Yumeji Art Museum, Biographical museum and art gallery in Naka-ku and Setouchi, Japan.
Yumeji Art Museum displays over 2,000 artworks across three separate buildings: the Main Art Museum, a birthplace memorial museum, and a villa called Shonensanso. Together, these buildings provide a comprehensive look at the painter's work and the world he lived in.
The first museum opened in 1966 in the former Saidaiji city, now Higashi-ku, Okayama. In 1970 Yumeji Takehisa's birthplace house in Oku was opened as a museum, and in 1979 the museum was registered and the Shonen Sanso, a reconstruction of his Tokyo studio, was built for the 95th anniversary of his birth. The main building near Korakuen opened in 1984, the centenary of his birth, on the site of the former Saidaiji Railway's Korakuen station.
The museum takes its name from Yumeji Takehisa, the poet and painter born in 1884 in what is now Setouchi, Okayama. Its mascot is a black cat called Kuro; in March 2018 a bus decorated with Kuro's likeness began running between the station and the museum. The annex displays self-portraits and photographs of Takehisa.
The main museum is in Naka-ku, Okayama, near Kōraku-en; the annexes are in Setouchi, at the birthplace. From Okayama Station, buses reach the main museum in about 15 minutes; the annex is about 30 minutes by train to Oku plus a bus or taxi. The main museum opens 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, and closes Mondays unless that Monday is a holiday.
The main building stands on the former site of Kōrakuen Station of the Saidaiji Railway, whose parent company, Ryōbi Holdings, later founded the museum's operating foundation. The museum's mascot is a black cat named Kuro; in March 2018 a bus decorated with Kuro's image began running to the museum.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,370 contributors worldwide.