Okayama sits on the Kibi plain, seat of a kingdom that once rivalled early Yamato and left Japan's fourth-largest keyhole tomb. Three days trace the thread forward: Kofun mounds and Muromachi shrines, the Ikeda daimyo's castle town, then Edo merchant canals.
Japan's only shrine built in the kibitsu-zukuri style, rebuilt in 1425 and designated a National Treasure. A 360-metre roofed corridor runs downhill from the twin-gabled hall, and the Narukama rite still divines fortunes by the sound of a boiling kettle.
The 34-metre pagoda, finished in 1844, is the only one of its kind in Okayama Prefecture and marks a temple first founded by Emperor Shomu in the 740s. It rises straight out of rice paddies, the signature view of the Kibi plain.
At 350 metres long this is Japan's fourth-largest keyhole tomb and the biggest anyone may freely climb. Built around AD 400 for a Kibi ruler, its scale is the clearest evidence that this plain was a power centre independent of Yamato.
Dedicated to Kibitsuhiko-no-Mikoto, the prince whose campaign against the ogre Ura became the Momotaro legend. Known as the sun shrine: at the summer solstice the sunrise aligns down the stone approach and into the worship hall.
Ten galleries running from Kofun grave goods and Bizen sword blades to Ikeda-era domain documents. Highlights include Kibi excavation finds and medieval picture scrolls. Open 09:00–18:00 April–September, closed Mondays.
On the night of 29 June 1945 firebombs destroyed roughly two-thirds of central Okayama and killed some 1,700 people. This hillside park, once the castle's western enclosure, holds the memorial stone and a scorched surviving tree.
Built in 1964 around the private collection of businessman Ichiro Hayashibara, it holds heirlooms of the Ikeda lords who ruled Okayama from 1632: Noh costumes and masks, lacquer, armour and Chinese ceramics, shown in rotating sets.
The Asahi river crossing where the Edo-period Sanyodo highway entered the castle town. Surviving merchant frontages, warehouse walls and stone markers line the lanes, and the riverbank keeps the alignment of the old checkpoint.
Placed under direct shogunal rule in 1642, Kurashiki grew rich shipping rice through this canal. Willow-lined water, namako-wall storehouses and the 1796 Ohashi merchant house survive intact; 15 minutes by train from Okayama Station.
Perched on Tsurugatayama hill above the quarter, the shrine traces its origin to Korean settlers of the Achi clan. Its Akebono wisteria is reckoned over 300 years old, and the stone steps give the one high view over the tiled roofs.
Opened in 1930 by textile magnate Magosaburo Ohara, Japan's first museum of Western art. El Greco's Annunciation anchors a collection bought through painter Torajiro Kojima in 1920s Europe. Closed Mondays; open 09:00–17:00.
The red-brick Kurashiki Spinning Mill of 1889, the plant that made the Ohara fortune, converted in 1974 into courtyards and halls. The Kurabo Memorial Hall keeps the original looms and the mill's labour and housing records.