Aomori museum of Art　青森県立美術館

summer 2018

As Honda is closed today we have time to kill, and decide to visit Aomori museum of Art. This is set in a large park and, we note, one crafty cyclist has been using it as a campsite.

Chagall and Munakata Shiko

On display are four vast Chagall works – theatre backdrops – well you can form your own opinion. The museum also featured work by native Aomori artists, notably Munakata Shiko whose work I was familiar with. This collection impressed me and I left with a higher opinion in his work and, after learning something of his life, the artist himself.

Nara Yoshimoto’s cartoon dogs and girls, on the other hand, left me cold. Each to his own. Also featured, was an artist whose work appeared to be illustrations for children’s stories, another who designed monsters.

Sawada Kyoichi

Pictures by Sawada Kyoichi, a war photographer who died during the Vietnam War, filled one gallery. He began taking photographs at Misawa Air-base in Shimokita peninsula as a very young man. He died in Cambodia but you had better ask Henry Kissinger how that came about.

Exiting the museum, there is a rather interesting brutalist, concrete gorge that is easily missed but should not be.

Moya Hills and Sukayu campsites

From the gallery, after lunch, we check the campsite at Moya hills where we had planned to stay for two nights before our electric problem. The site was ok but the facilities were very far apart and there was a stiff wind blowing. For one night it just did not seem worth the hassle. We also checked the campsite at Sukayu, where we had stayed in late autumn two year earlier. We had visions of cooking up a storm and eating in a peaceful setting under the stars. This, we know, is a good site but when we arrive the wind is very strong and swirling a thick, damp mist. This is not part of the vision so we forget the whole scheme and return to michi-no-eki Namioka for a third night. Namioka is not such a greatest place but, being lower, it is out of the mist and rain.

＊Aomori Museum of Art        510yen/adult

next of ‘Sannai-maruyama site‘