Izumi City luxury travel can mean walking through a museum created by one industrial family’s extraordinary donations, seeing two National Treasures and 29 Important Cultural Properties, visiting tea rooms modeled on Omotesenke architecture and learning glass craft in tiny six-person sessions. The crazy-rich version of Izumi is not buying the whole gallery. It is what the Kubo family did instead: give the collection, building, land and money to the city.
Did you know? Kuboso was a cotton-weaving company that operated for more than a century. When the business closed in 1977, Sotaro Kubo III donated the family’s art collection together with the museum building, site and generous funds to Izumi City. The museum opened in 1982 with roughly 500 Oriental artworks and has since grown to around 13,000 objects. Crazy Rich Izumi is philanthropy at architectural scale.
The city’s luxury story is strongest when wealth is understood as something that can be converted into public cultural infrastructure. The Kubo family did not simply leave expensive objects behind glass. Later generations and related organisations continued donating an annex, music hall, citizen gallery, workshop studio and research institute.
Two National Treasures From a Family Collection
The museum’s original collection includes two National Treasures: the Heian-period Kasen Uta-awase and a Southern Song Longquan celadon vase with phoenix handles known as “Bansei.”
It also includes 29 Important Cultural Properties.
Did you know? The truly crazy-rich move is not saying “I own a National Treasure.” It is arranging things so generations of schoolchildren can say “we can visit it.”
From 500 Objects to Around 13,000
The first Kuboso Collection began with about 500 Oriental works. Subsequent donations and acquisitions expanded the museum into Western art, ancient maps, ukiyo-e, Chinese bronzes, jade, modern Chinese painting and more.
One later Kubo-family collection alone includes roughly 6,000 ukiyo-e prints by artists such as Harunobu, Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Did you know? Collecting becomes civilisational when the question changes from “Where will I hang this?” to “How will a city preserve this for a century?”
The Museum Sits on the Family’s Former Home
The current museum complex occupies the former Kubo family residence site and extends across roughly 16,500 square metres.
This gives the collection unusual continuity between private family history and public civic use.
Did you know? A family estate becomes much more interesting when the gate eventually belongs to everybody.
Tea Rooms as Registered Cultural Properties
The museum garden contains tea rooms named Soan and Chosentei, constructed between 1937 and 1939 in imitation of Omotesenke tea architecture.
They were later donated with the museum complex and registered by the national government as tangible cultural properties.
Did you know? Tea-room luxury works by reducing space, objects and movement until every detail starts to matter more.
Monet, Renoir and Rodin in Izumi
The expanded museum collection includes modern Western works by artists including Monet, Renoir and Rodin, alongside Asian art, maps and ukiyo-e.
This makes the institution unusually useful for comparative looking: Chinese ceramics, Japanese calligraphy, Edo prints and European modernism can all exist within one collection history.
Did you know? One of the richest travel days in Izumi can move from a Song-dynasty celadon vase to Monet’s Water Lilies without leaving the museum.
Glass Bead Making: Six People, ¥150, Real Technique
In October 2026, Izumi City is running glass-bead workshops with only six participants per session.
The fee is just ¥150 per bead, yet the process involves melting a glass rod over a burner and winding the molten material around a metal core.
This is a perfect Crazy Rich reversal: the cheapest activity may teach more about material control than the most expensive object in the museum.
Did you know? Skill is often cheap to observe and expensive to master.
A 664-Seat Civic Hall for the Next Patron
Izumi City Plaza’s Yayoi no Kaze Hall has 664 seats and supports concerts, ceremonies and civic events.
The wealthy modern counterpart to the Kubo story would not necessarily be buying more art. It might be commissioning performances, funding conservation, supporting education or underwriting public cultural access.
Did you know? The most impressive patronage usually leaves behind a room that other people can enter.
Izumi City for English and Chinese Readers
和泉市的高级旅行最适合学习“财富怎样变成公共文化”。久保家把艺术品、美术馆建筑、土地和基金捐给城市，后来又继续扩充馆舍。真正的“Crazy Rich”不是拥有更多，而是把私人收藏变成公共记忆。
Ten Luxury Touring Vocabulary Words for Izumi City
- Philanthropic donation — 慈善捐赠 (cí shàn juān zèng) — 寄贈 (kizō)
- National Treasure — 国宝 (guó bǎo) — 国宝 (kokuhō)
- Important Cultural Property — 重要文化财 (zhòng yào wén huà cái) — 重要文化財 (jūyō bunkazai)
- Private collection — 私人收藏 (sī rén shōu cáng) — 個人コレクション (kojin korekushon)
- Museum endowment — 美术馆基金 (měi shù guǎn jī jīn) — 美術館基金 (bijutsukan kikin)
- Tea room — 茶室 (chá shì) — 茶室 (chashitsu)
- Registered cultural property — 登记文化财 (dēng jì wén huà cái) — 登録有形文化財 (tōroku yūkei bunkazai)
- Ukiyo-e collection — 浮世绘收藏 (fú shì huì shōu cáng) — 浮世絵コレクション (ukiyoe korekushon)
- Glass bead making — 玻璃珠制作 (bō li zhū zhì zuò) — ガラス玉作り (garasudama-zukuri)
- Cultural patronage — 文化赞助 (wén huà zàn zhù) — 文化支援 (bunka shien)
Continue through the Japan Travel Vocabulary Hub
What Students Can Learn From Crazy Rich Izumi City
Economics: private wealth can become public infrastructure through philanthropy and endowment.
Art History: one collection can connect Asian antiquities, ukiyo-e, maps and Western modern art.
Materials Science: glass bead making shows viscosity, heat control and cooling in miniature.
English: practise donation, endowment, collection, conservation and patronage.
Frequently Asked Questions About Izumi City Luxury Travel
Who created the Kuboso Memorial Museum? The museum grew from donations by the Kubo family and Kuboso Corporation after the family’s cotton-weaving business closed.
What did the family donate? The original gift included art, the museum building, the site and funds; later gifts expanded the complex.
How large is the collection today? Izumi City and the museum describe around 13,000 objects.
What is the most Izumi-specific Crazy Rich experience? Understanding how an industrial family converted private wealth into a public museum is more distinctive than generic luxury shopping.
Helpful Reading and Current Sources
- Kuboso Memorial Museum — Collection and Kubo Family History
- Kuboso Memorial Museum — Current Museum Overview
- Kuboso Memorial Museum — Facilities and Tea Rooms
- Izumi City — 2026 Glass-Bead Workshop
- Izumi City — Cultural Hall Facilities Including 664-Seat Yayoi no Kaze Hall
Crazy Rich Izumi Gives the Museum Away
Two National Treasures. Twenty-nine Important Cultural Properties. Around 13,000 objects. A former family estate turned into public cultural infrastructure.
Did you know? Izumi City’s craziest luxury story is not about what a rich family kept. It is about how much they decided not to keep.