Taki Rentaro Memorial Museum

Taki Rentaro lived only 23 years but became one of the most significant composers in the history of modern Japanese music. His family moved to Taketa when he was 12 after his father was appointed district governor, and it was the view of Oka Castle Ruins during this time that inspired his most famous piece, Kojo no tsuki, The Moon over the Ruined Castle. The memorial museum occupies a reconstruction of the governor's residence, a Meiji-era home that mixes tatami rooms and Western furnishings. Handwritten sheet music is on display alongside letters from his final years in Oita, where he returned after tuberculosis ended his studies in Leipzig.