'Miho Museum' by I. M. Pei

1991-1997

The Miho Museum is located southeast of Kyoto, Japan, near the town of Shigaraki, in Shiga Prefecture. The museum was the dream of Mihoko Koyama (after whom it is named), the heiress to the Toyobo textile business, and one of the richest women in Japan. In 1970 Koyama founded the Shinji Shumeikai spiritual movement (see Shumei) which is now said to have some 300,000 members worldwide. Furthermore, in the 1990's Koyama commissioned the museum to be built close to the Shumei temple in the Shiga mountains.