Takakura Katsuko Art Museum

Takakura Katsuko (1923-2015) grew up in rural Toyoma and spent decades as an art teacher before gaining wider recognition for her Nihonga paintings. Her work, mostly depicting young women, Buddhist figures, and rural scenes in warm, unhurried tones, fills the main gallery. A separate room holds a series of autobiographical paintings documenting her experience of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing, which she survived while living three kilometers from the epicenter. Takakura completed these war paintings with encouragement from her local community after years of struggling with those memories. The museum presents both the peaceful domestic work and these more difficult pieces side by side.