Kurashiki is a city in Okayama Prefecture,
noted
for its preserved canal area in the Bikan Historical
Quarter,
a relic from the feudal Edo period when the city was an
important rice distribution center.
Kurashiki was once a primary distribution hub
along
the important rice supply line between Osaka and Tokyo
during the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and even
takes its name from the numerous rice storehouses (or
“kura”) which can still be seen in the city. A number of
canals were dug to facilitate the distribution, and over
the
decades these were filled in and built over as
transportation modernized. But one section of the
canals
in Kurashiki’s Bikan Historical Quarter was preserved by
the city as a local heritage district, and now serves a
pretty
strolling promenade bordered by a line of well-kept
vintage
storehouses. Boatmen in simple wooden gondolas ferry
passengers back and forth along this picturesque
waterway, shaded by a well-tended row of weeping
willows.
Ohara Museum of Art is another point of interest, which
is
Japan’s very first Western Art Museum. Collected works
stretch over a broad span of time periods and cultures,
and are tastefully arrayed in across three adjoining
buildings in Kurashiki’s Ivy Square.
Please see below for tours that
include Kurashiki:
