Kobe City Museum

Housed in a former bank building in Kobe's old foreign settlement, this museum focuses on the history of cultural exchange between Japan and the West. It is noted for its collection of nanban art, works produced during early contact with European traders and missionaries, including painted folding screens depicting foreign ships. Archaeology and local-history galleries trace the port city's development. The columned neoclassical building is itself a monument to the treaty-port era.