Nagoya's culture runs deeper than its factories. The Tokugawa clan's private art collection survived the 1945 firebombing intact, Noh and Kabuki still play in purpose-built halls, and the Aichi hills hide 1,000-year-old kiln traditions an hour from Sakae.
Tenth floor of the Aichi Arts Center, with Klimt's 'Bride', Picasso and a strong Gutai and postwar Japanese holding. Open 10:00–18:00 (Friday to 20:00), closed Mondays. Collection galleries ¥500, special shows priced separately.
Kisho Kurokawa's 1988 postmodern building mixes Japanese lattice motifs with granite and glass. Inside: the School of Paris, Mexican Renaissance muralists and Aichi-born modernists like Kishida. Open 09:30–17:00, closed Mondays.
The 1904 porcelain works kept six Meiji brick kiln chimneys and a craft centre showing the full bone-china process from slip casting to hand-painting. Craft Center 10:00–17:00, closed Mondays; the garden itself is free and open until dusk.
Oasis 21's 'Spaceship Aqua' is a glass roof holding a shallow water film you walk beneath and around. Beside it stands Tachu Naito's 1954 TV tower, Japan's first, now a Registered Tangible Cultural Property with a restored steel lattice.
The Owari Tokugawa family's own possessions: armour, tea utensils, Noh costumes and the 12th-century Genji Monogatari Emaki scrolls, Japan's oldest illustrated novel. Open 10:00–17:00, closed Mondays. The scrolls themselves show only in late November.
A daimyo strolling garden rebuilt in 2004 on the Owari lords' retirement villa grounds, with the Ryusen-ko pond, Ozone waterfall and a peony garden of some 1,000 plants. Open 09:30–17:30, closed the second and fourth Monday.
A purpose-built cypress Noh stage beside Nagoya Castle, keeping the Owari domain's four-century Noh tradition. Monthly public performances plus a free exhibition room of masks, costumes and stage models. Exhibition 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays.
Nagoya's kabuki house since 1896, rebuilt in 2018 inside a tower with a hanamichi runway and revolving stage intact. Grand kabuki runs in spring and autumn; the rest of the year brings Takarazuka, shinpa drama and commercial musicals.
Thirty minutes by Meitetsu Seto Line to the town that gave Japanese the word 'setomono' for pottery — 1,000 years of kilns. Seto-gura reconstructs a Showa-era kiln street; Kamagaki-no-Komichi lane is walled with discarded saggars and fire bricks.
A preserved Tokaido post-town of merchant houses with plaster fire-walls and lattice windows, where Arimatsu-Narumi shibori tie-dye has been made since 1608. The Shibori Kaikan shows 100-plus binding techniques with live demonstrations.
Book a hands-on session and bind a handkerchief or scarf under an artisan trained in one of the surviving techniques, then watch it dyed in indigo. Museum 09:30–17:00, closed 29 Dec–3 Jan; workshops need reserving a day ahead.
The temple's Shinpukuji library holds the oldest surviving manuscript of the Kojiki, copied in 1371. The covered arcades around it stack vintage kimono dealers, Brazilian cafes, secondhand record shops and electronics stalls into one block.