Rakubijutsukan Museum of Art

The Raku Museum shows the Raku ware made by successive generations of the Raku family, together with tea-ceremony crafts handed down in the household. Exhibitions change three or four times a year and take about forty minutes to see. What sets the place apart is that the bowls don't stay behind glass. Once a month, on a Saturday or Sunday, a handling session lets visitors pick up works by past Raku masters and examine them while a curator explains — with different pieces each month. Seven or eight times a year the fifteenth-generation head, Raku Jikinyu, hosts a special tea gathering using pieces from the collection. Both require a phone reservation in advance.