The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: November thirtieth, finding culture in Kurashiki.

Situated halfway between Kyoto and Hiroshima, the Japanese industrial city of Kurashiki has gained a reputation for its 14 off-beat museums. On the outside, the historic district of this old rice-producing town is straight from 17th-century Japan, weepy willows hugging narrow canals; white-washed black tile buildings lining cobblestone streets. Yet beneath its venerable veneer, Kurashiki is filled with western culture.

Credit for the town's museum mania belongs to textile magnate Magosaburo Ohara, who 80 years ago started Japan's first European art collection, with some of the finest works by artists such as El Greco, Monet and Matisse. Many of Ohara's original purchases are still on display in the museum which bears his name, along with works by Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi and Henry Moore.

Further along Kurashiki's central canal is the Ninagawa Museum, two floors of Greek columns and Roman statues. Around the corner is the Folkcraft Museum, which, in addition to Japanese pottery and glass, features a fine collection of brass objects, baskets and wooden chests from around the world. A few doors away there is the Japanese Rural Toy Museum. The Kurashiki Archeology Museum features relics from the town's agricultural past; another museum chronicles the area's textiles.

While the collections of Kurashiki's many museums may be uneven in quality and filled with curious juxtapositions of East and West, old and new, together they do comprise a philanthropic display unique in all Japan, and perhaps the entire world.

For information Japan National Tourist Organization 212-757-5640 or www.japantravelinfo.com, Kurishiki information, check out www.mugen-sys.co.jp/kirashiki/class.a-e.html

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