The Hikaru Museum is a massive museum located in Takayama. It is funded by the Mahikari, a religious group (cult) whose branch of the religion (Sukyo Mahikari) has their headquarters in Takayama. Through donations, they have become incredibly rich allowing them to build incredibly gaudy buildings in Takayama. One of which is the Hikaru Museum. Gaudy yes, but really impressive on the inside.
The Hikaru Museum has an outside facade of a pyramid. Inside, the pyramid is completely hollow with its open area following the contours of the pyramid. There are three main levels of the pyramid and each level has several exhibition halls.
The bottom floor has special exhibition halls with rotating exhibits. For Fall 2025, these exhibits were the Hokusai Ukiyoe exhibit, the Serizawa Keisuke exhibit, and an exhibit called Pissarro, which seemed to be some guy's collection of classic European art. The next floor up had established exhibits which focused on civilization's history in the world, Japan, and Hida. And the top floor had a calligraphy exhibit (which was extra) and some other exhibits that were being renovated. You could also go outside and view the top of the pyramid.
Despite being funded by a cult and having incredibly odd architecture for Japan, the museum was really impressive.
Entry was only 1000円 with a year pass set at 2000円. I entered the museum for the first time this year when Zach and Dirk visited. And I went again when Jason visited a month later. Maybe I should have bought the year pass, so I could attend some special events whenever those happen. Though, I'm not sure how much attention I should give to a cult.
Below are photos of the museum and the Hokusai exhibit.
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