Asian Museum and Yasushi Inoue Memorial Hall
The Asian Museum is an unusual museum complex that exhibits textiles and other cultural artifacts from the Silk Road, the ancient trade route across the Asian continent. Five exhibition halls and an entrance building are clustered around a traditional garden a short distance from the ocean in the Wada district, near Kitaro Yonago Airport. It is a privately funded and operated museum, and reflects the personal interests of the founder, local businessman Yokochi Haruo (1912–2007). Visitors are encouraged to proceed from one hall to the next in clockwise order.
The first building hosts the Dyeing and Weaving Workshop, which has displays of traditional Japanese spinning, dyeing, and weaving tools and processes. The second is the Kasuri Hall, which features fine examples of local kasuri indigo-dyed woven products, including kimono, quilts, and curtains. It also has a one-sixth-scale replica of a kitamaebune cargo ship of the type that helped the region become a prosperous trading center during the Edo period (1603–1867). The third gallery, the Persian Brocade Hall, houses the Rahim Anavian collection of traditional Persian woven and embroidered textiles, primarily from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fourth building is the Mongol Hall, which includes exhibits of clothing and other textiles, focusing on Genghis Khan and Mongolian culture. A large diorama depicting the transport of Genghis Khan’s royal yurt, or ger, which required 24 oxen and a huge wooden wagon, forms the centerpiece of the exhibit.
The fifth and final hall is devoted to the life and work of the famed Japanese author Inoue Yasushi (1907–1991). It features a reconstruction of his study, including the actual contents of his personal library, his desk, and many personal effects. A typical visit ends at the entrance building, where there is an exhibit of Art Nouveau glass works by Emil Gallé and other artists. A café and museum shop provide places to rest and browse.