Kyushu National Museum

This guide to the Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka begins with the covered escalator tunnel from Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine and the titanium roof waiting above it, shaped by architect Kiyonori Kikutake into one long curve spanning a hundred eighty meters. You'll hear why he built it from just two panels joined at a single seam, and how he drew the roof's line from both the mountains behind the museum and the strait that gives the collection its story. Watch how the tinted surface changes color as the coastal weather shifts overhead.