Japan Guide
Kyoto
Miho Museum
Taking six years to build at a cost of $215 million, the I.M. Pei-designed Miho Museum is one of the architectural highlights of the Kansai region, although it's only open for a few months every year – exact dates vary; check the website for details. Located in a rural, mountainous part of Shiga Prefecture, which is best known for its Shigaraki pottery, the museum provides an unlikely setting for an incredible collection of artworks belonging to Koyama Mihoko and her daughter Hiroko. Koyama is the head of one of Japan's so-called "new religions", Shinki Shumeikai, founded in 1970, which has an estimated 300,000 followers worldwide, hundreds of whom live and work here at the museum.
The museum has two wings. The north wing houses Japanese art, including priceless porcelain, scrolls, screens and Buddhist relics; the south wing has antiquities from the rest of the world, amongst them jewellery, frescoes, textiles and statues produced by a range of civilizations, from ancient Egyptian to classical Chinese. Amongst the numerous treasures are a three-thousand-year-old silver-and-gold cult figure of a falcon-headed deity from Egypt's 19th Dynasty, a limestone Assyrian relief unearthed in Nimrud, and the splendid Sanguszko Carpet from Iran. Each artwork is labelled in English and Japanese, and there are explanatory leaflets in some of the galleries, but the overall effect is one of art that is meant to be experienced for its intrinsic beauty rather than its historical or cultural import.
JTB's Sunrise Tours ( 
075/341-1413, 
www.jtbgmt.com/sunrisetour ) offers a half-day trip to the museum (¥14,000 per person). Seeing as there is no actual guide, it's really no more than an expensive taxi ride. It's far cheaper, and only just a little more time-consuming, to do it yourself. From JR Kyoto Station, take a local train on the JR Biwako Line (for Nagahama or Maibara) two stops to JR Ishiyama Station (every 10–15min; 13min; ¥230). Buses (50min; ¥800), run by the Teisan Bus Company, leave for the museum from outside Ishiyama Station's south exit. On weekdays, buses leave at ten minutes past the hour between 9.10am and 1.10pm. On Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, the weekday timetable is supplemented by buses at 9.50am and 2.55pm. Opening time: Tues– Fri & Sun 10am–5pmPrice: ¥1000 0748/82-3411 www.miho.jp/english