27/08/2019 / Last updated : 02/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Kirishima Open-Air Museum 霧島アートの森

December 2017, Kirishima Open-Air Museum On a trip to see the eruption of Shinmoedake in Kirishima volcano, we discovered the Kirishima Open-Air Museum. This was a real surprise. As you wander around a large, pleasant park of grassy expanses and a woodland of spindly trees, you can view the work of a variety of artists. Being an open air exhibition, it is sculpture based. The works are, however, of wildly different concepts. They range from the outrageous pop of Kusama Yayoi’s huge polka-dot shoes, to the enigmatic, sinister yet vulnerable “Insiders”. Antony Gormley’s frail figures lurking in the thin trees. There is perhaps something for most tastes, solid stone, spindly […]

25/07/2019 / Last updated : 01/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Kanazawa Noh Museum and Museums in Fukui　金沢能楽美術館、福井市立美術館

October 2017, On a Saturday morning, Korogaki no Sato Shika is a very busy michi no eki. The car park is full and people were arriving by local bus to queue up for the vegetable shop that opened at nine. We did not try to shop as the store was very crowded and the queue for the checkout, dauntingly long. Kanazawa Noh Museum So, we set off for Kanazawa Noh Museum arriving a little before midday. The town is very busy and we crawl in traffic looking for the museum parking. This, of course, does not exist but there is a large, underground parking garage for a bigger museum(21st. Century […]

21/07/2019 / Last updated : 31/01/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Tateyama Caldera Sabo Museum and Shomyo Falls　立山称名滝

October 2017, Tateyama Caldera Museum We wake to bright sunshine around 7.30 after a quiet night at Tateyama station. To start the day, we visit the Tateyama Caldera Museum or exhibition centre. This does not open until 9.30 but a friendly gentleman allows us in, even though it is barely a quarter past. Once inside, he explains to us the geological features of the caldera and the reason the government, local or national, both perhaps, I am not sure, have been working for 100 years to minimize the devastation that will occur if another eruption and destructive lava flow happen. It is obvious, from the scale models, that such an […]

18/05/2019 / Last updated : 12/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Adachi museum and Shinjiko　足立美術館、宍道湖

Day 92, December 2016, Adachi Museum　　足立美術館 After the thunderstorms of the night, the morning breaks raw and dripping. A short drive, mostly along a river bank, brings us to the Adachi Museum of Art. This museum is famed, and rightly so, for its gardens. It has a plaque to state that it has been the winner of the award for the number one Japanese garden for thirteen consecutive years. The gardens are perfect and that is, perhaps, the only problem with them. The Gardens For the most part, you cannot enter the exquisite gardens but only view them through the plate glass. At certain places it is permitted to step […]

13/02/2019 / Last updated : 11/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Gujo Hachiman and Enku　郡上八幡

Day 74, November 2016, During the night, I had to remove some layers of clothing and we were not using sleeping bags. The morning is damp and very warm. We look around the michi no eki ‘Kokindenju no sato Yamato‘ which is a very pleasant place. It is laid out with small gardens and square ponds full of carp, linked by canals. There are large, flat stones placed here and there to serve as benches. The vegetable market is open and doing good business. On display are some odd vegetables that I have never seen before as well as the usual suspects. The temple museum that houses the Buddha images […]

31/12/2018 / Last updated : 16/03/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Hokusaikan in Obuse with added Snow Monkeys　小布施北斎館、野猿公園

Day 63, November 2016, Hokusai Museum in Obuse On a cold morning of chill rain and biting wind, we, wisely, decide to pay a visit to the Hokusai museum. This museum turns out to be an unexpected delight. I had no idea that Hokusai, in his later years, visited and worked in Obuse, with the help of a local patron. The variations of style exhibited here are truly stunning. The work of a genius or an “old man mad about art”. I recommend a visit to this small wonder of a museum. ＊Hokusai museum ; 1000 yen/adult Snow Monkeys　野猿公苑 From Hokusai we turn our attention to the, almost as famous, […]

16/10/2018 / Last updated : 08/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Sakata-Domon Ken Gallery　酒田

Chokaisanso, Hotel. Day 51, October 2016, Wake early, about 15 minutes before the 6:30 alarm, to find D. peering out of the window trying to identify the birds chirping loudly outside. They are sparrows. Off for an early bath, only to find the rotenburo hogging, old man wallowing again. Luckily, he leaves and I have the bath to myself. Soaking, enjoying the cold wind on my face and watching the high, blue sky laced with white strato-nimbus (guessing) and with ragged, grey rain clouds racing beneath. I can’t see the mountain from this side of the building but there is a good view into the distance and a glow of […]

15/10/2018 / Last updated : 29/01/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

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, […]