Maspro Museum Nisshin

マスプロ美術館

The interesting Maspro Museum probably does not get many visitors due largely to its location in the middle of nowhere, at the Maspro factory on the north eastern side of Nagoya.

Visitors who do make the trek out to Araike Station past the Nagoya City Tram & Subway Museum and then a fair walk north will be rewarded by an outstanding collection of late Edo Period and early Meiji Period wood block prints and ukiyo-e.

Most of the prints are focused on the arrival of westerners in Japan from the 1850s onwards and their setting up in the new treaty ports of Yokohama and Kobe and can be seen as a continuation of previous Nanban Art in the early Edo period, which concentrated on the odd antics of the "southern barbarians" or nanban.

Along side this collection are exhibits of Arita ceramics from Kyushu and more local Seto and Tokoname pieces.

A third part of the museum is dedicated to the history of Maspro as a company and a display of some of its hi-tech wireless and satellite TV gadgetry.

Maspro previously sold off its $20 million collection of Picassos and Van Goghs. Christie's defeating rival auction house Sotherby's in a game of jan-ken-pon (scissors, paper, stone) for the rights to auction the paintings.

Maspro Museum
〒470-0194
Nisshin
Tel: 052 804 6666

An infrequent Kururin Bus goes past the museum which is open Monday-Friday and costs 500 yen. No photography is allowed inside.
Google map of Maspro Museum
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Ryukoku Museum Kyoto

The new Ryukoku Museum is directly opposite Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto and close to the Omiya campus of Ryukoku University and the famed Higurashi-mon Gate.

The Ryukoku Museum is dedicated to Buddhist art detailing the spread of Buddhist culture and belief from its birthplace in the Ganges valley in India, through South East Asia, China and Korea to Japan. The exterior of the museum features a huge blind made of ceramics.

The Ryukoku Museum has a basement level and three levels above ground in a light and airy building. The second floor concentrates on Buddhism in Asia with the third floor focusing on Buddhism in Japan.

Exhibits include sculptures from the Gandhara period of Buddhist art in what is now present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Otani collection gathered between 1902 and 1914 on three expeditions sent by a chief priest of Nishi-Honganji on the original route of Buddhism from India to Japan and Important Academic Materials held by Ryukoku University.

The Buddhism in Japan section details the development of Shin Buddhism and the history of Honganji and the life of founder, Shinran Shonin.

The Ryukoku Museum also holds special exhibitions and has a museum shop and cafe facing Nishi-Honganji Temple.

Ryukoku Museum
117 Nishinakasujidori Shomen Sagaru
Shimogyo-ku
Kyoto 600-8399
Tel: 075 351 2500
Admission: 500 yen
Hours: 10am-5pm; closed Monday

Futaba Museum Former House of Sadayakko Kawakami

The Futaba Museum, the former two-story house and garden of actress Sadayakko Kawakami and industrialist Momosuke Fukuzawa, is the highlight of Nagoya's "Cultural Path" which runs from Nagoya Castle to Tokugawa Art Gallery and Tokugawa-en.

Sadayakko Kawakami (1871-1946), a former geisha, is known as the "first modern actress in Japan" and is credited with introducing Japanese dance and theater to the West on tours of the US and in a sensational appearance at the Paris World Exposition in 1900. Sadayakko was known by such people as Pablo Picasso and helped to spread an interest in "Japonism" so popular at the time.

After the death of her first husband and mentor, the actor Otojiro Kawakami, Sadayakko (aka Sada Yacco) lived with her lover, the rich businessman Momosuke Fukuzawa (1868–1938) in the house in Nagoya which is now the Futaba Museum.

Fukuzawa made his fortune in the production of electricity including hydro-electricity plants on the Kiso River in Gifu Prefecture, including the dam at Ena Gorge.

The residence is known for its mix of Japanese and western styles including Japanese tatami-style rooms, exquisite furniture and western stained glass. The house became a salon where important poets, writers and business people would meet.

Futaba Museum contains a number of exhibits and panel displays detailing Sadayakko's life as well as materials relating to various authors active in the period: Shoyo Tsubouchi, Saburo Shiroyama, Tsuyoshi Kotani, Miyoshi Enatsu and Ken Kasugai.

Lesley Downer's book, Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West, is the authoritative narrative of Sadayakko's life.

Other places to see on the Cultural Path include Nagoya City Hall, the Hori Art Museum, Nagoya City Archives, the Aichi Prefectural Building, the Chikaramachi Catholic Church, the Shumokukan, home of Tamesaburo Imoto, as well as the former residence of Sasuke Toyoda, Kenchuji Temple, the residence of Tetsujiro Haruta and the Nagoya Ceramics Hall.

The Cultural path runs through a prosperous, residential district home to the rich and powerful of Meiji and Taisho-era Nagoya including the Toyoda family who founded the present-day Toyota car company, artists, merchants, bankers and writers.

Futaba Museum
3-23, Shumoku-cho
Higashi-ku
Nagoya
461-0014
Tel: 052 936 3836
Hours: 10am-5pm; closed Mondays
Admission: 200 yen

Access

Futaba Museum is a 10-minute walk north of Exit 2 of Takaoka Station on the Sakuradori Line of the Nagoya subway, a short walk from the Bunka no Michi Futabakan stop of the Meguru tourist Loop bus, 12 minutes south from Amagasaka Station on the Meitetsu Seto Line, and also a short walk from Shimizu-guchi bus stop on the route of Key Route Bus #2.

Toyota Partner Robots

産業技術記念館

On a revisit to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry & Technology, not far from Nagoya Station, we came across the Toyota Partner Robots (トヨタ・パートナーロボット).

Developed in 2004 for the 2005 Expo, the Toyota Partner Robots are humanoid robots and can walk and play the trumpet, a feat they perform on the hour with admirable skill.

Toyota Partner Robots were developed to work with the elderly, through assisting in household chores and watching over them. At present, the technology is limited to them walking and playing various musical instruments.

Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry & Technology
1-35 Noritake Shinmachi 4-chome
Nishi-ku, Nagoya
451-0051
Tel: 052 551 6115
Admission: 500 yen
Hours: 9.30am-5pm (last admission 4.30pm)
Closed on Mondays

Access

Take a local (futsu) Meitetsu train one stop north from Nagoya Station to Sako. The museum is a 3 minute walk to your right from Sako Station.

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Bunka-Den at Atsuta Jingu

文化殿

The Bunka-den treasure storehouse museum (also known as the Atsuta Jingu Museum) is located within the grounds of Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya. A modern ferro-concrete building constructed in 1966 to mimic Azekura (log-cabin) style architecture, the Bunka-den has over 4,000 pieces in store of which a small number are on revolving display, changed every month.

The exhibits, which have been donated by members of the Imperial and Tokugawa families as well as the general public, include daggers, swords, garments, Bugaku dance masks and historic documents.

Bunka-den
1-1-1- Jingu
Atsuta-ku
Nagoya
456-0031
Tel: 052 671 0852
Hours: 9am-4.30pm; closed last Wednesday of the month

The nearest stations are Jingu-mae on the Meitetsu Line and Jingu-nishi subway station on the Meijo Line.

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Aomori Contemporary Art Center

国際芸術センター青森（ACAC）

The Aomori Contemporary Art Center (ACAC) south of Aomori city is located on the grounds of Aomori Public College.

The Aomori Contemporary Art Center was designed by self-trained architect Tadao Ando, whose prolific CV includes the Suntory Museum in Osaka, Omotesando Hills in Tokyo and the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum on Naoshima Island in the Inland Sea.

The Aomori Contemporary Art Center's circular exhibition hall is surrounded by a graceful water feature and set in a pleasant natural environment. There are also various studios and workshops for woodwork, printing, AV and photography on site, plus a residential hall and lounge.

ACAC showcases both contemporary Japanese and foreign art and includes an Artist in Residence Program (AIR) for both Japanese and foreign artists.

2011's summer exhibition "Re-Modernologio" included works by Tomii Motohiro, Niwa Yoshinori, Asakai Yoko and Romanian visual artist Pal Peter.

The Aomori Contemporary Art Center can be reached in 40 minutes by a JR bus or Aomori city bus from Aomori Station.

Aomori Contemporary Art Center
152-6 Yamazaki Goshizawa
Aomori
Tel: 017 764 5200
Hours: 9am-7pm daily
Admission: Free
Aomori Contemporary Art Center map

Anamorphosis 3, the sculpture you walk on by Pal Peter

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Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum

青森県立郷土館

Prefectural museums in Japan are not always guaranteed to excite but the Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum in Aomori is an exception and well worth a visit for its broad sweep of Tohoku culture from the Jomon Period to the present day.

The Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum is housed in a grand 1930s building that was previously a bank. The museum itself opened in 1973 and its several floors have exhibition rooms dedicated to a variety of subjects as well as occasional special exhibitions - such as the comic cut-outs of people sleeping off too much sake at cherry blossom time (see image below).

The Archeology Exhibit has some fantastic earthenware and clay figures from the Jomon Period sites around Sannai-Maruyama, just west of Aomori city and the Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum is an important reference for anyone interested in this early period of Japanese history.

Aomori's nature is covered with dioramas and taxidermy exhibits and the nature Exhibit includes a model of the Aomori Elephant or Naumann Elephant, named after the fiery German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann (1854-1927), who spent a decade teaching and researching in Japan in the 1870s and 1880s.

The History Exhibit covers Aomori's history from the Nara Period onward including the history of the powerful Edo era Tsugaru and Nanbu clans, the Hakkoda-san Incident of 1902 and World War II. Original photographs, uniforms and newspapers help recreate 1940s Aomori, which was heavily bombed by the US air force.

The Folk Customs Exhibit displays agricultural implements, clothes and a number of oshira - pillar like household gods unique to the Tohoku area.

Other exhibits include an Apple Exhibit dedicated to Aomori's agricultural mainstay - apples, a Personal Experience Room, very much with school children in mind, where visitors can play with various exhibits, the Pioneers of Aomori Exhibit dedicated to such Aomori alumni as writer Osamu Dazai (1909-1948), Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer Kyouichi Sawada (1936-1970) and singer Noriko Awaya (1907-1999) and the "Refined" Collection Exhibit, over 11,000 pieces donated by a local doctor.

The Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum is one block south of Yatai Mura and about a 15 minute walk from Aomori Station.

Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum
Honmachi 2-8-14
Aomori
030-0802
Tel: 017 777 1585
Aomori Prefectural Folk Museum map

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