The City Museum of Art sits in the secondary enclosure of the old castle, opposite the Reimeikan. Its strength is twentieth-century Japanese painters with Kagoshima roots — Fujishima Takeji, Kuroda Seiki, Yorozu Tetsugoro — alongside a small but real Western collection that includes a Monet water-lily canvas and works by Cezanne, Picasso, Chagall and Rouault.
The building is compact and rarely crowded, and a visit takes about an hour. Special exhibitions on the ground floor change every couple of months and are worth checking on the way in. Closed Mondays; the cafe on the top floor has the best view in the building.