Fragrance House Dutch Museum

Fragrance House Dutch Museum, located in Kobe’s Kitano Ijinkan district, is an experiential Western-style house themed around fragrance and culture. Built in the mid-Taisho period as a wooden hipped-roof residence, it was once used as the Consul General’s residence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands before being passed down as the home of Mr. I.S. Wolhin. Today, it is designated as a Kobe City Traditional Preservation Building and was also selected as one of Hyogo’s 100 Outstanding Modern Houses.

Inside, highlights include a dining room furnished with French-made furniture and a living room with British-made furnishings. Decorative pieces such as an Approx. 150-year-old self-playing piano and an angel chandelier convey the culture of European residences, while the paintings are by Louisa van Vahlen, wife of a former minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The building itself serves as a single exhibition space.

In the original perfume-making experience, a skilled blender creates a scent suited to your personality from dozens of fragrance ingredients based on a fragrance questionnaire. There is also an experience where you can wear traditional clothing from Volendam in the Netherlands and take photos, as well as a shop selling wooden clogs and fragrance goods imported directly from the Netherlands. From the sunroom, you can look out over the flower-filled front garden and relax in the foreign atmosphere.

As a space where architecture, exhibits, fragrance, and culture come together, it has a unique charm even within the Kitano Ijinkan district.