Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft

The Kurashiki Museum of Folk Crafts, located in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, is a registered museum of Okayama Prefecture that preserves and exhibits folk crafts from around the world related to daily life. It is operated by Kurashiki Folk Crafts Museum, a public interest incorporated foundation. == Overview == It is located in the Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, the Kurashiki Riverside (Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter). It was opened in 1948 (Showa 23) by volunteers from the Okayama Prefecture Folk Crafts Association, renovating a late Edo period rice storehouse and donating folk crafts from around the country. It is the second folk art museum in Japan, following the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo. The building has beautiful white walls and black tiles, and is valued as a piece of folk art in itself, forming a scenic landscape of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter. The museum's first director, Kichinosuke Tonomura, has a collection of approximately 15,000 pieces of folk art from Japan and other countries around the world, of which approximately 800 are on display (displays are changed three times a year). It boasts one of the world's largest collections of baskets and Korean folk paintings. In addition, special exhibitions with various themes are held from time to time, and exhibitions and sales of local folk art artists' works are held about three times a year. == Collection items == It has a collection of over 15,000 items, including ceramics, dyed and woven textiles, woodwork, lacquerware, bamboo work, glassware, Japanese paper, metalwork, and stonework.