Visit Kurashiki

~Ohara’s achievements~

The area around Kurashiki was once an ocean until flooding and reclamation of the Takahashi River turned it to land.
Around 1600, it was almost land and in 1642 it was in direct control of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Since then, the around Kurashiki has developed as a trading center of rich products. At the time, the Kurahsiki Canal was used to transport these goods into the city. The white walls on some buildings in Kurashiki were a sign of wealth which came from the trading industry.

Magosaburo Ohara who contributed to town development

The Ohara family is the landlord of Kurashiki, and the second president of Kurashiki Spinner (later Kurabo), Magosaburo Ohara, performed various charitable and social activities.

1902 Established Elementary School in the factory. Established Kurashiki Commercial Repair School (current Kurashiki Commercial High School).
1914 Established Ohara Scholarship Agricultural Research Institute (now Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University).
1919 Established Ohara Institute for Social Issues (now The Ohara Institute for Social Research, Hosei Univ.).
1921 Established Kurashiki Labor Science Laboratories (now The Ohara Memorial Institute for Science of Labour).
1923 Established Kurabo Central Hospital (now Kurashiki Central Hospital) Not only the workers but also the citizens are treated, and now it is one of the leading general hospitals in the country.
1930 Established Japan’s first private Western art museum, Ohara Museum of Art.