Rias Ark Museum of Art stands on a hill southwest of the city centre, with views back over Kesennuma Bay. The building itself is shaped like a ship, and the collection mixes contemporary art with local history, folk culture, foodways, and fishing-village life from the Sanriku Coast.
Its permanent disaster exhibition is the reason many travellers come. The museum treats tsunami memory as part of local culture, not as a spectacle, and it is a good counterweight to the busier port area below.