The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art and Okazaki's Modern Architecture

A cultural district built on the former exposition grounds

In 1895 (Meiji 28), the Commemorative Festival for the 1,100th Anniversary of the Heian Capital and the 4th National Industrial Exhibition were held at the same time on a large area of land created by the Lake Biwa Canal turning twice at right angles. On the site, the Butokuden was built in 1899 (Meiji 32) and the Kyoto City Commemorative Zoo opened in 1903 (Meiji 36), and in 1904 (Meiji 37) about 4.3 ha centered on the approach to Heian Shrine became Okazaki Park.

Later, the prefectural library and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art were built, followed after the war by Kyoto Kaikan and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and Okazaki became Kyoto's leading district for culture and education. In 2015 (Heisei 27), the Okazaki area was selected as an Important Cultural Landscape, the "Cultural Landscape of Kyoto Okazaki."

The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art

To commemorate the enthronement ceremony held in Kyoto in 1928 (Shōwa 3), the museum was built with donations from the Kansai business and art worlds and from citizens, and it opened in 1933 (Shōwa 8) as the "Tairei Kinen Kyoto Bijutsukan" (Enthronement Commemorative Kyoto Museum of Art). It was designed by the architect Maeda Kenjirō, chosen through an open design competition whose conditions included a design based on Japanese taste. Its design, which blends Japanese and Western styles, is regarded as representative of the so-called Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式, teikan yōshiki), and it is the oldest surviving public art museum building in Japan.

After the war it was requisitioned by the occupation forces, and when it was returned in 1952 (Shōwa 27) it was renamed the "Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art." Kyoto City introduced naming rights to fund a redevelopment, and in 2017 it signed a 50-year agreement with Kyocera Corporation under which the city received support of about 5 billion yen and the museum took the popular name "Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art." To a design by Aoki Jun and Nishizawa Tetsuo, the main building was renovated while being preserved, a new wing, the "Higashiyama Cube," was added, and the museum reopened on May 26, 2020.

The main building became a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property on August 17, 2020 (Reiwa 2), and the main gates (north and south), north gate, east gate, and notice boards (north and south) were registered at the same time. Of these, the east gate is a stone gate from the late Meiji period.

The Prefectural Library, Kyoto Kaikan, and the Museum of Modern Art

The Kyoto Prefectural Library moved to Okazaki in 1909 (Meiji 42), when Ōmori Shōichi, the 10th governor of Kyoto Prefecture, promoted its construction at a new site as a project commemorating victory in the Russo-Japanese War. The site was part of the former exhibition grounds and had been used as a firebreak for Heian Shrine. It was designed by Takeda Goichi, later called "the father of Kansai architecture," and in 2001 it was rebuilt, keeping the front facade.

ROHM Theatre Kyoto, on the north side of Nijō-dōri west of Okazaki Park, is the former Kyoto Kaikan, which opened on April 29, 1960 (Shōwa 35) as one of the first multipurpose public cultural halls in Japan. It was built with funds that included donations from citizens and companies. Its designer, Maekawa Kunio, gave it a design that brings out horizontal lines so that it would blend into the surrounding Okazaki landscape. It was redeveloped to a basic design by Kōyama Hisao, and under a naming-rights agreement signed with ROHM Co., Ltd. in 2011 it was reborn as "ROHM Theatre Kyoto" on January 10, 2016.

The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, on the west side of Jingū-michi southwest of the Great Torii, began in 1963 (Shōwa 38) as the Kyoto branch of the National Museum of Modern Art, in a renovated annex of the Kyoto City Kangyōkan (industrial exhibition hall). The present building was designed by Maki Fumihiko and completed in 1986 (Shōwa 61). Okazaki Park is a scenic district, and buildings inside it may not be taller than the Great Torii of Heian Shrine. Within that limit, the building was made to feel open by keeping the second floor small to give a high-ceilinged lobby and by using large panes of glass on the canal side.

Kyoto City Hall's main building

Takeda Goichi also served as adviser on the main building of Kyoto City Hall, which faces south onto Oike-dōri in Nakagyō Ward. It was built in 1927 (Shōwa 2) and extended in 1931 (Shōwa 6), and it was designed by the Kyoto City Building and Repairs Section. It is a reinforced-concrete building with 4 floors above ground and 1 below and a tower at the center, and in the stair hall inside, Eastern-style decoration, including arches reminiscent of Islamic architecture, can be seen throughout. Its renovation was completed in 2021 (Reiwa 3), and on March 13, 2025 (Reiwa 7), its registration as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property was announced.

Getting to Okazaki Park, and opening hours

To reach Okazaki Park, leave Higashiyama Station on the Tōzai subway line by Exit 1, walk east along Sanjō-dōri, and turn north on Jingū-michi. After passing under the Great Torii, the entrance to the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art is on the right (east) side, about an 8-minute walk from the station; the Kyoto Prefectural Library is about a 10-minute walk. From Kyoto Station, take city bus 5 to "Okazaki Kōen Bijutsukan/Heian Jingū-mae," which is right there.

The Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (124 Okazaki Enshōji-chō, Sakyō Ward) is open 10:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays (open on national holidays and other holidays) and from December 28 to January 2 (as of October 2026). Fees vary by exhibition. For the Collection Room, which shows works from the museum's collection, general admission is 520 yen for Kyoto City residents and 730 yen for others; elementary, junior high, and high school students and the like are free if they live or attend school in Kyoto City (300 yen for others), and children below elementary school age are free. Strollers can be taken into the galleries, and there is a nursing room in the East Hall on the 1st floor.

At the Kyoto Prefectural Library (Okazaki Seishōji-chō, Sakyō Ward), anyone can freely read books, newspapers, and magazines inside the library. It is open 9:30 to 19:00 Tuesday to Friday and 9:30 to 17:00 on Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays, and closed on Mondays (open on national holidays), the 4th Thursday of each month, and other days. Kyoto City Hall's main building (Teramachi-dōri Oike-agaru) is open 8:45 to 17:30, except on Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, and the New Year holidays.

Locations of the Museums, Library, and Theater Around Okazaki Park (Schematic Map)