Fukuda Art Museum

The Fukuda Art Museum is Arashiyama's elegant surprise: a serene, contemporary gallery of Japanese painting that opened in October 2019 in one of the most scenic spots in all of Kyoto, right on the north bank of the Katsura River beside the beloved Togetsukyo Bridge. It was founded by Yoshitaka Fukuda, the businessman behind a major consumer-finance group, to house the collection he assembled over decades, and it fills a real gap by giving Arashiyama, long dominated by temples, bamboo and monkeys, a serious cultural anchor.

The collection numbers around two thousand works and traces the flow of Japanese painting from the Edo period through the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras into the modern day. It is particularly rich in the Kyoto and Maruyama-Shijo schools and in the great names of Japanese art, with works by or associated with figures such as Ito Jakuchu, Maruyama Okyo, Yokoyama Taikan and other masters of screens, scrolls and hanging paintings. Because the museum rotates its holdings through carefully themed special exhibitions several times a year, often keyed to the seasons, the displays stay fresh and are always beautifully lit and spaced.

The architecture, by Yasuo Yasui, is a study in quiet luxury designed to defer to its extraordinary setting. Its low, sukiya-inspired forms use lattice screens, a stone-and-water forecourt and a garden that echoes the traditional houses of the district, so the modern building nestles into the historic landscape rather than fighting it. Inside, the galleries are hushed and intimate in a way that encourages slow looking.

The single most talked-about feature is the cafe, Panorama, whose entire wall is glass and frames a postcard composition of the arching Togetsukyo Bridge, the Katsura River and the forested Arashiyama mountains rising behind. In spring the slopes foam with cherry blossom and in autumn they blaze with red and gold maple, and to sit here with a coffee and a Kyoto sweet is one of the loveliest seated views in the city. The entrance hall and grand staircase, with a striking modern folding-screen installation, are photogenic in their own right.

Because Arashiyama can be overwhelmingly crowded, the museum offers a calm, air-conditioned refuge in the middle of a busy sightseeing day, and it pairs naturally with the neighbouring Saga Arashiyama Fukuda-affiliated calligraphy museum, the bamboo grove, Tenryu-ji temple and a riverside stroll. Allow a little over an hour, more if you settle into the cafe.

Getting there is easy. From central Kyoto, ride the JR Sagano Line to Saga-Arashiyama Station and walk about twelve minutes, which makes it convenient on a Japan Rail Pass, or take the charming Randen tram to Arashiyama Station for a five-minute walk to the door; the pass does not cover the admission ticket. Entry is 1,500 yen for adults, with student and child discounts, and the museum is closed on Tuesdays and over the New Year period.