What Is the Shoo Furusato Museum?
The Shoo Furusato Museum is a local history museum in Katsumada, Shoo Town, Okayama Prefecture, set in the former Katsuta County Office, completed in 1912 and reopened after conservation work on July 19, 2025.
In Japanese the museum is 勝央ふるさとミュージアム (Shōō Furusato Museum; furusato means "home town"). Its plot holds two buildings that became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan (Registered Tangible Cultural Property) on November 29, 2016, under consecutive numbers 33-0274 and 33-0275: the Former Katsuta County Office Building, which houses the museum, and the Former Kimura Family Residence Storehouse beside it. Shoo Town owns both. A note on names: the county is Katsuta, the district is Katsumada.
A Post-Town Inn Site on the Izumo Road
Katsumada grew up as a post town on the Izumo Ōrai, the highway that linked the Inland Sea coast with Izumo on the Sea of Japan. According to Okayama Prefecture, the Kimura family ran the town's honjin, the official inn for traveling lords, for generations, and late in the Edo period a branch of the family is said to have settled on this plot and served as the waki-honjin, the secondary official inn. The Okayama tourism board adds that Katsumada had two honjin, and that the gate site of the Kimura honjin can still be seen on the old street.
When the county office was built here in 1912, most of the waki-honjin buildings were pulled down. One storehouse was left standing. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the only structure surviving from the old waki-honjin, which is why an Edo-period post-town storehouse and a Meiji government office now share a single plot.
From County Office to Town Hall, Art Museum and Shoo Furusato Museum
County offices formed a tier of administration between the prefecture and its towns and villages. Okayama Prefecture records that the Katsuta office opened in April 1912 and closed in 1926, after the county system was abolished. In 1942 it came back into use as the prefecture's Katsuta district office, gaining an extension in 1943. When Shoo Town was created in 1954 it became the town hall, and served until a new hall was built in 1982. From the following year it housed the Shoo Town local art museum, which ran until the end of the 2002 fiscal year, in early 2003.
The prefecture describes it as the only county office building still standing in Okayama. Conservation work from 2022 to 2025 returned it to use as the Shoo Furusato Museum.
Walking the Shoo Furusato Museum Site
The Shoo Furusato Museum faces the stone-paved old Izumo road. Inside, visitors can see the county chief's office and the former assembly hall upstairs, along with displays in five themes that include archaeological finds from around the town, Katsumada ware pottery and post-town documents. There are also videos, a local history quiz, a reading corner and a lounge.
Before leaving, look for the Kimura storehouse on the same plot, with its Namako-kabe lattice-plastered walls. It can be viewed from outside only. Seeing the last piece of the Edo inn next to the Meiji office that replaced it is the real point of the visit. The structure and details of each building are covered on its own page.
Opening Hours and Access for the Shoo Furusato Museum
The museum opens from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (last admission 3:30 p.m.). It closes on Mondays and Wednesdays; when either falls on a public holiday it opens that day and closes the next weekday instead. It is also closed from December 27 to January 5 and on days set aside for changing exhibitions. Admission is free, though special exhibitions may charge. The town gives no guidance on photography indoors, so ask at the front desk.
From Katsumada Station on the JR Kishin Line it is about a 10-minute walk. By car, allow about 5 minutes from the Shoo interchange on the Mimasaka-Okayama Road or about 10 minutes from the Mimasaka interchange on the Chugoku Expressway. There is no dedicated car park: use the shared lot at the Shoo Kokorozashi Share Space, a minute's walk east, or the Shoo Town Hall lot, about five minutes' walk to the northwest.
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Former Katsuta County Office Building
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011402
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Former Kimura Family Residence Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00011403
- Okayama Prefecture: Former Katsuta County Office Building (PDF, Japanese)
- https://www.pref.okayama.jp/uploaded/attachment/261022.pdf
- Okayama Prefecture: Former Kimura Family Residence Storehouse (PDF, Japanese)
- https://www.pref.okayama.jp/uploaded/attachment/261023.pdf
- Shoo Town: About the Shoo Furusato Museum (Japanese)
- https://www.town.shoo.lg.jp/site/kyoiku/5737.html
- Shoo Town: Opening of the Shoo Furusato Museum (Japanese)
- https://www.town.shoo.lg.jp/site/kyoiku/6095.html
- Okayama Kanko Web: Shoo Furusato Museum (Former Katsuta County Office Building) (Japanese)
- https://www.okayama-kanko.jp/spot/detail_11785.html
- Okayama Kanko Web: A spring walk through historic Katsumada (Japanese)
- https://www.okayama-kanko.jp/okatabi/1010/page
Last verified: 2026.10.02
Basic Information
| Name | Shoo Furusato Museum |
|---|---|
| Location | 635 Katsumada, Shoo-cho, Katsuta-gun, Okayama Prefecture |
| Owner | Shoo Town |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (2) |
| Coordinates | 35.03862, 134.11545 |
