Established in 1972 as the western Japan outpost of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, this moderately sized institution in Expo ’70 Commemorative Park occupies one of the pavilions built for the 1970 Osaka Expo. It’s adjacent to a rose garden and a Japanese garden, while the comprehensive National Museum of Ethnology is also nearby.
The four exhibition rooms highlight folk crafts, or hand-crafted art by ordinary people, ranging from pottery and tea utensils to lacquerware and textiles. In the centre is a cobblestone patio with displays of large pots and jars collected from throughout Japan. Special exhibitions are held twice a year, in spring and autumn, with some of these also highlighting folk crafts from overseas.