Kobe City Koiso Memorial Museum of Art

The Koiso Memorial Museum of Art, Kobe is one of Japan’s leading single-artist museums. Opened in 1992, it is located in the lush Rokko Island Park in Higashinada Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, and holds about 3,000 works including those of the Western-style painter Ryohei Koiso. Access is about a 3-minute walk from Island Kitaguchi Station on the Rokko Liner. Ryohei Koiso, born in Kobe and based there throughout his life, is regarded as an artist who developed an elegant, modern style centered on approachable portrayals of women, inheriting the traditions of Western painting. In the museum courtyard, the artist’s actual atelier—formerly located in Mikage, Higashinada Ward—has been relocated, restored, and reconstructed; seeing the easel, palette, and small props such as instruments and dolls that served as motifs, you can almost feel as if he were still creating there. In addition to rotating exhibitions, the museum also has a high-definition gallery, allowing visitors to approach the essence of Koiso’s art through various content.