"Itsuo" was the pseudonym of Ichizo Kobayashi, founder of the Hankyu Railway and Takarazuka Revue. Converting his former mansion "Gazoku Sanso" into an art gallery, the museum took his nickname as its own when it opened in 1957. The exhibitions originally held here among the mansion's calming, mountain villa-like atmosphere were primarily focused on the 5,000 or so works amassed by Ichizo Kobayashi in his personal collection. The 50th anniversary was taken as an opportunity to relocate, with exhibitions of works now held four times a year and planned in accordance with Itsuo's dying wish. The collection includes 15 Important Cultural Properties as well as 19 pieces certified as Important Art Objects. The Yosa Buson, Goshun, and Maruyama-Shijo school collections are especially famous, containing Goshun's white plum folding screen and Buson's "Narrow Road to the Interior." Ichizo was also well versed in the art of tea, and there are over 1,000 pieces in the tea ceremony collection. What's more, the former structure of the Itsuo Art Museum was opened as the Kobayashi Ichizo Memorial Museum in April 2010.