Uroko House & Uroko Art Museum

Introduction

Uroko House stands on high ground in Kitano, its walls faced with nearly four thousand natural slate tiles laid like overlapping fish scales, which is exactly where the name comes from. It was first built in the old foreign settlement as a high-class rental house and moved to this hilltop in the Taisho period; it was the first ijinkan in Kobe opened to the public and is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, so 'oldest' refers to when it opened rather than to the fabric. Inside, the contrast with the heavy stone exterior is complete: antique furniture, Meissen, Royal Copenhagen and Royal Worcester porcelain, and Art Nouveau glass by Emile Galle, the taste of a merchant household of the day. Next door to the west, an observation gallery built in 1982 (the Uroko Art Museum) hangs Barbizon landscapes by Troyon alongside Matisse, Utrillo and Buffet, with a permanent room for the Kobe painter Masaru Horie; from its third floor the view runs over the city, the port, Osaka Bay and Awaji Island. In the garden a bronze boar, Porcellino, has been rubbed shiny by visitors who say touching its nose brings luck, and a red telephone box is the other favourite photo corner. Admission is JPY 1,100 for adults and JPY 220 for primary school children, open to 18:00 from April to September and 17:00 in winter, every day. The fifteen-minute walk from Sannomiya is all uphill, so wear proper shoes.

✨ Highlights

🛈 Practical Info