Kosetsu Museum of Art

The Kosetsu Museum of Art is a private museum in Mikage, an upscale residential district of eastern Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Opened in 1973, it preserves and displays the collection of Japanese and East Asian artworks assembled by Murayama Ryohei (1850-1933), founder of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company and known by the sobriquet Kosetsu. The museum holds particular significance as a custodian of cultural heritage, with nineteen Important Cultural Properties and twenty-three Important Works of Fine Arts in its holdings. Since December 2021, the original Kobe facility has been closed for extended renovation, though exhibition activities continue at the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art in Osaka, which opened in 2018 as the institution's second venue.

Murayama Ryohei was born in 1850 in what is now Mie Prefecture, and in January 1879, at age twenty-nine, he founded the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company. Beyond journalism, he was an avid practitioner of the tea ceremony, bankrolled the influential art periodical Kokka overseen by Okakura Tenshin, and developed a deep concern that Japan's cultural heritage was flowing abroad after the country's opening in 1868. He began assembling his collection to stem this tide, and by the beginning of the Taisho Period in 1912 had accumulated a substantial body of masterpieces including swords, calligraphy, ancient writings, and tea utensils. Following his death in 1933, calls emerged to create a museum from his collection in view of its academic and artistic value. The Kosetsu Museum of Art was established in 1972 and opened to the public in 1973 in Kobe's Mikage district. The museum became a public-interest incorporated foundation in November 2010. In commemoration of its forty-fifth anniversary, the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art was inaugurated on March 21, 2018 in Osaka, and the original Mikage venue closed for extended renovation in December 2021.

The museum's collection spans multiple genres of Japanese and East Asian art, reflecting Murayama's broad interests and his efforts to preserve irreplaceable cultural assets. The holdings encompass Buddhist art, calligraphic works, tea ceremony utensils, early-modern paintings, arms and armor, and lacquerware. The collection also includes antiquities from other Asian countries such as China and Korea. Among the most significant works are pieces by master painters including Kano Eitoku, Ogata Korin, and Maruyama Okyo. The museum presents its collection through thematic exhibitions held every spring and fall, along with special exhibitions focusing on individual Japanese artists. Related programming includes lectures, tea parties, and garden-viewing events held twice yearly. The institution also maintains a scholarship system for outstanding art students with links to Hyogo Prefecture and provides economic support for education and research activities.

The collection includes nineteen Important Cultural Properties and twenty-three Important Works of Fine Arts. Among the most significant individual works is a color painting on a six-panel screen from the early Edo Period depicting the Battle of Lepanto, a 1571 naval conflict between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire. This work, an Important Cultural Property, rearranges imagery from Western prints and book illustrations into a single composition, representing a style developed by Japanese painters after close examination of Western painting. Its companion screen presents a world map based on a 1609 Caelius map, perhaps the most opulent depiction of the world attempted on a screen. Another Important Cultural Property is a Kamakura Period scroll portrait of Kukai (Kobo Daishi) as a boy, executed with delicate brushstrokes and gold foil accents. The collection also includes a Heian Period (ninth century) statue of Yakushi Nyorai (the Healing Buddha) and a Kamakura Period (thirteenth century) depiction of Fugen Bosatsu and the Ten Rasetsunyo. The Tale of Horie Picture Scroll by Iwasa Matabei (1578-1650), a prominent Edo-period painter, is another notable holding.

The original Kosetsu Museum of Art is situated in a 16,850-square-meter wooded compound in Mikage, a neighborhood that first flourished as a sake production area in the eighteenth century. The site contains the Former Murayama Residence, a substantial Western-style manor built in 1909, which survived both the U.S. air raids of 1945 and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. The residence has been designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Also on the grounds is the Gennan teahouse, built in 1911, which is likewise an Important Cultural Property. The museum building itself is surrounded by a small garden of plum trees with benches covered by red parasols where green tea is served. The Former Murayama Residence and the Gennan teahouse are closed to the public and visible only beyond a high stone wall. At the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art in Osaka, a full-scale 1:1 reproduction of the Gennan Tea House is permanently exhibited, the first such permanent exhibit of a tea house with its reproduced surroundings in Japan. This reproduction was planned and supervised by Masao Nakamura, chairman of the Kyoto Traditional Architecture Association, with construction by Yasuimoku Komuten Carpentry and garden supervision by Nakane and Associates.

The original Kosetsu Museum of Art in Mikage, Kobe, is currently closed for extended renovation with no announced reopening date. The address is 2-12-1 Mikagegunge, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. When operational, it was accessible by a five-minute walk southeast of Mikage Station on the Hankyu Kobe Line, a fifteen-minute walk northwest of Sumiyoshi Station on the JR Kobe Line, or a five-minute walk southeast from the Hankyu Mikage bus stop (city bus no. 19) departing from Mikage Station on the Hanshin Main Line. Exhibition activities continue at the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art in Osaka, which opened on March 21, 2018. The Osaka venue is open from 10:00 to 17:00 with last admission at 16:30, closed on Mondays and during the New Year's holiday period. Admission prices vary by exhibition. The Nakanoshima venue is directly accessible from Exit 12 of Watanabebashi Station on the Keihan Nakanoshima Line, Exit 4 of Higobashi Station on the Subway Yotsubashi Line, or approximately an eight-minute walk from Exit 7 of Yodoyabashi Station on the Subway Midosuji Line and Keihan Main Line. From JR Osaka Station, it is approximately a fifteen-minute walk from the Sakurabashi Exit.