Named for a beautiful city on the shore of the Seto inland sea in western Japan. Minoru Honda (1917–1990) {see planet  (3904)}, discoverer of 12 comets and 12 novae, carried out work at the Kurashiki Observatory from 1950 until his death. The city is also the home of the Ohara art museum, one of the most famous of such museums in Japan. (M 17658) _ _.