Ground yourself in Kōbe's history as a trading port and east–west meeting place, via art and artifacts with decent English signage. Items show foreign influence from clocks and oil lamps to hairstyles. It's pricey during special exhibits but worth it especially when they include the museum's collection of namban (literally 'southern barbarian') art, a school of painting that developed when early Jesuit missionaries taught Western painting techniques to Japanese students.
The Greek revival-style building dates from 1935.
