Ichizo Kobayashi (1873-1957) was born in Nirasaki City of Yamanashi Prefecture. At the age of 34, he founded Hankyu Railway (Hankyu Corporation at present). Then he established Hankyu Department Store, Toho Co., Ltd. (movie and theatrical production) and many other business companies. Thus Hankyu Toho Group was organized.

In 1940, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Commerce and Industry and then in 1945 to Minister of State. In addition to these, he set up many business organizations and produced achievements as the director. Among them, most famous is the foundation of Takarazuka All Girl's Revue.

From the time when he was very young, he was much interested in art at large. In the field of literature, he wrote several novels in his teen-age years and those were appeared in the newspaper. He was also good at Haiku (seventeen-syllabled verse). It is well-known that he later wrote many dramas for Takarazuka Revue. As far as the fine arts are concerned, he started the collection of paintings in his twenties. And he himself was skillful in calligraphy.

His art collection began with Japanese paintings of modern age. In his forties, he took a great interest in "tea ceremony", so his taste chiefly changed to the collection of antiques such as paintings of middle and pre-modern ages, ancient calligraphy, ceramic ware made in Japan, China and Europe, lacquer ware of different ages and Buddhist art objects. Its number reaches into about 5,000 pieces in total.

These pieces in his collection were one by one purchased by artistic value in his judgment and by his taste. Among them, there are 15 pieces of Important Cultural Property and 19 pieces of Important Art Object, all of which are designated by the Country. Many of these Important Cultural Properties were designated after his death. This fact shows that he had an excellent aesthetic sense.

He had been planning to build an art museum for exhibition of these pieces. However, he passed away in January in 1957. So his residence named "Gazoku Sanso" was remodeled into the museum and the exhibition was opened to the public in October of the same year. "Itsuo" of "Itsuo Art Museum" is his another name as artist.