OITA decided to establish a hall of arts worthy of the railway company connecting cultural centers of Japan--Kyoto, Nara, and Ise-- and appointed Yukio YASHIRO, worldly known historian of art as the first director and requested the works to do so.
京都、奈良、伊勢という日本の文化の中心地を結ぶ鉄道会社にふさわしい美術の殿堂をつくろうと考えた種田は、世界的な美術史学者・矢代幸雄を初代館長に任命し、その仕事を依頼した。