Kurashiki City Isozaki Minki Memorial Museum

The House of a Textile Inventor

The Kurashiki City Isozaki Minki Memorial Museum (倉敷市立磯崎眠亀記念館) is the house and workshop of a textile entrepreneur of 1874 in Chayamachi, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on October 18, 2000 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a two-storey timber building with a tiled roof and a building area of 257 square metres; registration number 33-0052.

An Inventor's House and Workshop

The Kurashiki City Isozaki Minki Memorial Museum is the house and workshop of Isozaki Minki, an entrepreneur active in the textile industry, in Chayamachi, a stop on the old pilgrim road to Konpira (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a two-storey timber building with a round-tiled hip-and-gable roof that swells gently upward.

Inside, a ramp and an open well for moving goods, and storm shutters that open by turning and sliding, show Minki's ingenuity (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Okayama Prefecture tourism site, he created a fine woven rush matting, and the house now displays materials about him.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes the ingenuity shown in its ramp and shutters, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For

Look for the gently swelling roof, the ramp and open well inside and the turning, sliding storm shutters (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It is owned by Kurashiki City (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to the Okayama Prefecture tourism site, it is open from 9:00 to 16:30, closed on Mondays (or the next day if Monday is a holiday) and from December 28 to January 4, and admission is free. It is about 5 minutes on foot from JR Chayamachi Station.