Shimada Art Museum

photo by Siwamura · CC BY-SA 4.0

Among the Musashi pieces, a copy of the ‘Book of Wind’ dated 1651.

The museum, opened in 1977 on the grounds of the house of the collector Shimada Masatomi, collects weapons, paintings and documents of the samurai of Kumamoto. The section on Miyamoto Musashi, the swordsman who lived his last years here, lists sixteen pieces: a copy of the ‘Book of Wind’, ink paintings, swords attributed to him, the wooden training sword.

The museum opened on 20 November 1977, at the wish of the antiques collector Shimada Masatomi, who died that year at 92 and had spent a lifetime gathering evidence of the samurai culture of Kumamoto; it stands on the grounds of his house. A new wing opened in 1982; in 2005 the museum closed for the building of a municipal road and reopened in October 2007; since 2013 it has been a public-interest foundation. Musashi (1584–1645) arrived in Kumamoto in 1640, at 57, with the status of a guest at 300 koku of rice and a house in the ruins of Chiba Castle, in the service of Hosokawa Tadatoshi; he died there in 1645, after five years in which he wrote, among other things, the ‘Book of Five Rings’. Among the pieces the website lists: the ‘Book of Wind’ (風の巻), a manuscript copy from the year Keian 4 (1651), that is six years after Musashi's death; a portrait of Musashi from the early Edo period, an Important Cultural Property of the prefecture (熊本県指定重要文化財); the ‘Notes’ (覚書) of 1643; the ‘Dokkōdō’ (獨行道, ‘the path to walk alone’), as a copy; and the wooden training sword.

ℹ️ Open 10:00–16:30 (last entry 16:00), closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, unless they are public holidays, and at the end of the year (museum website). The city tourist guide instead says Tuesdays and the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 10:00–17:00: the museum's website prevails. Ticket 700 yen adults (600 for groups of 20), 400 university and high-school students, 200 up to junior high; with a disability certificate you can enter with one companion for 400 yen. Free car park with 10 spaces; 8 minutes by car from JR Kumamoto Station; by city bus, the Shimazaki-Hotakubo line to 慈恵病院 and 3 minutes on foot. After the earthquake of 28/07/2026 it stayed closed until 5 August (museum notice, with no publication date); then the exhibitions from 15/10/2026 and the city list of 02/10/2026 (‘Open 10AM-4:30PM(L.E.4PM)’) give it as operating. No page says whether the building was damaged. The page ‘いま鑑賞できる宮本武蔵’ on the website shows, piece by piece, which works by Musashi are on display.

🚉 Kami-Kumamoto · 24 min walk

Sources: shimada-museum.net · shimada-museum.net · shimada-museum.net · shimada-museum.net · kumamoto-guide.jp · kumamoto-guide.jp · kumamoto-guide.jp

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