Izumo Museum of Quilt Art 出雲キルト美術館

Made from antique and vintage silk kimonos, some of which are two centuries old, artist Mutsuko Yawatagaki creates stunning quilts that transcend craft and become sublime art. The Izumo Museum of Quilt Art showcases these vivid creations.

The museum is closest to Naoe Station.

This is a very rural area, and the station is a 40-minute walk from the museum, so it's better to take a taxi, which should take no more than seven minutes.

Although quilting is not a traditional Japanese craft, the magnificent quilts on view here display traditional Japanese aesthetics of the highest quality.

Housed inside a historic 200-year-old residence, surrounded by rice paddies and small, traditional farms, the interior and exterior spaces contribute to the appreciation of these highly detailed and richly colorful masterpieces.

The four exhibitions a year are based on the four seasons that have inspired Japanese creativity for millennia. They combine subtle lighting and shadows to display the quilts and their associated ikebana arrangements, also created by Mutsuko Yawatagaki, to create tableaux that could not be properly appreciated in a normal museum space.

The museum staff will show you around.

Enjoy green tea with traditional sweets that are themselves miniature works of art. The traditional garden is framed beautifully by the works inside.

Visit the quaint gift shop where you can find unique gifts and souvenirs made from the same antique kimono fabrics from which the quilts are made.