Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Art museum on Sayagatani hill in Tobata-ku, Japan.

Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art is an art museum on Sayagatani hill in Tobata-ku that houses over 6,000 pieces displayed across multiple exhibition spaces with distinctive architecture. The spaces flow together naturally, allowing visitors to move between galleries and discover works at their own pace.

Arata Isozaki designed the building, completed in 1974 and modelled on a cathedral, with two large cantilevered volumes forming a symmetrical exterior nicknamed "binoculars on the hill". After years of deterioration it closed in August 2015 for major renovation, mainly of climate-control equipment, and reopened on 3 November 2017; Isozaki attended the ceremony. It was named one of Japan's 100 Best Public Buildings in 1998.

The museum's nickname, "binoculars on the hill," comes from its two cantilevered volumes. Its collection grew through purchases, including a Basquiat fireman painting bought for 3.75 million yen and valued around 10 billion yen in 2019. A gift of about 1,300 ukiyo-e prints from Kyushu University scholar Sen'ichi Tamura also shapes the holdings.

The museum is reachable by bus from several stations, with the ride taking about 30 minutes to the museum stop. It's worth checking the exhibitions before visiting since they rotate regularly and feature different works each season.

The building is recognized as one of the 100 Best Public Buildings in Japan and stretches across three different city wards: Kokura Kita, Tobata, and Yahata Higashi. This unusual location makes it a geographically interesting spot to discover while exploring the area.