrooms |
| Childcare | Diaper-changing table, stroller rental |
| Accessibility | Wheelchair rental, ramps, accessible restrooms, elevator |
| Website | Nariwa Museum |
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