Michelin Green Guide Hiroshima, Miyajima & Okayama — Three-Star Itsukushima Shrine and Koraku-en, and All 38 Starred Sights

What the Michelin Green Guide is — 38 starred sights in Hiroshima, Miyajima and Okayama

This is the Michelin Green Guide (Le Guide Vert), which rates destinations rather than restaurants. The Japan edition is published in France: the 4th edition in 2015, the 6th in 2020, and the current one in 2025. Every star below is given with the edition that awarded it.

In the 2015 edition the Sanyo region along the Inland Sea is one-star and Hiroshima two-star. Four of the five three-star entries are on Miyajima. Shin-Osaka to Okayama is about 45 minutes on the Sanyo Shinkansen, to Hiroshima about 1 hour 25; Okayama to Hiroshima is 35 minutes. Base yourself in one of them and day-trip. The view from Senko-ji Park in Onomichi and the port town of Tomonoura are one-star too. Covering Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi by JR, an area pass is worth pricing.

Three-star Miyajima — Itsukushima Shrine, the great torii, the view from Misen

The 2015 edition gives three stars to four entries: Miyajima, Itsukushima Shrine, its great torii and the view from the Mt. Misen observatory. Taira no Kiyomori gave the shrine its present form in the 12th century, its halls standing over the water. At high tide the buildings and the torii appear to float; at low tide you can walk out across the sand to the foot of the gate. To see both, check the tide table and allow at least half a day. The torii emerged in 2022 from three and a half years of restoration.

A ropeway climbs the island’s high point, Mt. Misen (535 m), and it is a 30-minute walk from the upper station to the Misen observatory (one star) and its view across the islands of the Inland Sea. At the foot, Daisho-in is two-star, and the five-storey pagoda and the Miyajima History and Folklore Museum are one-star. Arriving on the island, you pay a visitor tax of ¥100 per person with your ferry fare. Feeding the island’s deer is prohibited.

Hiroshima — the Peace Memorial Park and Museum

The 2015 edition makes the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum two-star, with the World Heritage Atomic Bomb Dome, the Children’s Peace Monument — raised for a girl who died of leukaemia — and the National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims at one star. The museum shows the belongings of those killed on 6 August 1945 and what the bombing did. Allow an hour and a half to two hours.

The park is a place of mourning for the people who died. Take off your hat at the cenotaph, put your hands together quietly, keep your voice down, and think about how you pose for photographs. In the city, the Edo-period daimyo garden Shukkei-en is one-star.

Three-star Koraku-en, Okayama Castle and Bitchu Matsuyama Castle

Koraku-en is three-star in the 2015 edition, and the view from Yuishinzan, the artificial hill inside it, is two-star. The Ikeda lords of Okayama laid it out in the Edo period, and it is one of Japan’s three great gardens. Across broad lawns and ponds, and over the river, stands the black keep of Okayama Castle (one star). The city of Okayama is one-star, the Hayashibara Museum of Art near the castle and its Noh costumes are one-star, and its Scenes in and around Kyoto screens are two-star. The Yumeji Art Museum of Takehisa Yumeji is one-star.

West of Okayama, Takahashi is one-star, as are the mountain castle Bitchu Matsuyama, whose Edo-period keep survives, and the garden of Raikyu-ji, attributed to Kobori Enshu. Bitchu Matsuyama stands at about 430 m, and on autumn and winter mornings it sometimes appears to float on a sea of cloud. The Kibi plain, dotted with burial mounds and shrines, is one-star.

Kurashiki — the Bikan quarter and the Ohara Museum

Kurashiki and its Bikan quarter are two-star in the 2015 edition. Held directly by the shogunate, the town became a collection point for rice and cotton, and willows and white plaster storehouses still line the Kurashiki canal, where small boats take visitors along the water.

In the Bikan quarter, the Ohara Museum of Art is two-star: opened in 1930, it was Japan’s first private museum of Western art, holding El Greco, Monet and others. The Japan Rural Toy Museum, with folk toys from across the country, is one-star. The quarter is a 10-minute walk from Kurashiki Station, itself 15 minutes by JR from Okayama. A combination coupon is handy if you plan several sites.

The Kintai Bridge at Iwakuni, the Yamato Museum at Kure, and model routes

In Yamaguchi, Iwakuni is one-star and the Kintai Bridge, five wooden arches over the Nishiki River, is two-star. First built in the 17th century, it has kept its form through repeated rebuilding. The Iwakuni Art Museum is one-star. Iwakuni is about 50 minutes by JR from Hiroshima, then 20 minutes by bus. South of Hiroshima at Kure, the Yamato Museum (one star), known for its 1:10 model of the battleship Yamato, reopened after renovation in April 2026.

Michelin Green Guide Hiroshima, Miyajima & Okayama — FAQ

Star ratings: ★★★ worth a special journey / ★★☆ worth a detour / ★☆☆ interesting. Stars come from the 4th (2015) or 6th (2020) edition of the Michelin Green Guide Japan, as noted for each sight, and are reviewed with every edition. “Starred sights” counts every entry the guide awards stars to — including buildings inside a site, museum pieces, viewpoints and routes — so it is not a count of separate locations.