The town of Kurashiki lies in western Honshu near the Inland Sea. Although it is now part of the extensive industrial area around Mizushima the old town has largely preserved its original character. It has much of interest to offer the visitor with its old dwelling houses and warehouses, the willow-fringed canals and stone
bridges and a number of fine museums.
At the beginning of the 17th C an administrative office of the Shogunate was established in Kurashiki, and the small village soon developed into an important marketing center for rice, sake and cotton. The warehouses then built gave the town its name (kura = "warehouse", yashiki = "village"). The town's economy now centers on textiles, petrochemicals, steel and engineering, together with the production of ceramics (Bizen-yaki and Ohara-yaki).