Treasures of the Marquis Kuroda Family vol.4

Period:                     Tuesday, August 18th 2026 - Sunday, April 25th 2027

Venue:                      Feature Exhibition Room 1

Opening Hours:    9:30am - 5:30pm (last admission: 5:00pm)

Closed:                     Mondays

Charge: 

    ・Adults: 200 yen
    ・High School Students: 150 yen
    ・ No charge for junior high school students and younger

   

     One of the Fukuoka City Museum’s most important collections is the materials handed down by the Kuroda family, the former lords of the Fukuoka Domain. These treasures are associated with generations of the family’s lords, spanning from the domain’s founder, Yoshitaka (also known as Kanbei or Josui), and the first lord, Nagamasa, through to the twelfth and last lord of the Fukuoka Domain, Nagatomo. The museum’s signature National Treasure—the "Gold Seal"—and the renowned spear "Nihon-go" were also donated by the Kuroda family.  

    Among a wide collection of these treasures, we shall introduce selected portraits, armors, swords, and historical documents in four phases.

                                                                    [Photo 1] Portrait of Josui Kuroda

<Portraits> 

   

    There are two types of portraits of the domain's founder, Yoshitaka: one depicting him sitting cross-legged (Photo 1), and another showing him relaxed, leaning against an armrest with one knee raised.              

    The depiction of the first lord Nagamasa on horseback and in armor, wearing an Ichinotani-style helmet (Photo 2), is believed to represent his appearance at the Battle of Sekigahara. Both images effectively capture the personalities of the two lords.

                                                                        [Photo 2] Portrait of Nagamasa Kuroda

<Armors>

Fukuoka City Museum houses a complete set of sixteen suits of armor (along with four additional helmets) belonging to all thirteen lords. Looking through all armors, it is noticeable how many of them were modeled after the armor of the first lord, Nagamasa—specifically his "Ichinotani-style" helmet (Photo 3) and the helmet featuring large water-buffalo-horn side crests. This is because the Kuroda family rose to become the lords of Chikuzen Province thanks to Nagamasa’s distinguished service in battles such as Sekigahara. Consequently, his armor was revered by the family as a symbol of good fortune.

   [Photo 3] Helmet in the Ichinotani style with silver-leaf overlay; armor laced with black cords (worn by Kuroda Nagamasa, the first lord of the domain)

<Swords>

Currently, the Fukuoka City Museum houses twenty-five swords formerly owned by the Kuroda family.  The Kyōhō Meibutsu-chō (Register of Famous Swords; compiled during the mid-Edo period (1690 – 1780)) lists over 290 renowned swords, out of which ten, including Heshikiri Hasebe (Photo 4), were in the possession of Tsugutaka, the sixth lord.
    Excluding the Tokugawa family, this number is second only to the twenty-six items held by the Maeda family, reflecting the high quality of the Kuroda family's sword collection.

                                                                                                            [Photo 5] Sword (Heshikiri Hasebe)

<Historical Documents>

One of the most important historical documents is probably the Gokanjo (Letters of Imperial Commendation), comprising 180 letters across twelve scrolls (of which one scroll containing four items bears Nagamasa’s appended notes) (Photo 5).  Gokanjo holds great academic value, as it contains a collection of documents associated with figures such as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu—conquerors who seized control of the government in Japan from the Sengoku period through the early Edo period (1573 - 1603) and became the de facto supreme rulers.

                                            [Photo 5] Red-Sealed Document from Oda Nobunaga