Japan Guide
Kyūshū
Prefectural Traditional Crafts Centre
Opposite the Akazu gate, the Prefectural Traditional Crafts Centre hosts free exhibitions promoting local artists and an excellent display of Kumamoto crafts on the second floor (¥200). The most famous traditional craft is Higo zogan, a painstaking method of inlaying gold and silver in a metal base. Developed in the seventeenth century for ornamenting sword hilts, it's now used for jewellery, decorative boxes and the like. Look out among the toys for a little red-faced fellow with a black hat, the ghost Obake-no-kinta – try pulling the string. Opening time: Tues– Sun 9am–5pm