Yuki Museum of Art, Osaka

The Yuki Museum of Art is dedicated to the different types of tea ceremony utensils used in Japan. It is the repository of the collection of Teicchi Yuki, the founder and owner of the Kiccho chain of restaurants.

The Yuki Museum of Art was opened to showcase Yuki’s collection in 1987. It occupies the first three floors of the building that was once the Kiccho restaurant in the Hirano area of Osaka. The rest of the 8 floor building is used as a hall for special exhibitions and tea ceremonies and houses the offices of the museum.

The display halls of the Yuki Museum of Art are designed to resemble typical tea ceremony rooms. The exhibits consist of items and utensils used to serve a Chakaiseki or tea ceremony meal from the Nara period to the Edo period. There are many unusual and antique dishes, bowls and decorative artifacts like horsetail tea caddies, a Hirosawa Shino tea bowl and bowls from the La Kasuga Temple. Eleven exhibits have been declared as Important Cultural Assets. The museum holds special themed exhibitions twice annually. An organization called Friends of the Museum organizes lectures and seminars relating to the traditional tea ceremony of Japan and often conducts traditional tea ceremonies in the museum building.