Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography Nara City

The Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography Nara City is a quiet triumph, a museum devoted almost entirely to one man's lifelong love affair with the landscapes, temples and seasons of the ancient capital. Opened in 1992 in the tranquil Takabatake district beside Shin-Yakushi-ji, and formerly known as the Nara City Museum of Photography, it preserves and celebrates the work of Irie Taikichi (1905-1992), one of Japan's most revered photographers of Nara.

Irie spent decades photographing the temples, Buddhist statues, festivals and countryside of Nara and the Yamato region, working almost entirely in black and white with a patient, reverent eye. His images capture morning mist over pagodas, the play of light across ancient wooden halls, and the changing seasons around shrines that had stood for over a thousand years. On his death he donated his complete oeuvre — some eighty thousand works — to Nara City, and this collection forms the museum's core. Alongside it, the museum holds an important set of over a thousand Meiji and Taisho glass-plate negatives by the earlier photographer Kudo Risaburo, a registered cultural property, and works by other photographers connected to Nara.

The building is itself a reason to visit. Designed by the celebrated architect Kisho Kurokawa, it is a low, elegant structure that half-buries itself into the hillside so as not to disturb the historic neighbourhood of Shin-Yakushi-ji, its curved roof and stone walls echoing the temple architecture around it. Inside, spacious galleries display rotating selections from the vast collection, so that different themes — temples, seasons, festivals, statues — come to the fore across the year. The prints are shown with great care, and the effect of walking among Irie's meditative images is to see Nara itself through the eyes of someone who spent a lifetime studying its light.

The museum is calm, rarely crowded, and easy to enjoy in about an hour. It is fully accessible, with level galleries and lifts, and a small shop sells postcards and books of Irie's photography that make memorable souvenirs. Its location beside Shin-Yakushi-ji, with its famous circle of clay guardian statues, and within walking distance of the old machiya streets of Naramachi, makes it an ideal anchor for a half-day exploring Nara's quieter southeast.

The museum is worth visiting in any season, though seeing Irie's seasonal images and then stepping out into the same landscapes is especially rewarding in spring and autumn. To reach it, take a Nara Kotsu bus from Kintetsu or JR Nara Station toward Takabatake and alight near Shin-Yakushiji, or walk about twenty-five minutes southeast from Kintetsu Nara Station through the temple district. It is a short, rewarding detour that leaves you seeing the whole of Nara a little differently.