Top Ten: Contemporary Art Museums

Edit 15 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.

Edit 25 June 2020: Replaced entry #3 and the Wildcard.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.  Whilst I very much enjoyed my time there, Japan has so many more places to experience cutting-edge modern art.  These museums, ten of which I have selected and listed below, bring together the works of avant-garde artists from within and beyond Japan alike.

In the interest of fairness, and because I have not yet experienced many of these places in person, this list is ordered not by quality, but by geographic location, going from north/east to south/west.

1) Aomori Museum of Art

The entrance of the museum, designed by Jun Aoki.
yisris / Yuichi / CC BY-SA

Aomori, the city at the far-northern tip of Honshu, is the site of our first museum.  The Aomori Museum of Art stands across from the Sannai Maruyama Archaeological Site, a park of reconstructed Jomon-era (13000-300 BC) structures, and the museum reflects its neighbour in several distinct fashions.  For example, certain outdoor works are displayed in deep concrete trenches to evoke the excavation trenches dug in the Jomon site.  This museum's signature piece is "Aomori-ken" by Yoshitomo Nara (奈良 美智, b. 1959), a giant, stark-white statue of a stylised dog.

185 Chikano, Yasuta, Aomori-shi, Aomori-ken 〒038-0021.  Open from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, or from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM between June and September.  Closed on the 2nd and 4th Monday each month, and on 28-31 December.  Costs ¥510.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

Elsewhere in Aomori, I also recommend the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre.  Part of the Aomori Public College and surrounded by nature, this museum and workshop hosts different artists-in-residence every so often.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  Free to enter.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

2) Towada Art Centre, Aomori Prefecture

"Flower Horse" by Jung-hwa Choi.
Angaurits / CC0

Not that far from Aomori and the popular Lake Towada, the city of Towada host its own art museum.  The museum campus is a scattered collection of multiple white, cube-like buildings connected by glass-lined halls.  Many rooms incorporate giant windows that allow some works to be seen from outside.  Additional works, cleverly-designed benches called "Street Furniture", are placed at spots along the roads outside.  This museum's signature work is "Flower Horse", by Jeong-hwa Choi (b. 1961), a five-and-a-half metre (18 feet) tall horse statue covered in colourful floral shapes.

10-9 Nishi 2-ban-chō, Towada-shi Aomori-ken 〒034-0082.  Open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, closed Mondays.  Costs ¥520, or ¥1,200 for special exhibits.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

3) Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art - KINARE, Niigata Prefecture

The main building of the Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art.
Abasaa / Public domain

The Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art, or "KINARE", is the unofficial headquarters of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, an art festival held across the area every three years.  The Echigo-Tsumari region, part of Niigata Prefecture, is surrounded by neatly-terraced rice fields, and is often besieged by heavy snowfalls in the winter.  This region is known for "satoyama", the concept of living in harmony with nature, a term which was borrowed for the name of the museum.  Even though the Triennale is held only every three years around August (next scheduled for 2021), many of its artworks have become permanent installations, both around the countryside and in this museum.

71-2 6-1 Hon-chō, Tōkamachi-shi, Niigata-ken, 〒948-0003.  Open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, closed Wednesdays.  Costs ¥800.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

4) Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

The entrance to the Mori Art Museum, from within the Mori Tower building.
Wing1990hk / CC BY

The Mori Museum is located near the top of the iconic Mori Tower in Roppongi.  It holds no artworks on a permanent basis, but instead hosts multiple periodic exhibitions from Japanese and international artists alike.  For example, one of their current (June-October 2019) exhibitions, called "The Soul Trembles" by Chiharu Shiota (塩田千春, b. 1972), features works involving dense networks of red or black thread connecting chairs, boat frames, and other objects, nearly filling their entire rooms.  The Mori Museum's entry price is a little steep compared to the rest of this list, but also includes admission to the Tokyo City View, an observatory with open-air decks.

Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 53F, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo-to 〒106-6108.  Open from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM (Tuesdays to 5:00 PM).  Costs ¥1,800, including entry to Tokyo City View.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

Elsewhere in Tokyo, I also recommend:

• National Art Centre.  Part of the "Roppongi Art Triangle" which also includes the Mori Museum.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (Fridays/Saturdays to 8:00 PM), closed Tuesdays.  Costs vary by exhibition, typically ¥1,000.  Website: (English) (Japanese)
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.  Located at Kiba Park in Tokyo's eastern wards.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, closed Mondays.  Costs ¥500, additional exhibition costs vary.  Website: (English)
• Yayoi Kusama Museum.  The first museum dedicated to the stylish works of this prolific Japanese artist.  Open from 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM; timed tickets required.  Costs ¥1,000.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

5) Hakone Open-Air Museum

"Spheric Theme" by Naum Gabo.
leon&mae / CC BY

Hakone has no shortage of art museums, some of which I visited the last time I was there, and perhaps the most striking is the Hakone Open-Air Museum.  Comprising much of the grounds is the Sculpture Garden, where many twisting, imaginative works are set amidst the rolling landscape. Some installations, such as "Woods of Net" and the towering "Symphonic Sculpture", also double as play-places for children.  Another highlight is the Picasso Pavilion, a separate building dedicated to sketches and paintings by the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

1121 Ninotaira, Hakone, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa-ken 〒250-0407.  Open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Costs ¥1,600.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

6) Matsumoto City Art Museum

The main building of the museum, with flower sculptures by Yayoi Kusama to the left.
663highland / CC BY-SA

Note: The Matsumoto City Art Museum is set to close for renovations, starting in 2021 and lasting for about a year's time.

The Matsumoto City Art Museum pays a special focus to artists born in the city and surrounding prefecture.  Chief among them is Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生), born in Matsumoto in 1929 and still active into her 90s.  She is one of Japan's most prolific living artists (as of this post) due in large part to her distinctive style, commonly involving lots of bright colours and polka-dots.  This museum's other permanent exhibitions are more on the traditional side, including sculptures by Munehide Hosokawa (細川宗英, 1930-1994), calligraphy by Kamijo Shinzan (上條信山, 1907-1997), and landscape paintings by Kazuo Tamura (田村一男, 1904-1997).

4-2-20 Chuo, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano-ken 〒390-0811.  Open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Closed Mondays and from 29 December to 2 January.  Costs ¥410.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

7) Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

The main building of the museum, with "Colour Activity House" by Olafur Eliasson in front.
Taken by the author on Thursday, 17 May 2018.

Kanazawa's 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art was established to collect and share "works produced since 1980 that propose new values", as per its mission statement.  Said works are shown  in rotating paid exhibitions, and as free permanent installations inside and outside the museum building.  Speaking of which, the circular-shaped building was designed with multiple entrances to encourage discovering its art from more than one angle, and also features a library and public spaces to integrate itself with the community.  Its most famous work is "The Swimming Pool" by Leandro Erlich, which does indeed look like a swimming pool from above, but...  Well, you should just see it for yourself.  Or read my report here.

1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-8509.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, or to 8:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.  Costs ¥1,200.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

8) Inujima Seirensho Art Museum

The refinery ruins outside the Seirensho Art Museum.
KimonBerlin / CC BY-SA

Inujima (犬島, lit. "dog island") is a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, just off the coast of Honshu.  It used to be known for exporting granite during the feudal era, and copper during the early 20th century.  Unfortunately, within a mere decade of the copper refinery's establishment, the price of copper plummeted, and the refinery was no longer able to make a profit and had to shut down.  Its buildings were left standing, however, and in 2008 their ruins were incorporated into the Seirensho Art Museum (犬島精錬所美術館, lit. "Inujima Refinery Art Museum").  Also part of the island's art initiative is the Art House Project, a collection of five artistically-redesigned houses scatted about the main village.

327-5 Inujima, Higashi-ku, Okayama-ken 〒704-8153.  Open from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM.  Closed Tuesdays, or Tuesdays to Thursdays between December and February.  Costs ¥2,100, including entry to Inujima Art House Project and Inujima Life Garden.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

9) Benesse Art Site, Naoshima

The exterior of the Benesse House Museum.
663highland / CC BY-SA

Benesse is a Japan-based education company which funded the creation of art museums on Naoshima, another island in the Seto Inland Sea.  They are all characterised by their architecture, courtesy of Tadao Ando (安藤 忠雄, b. 1941).  The design of these museums are brutalist, employing large slabs of bare concrete in simple geometric shapes, but are harmoniously incorporated into the surrounding nature.  The grounds of the Benesse Museum include a public park, dotted with works like the aforementioned Yayoi Kusama's iconic "Yellow Pumpkin", and even a small hotel, whose guests have the privilege of visiting the museum after-hours.

Gotanchi, Naoshima, Kagawa-gun, Kagawa-ken 〒761-3110.  Open from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.  Costs ¥1,050.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

Elsewhere on Naoshima, I recommend:

• Art House Project.  A collection of houses in the port town, re-purposed for art installations.  Open from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM; closed Mondays.  Costs ¥420 per site, or ¥1,050 for all six.  Website: (English) (Japanese)
• Lee Ufan Museum.  Zen-like works from the Korean-born artist, set among stark concrete surroundings.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (October-February to 5:00 PM); closed Mondays.  Costs ¥1,050.  Website: (English) (Japanese)
• Chichu Art Museum.  Monet paintings and full-room installations in naturally-lit settings.  Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM (October-February to 5:00 PM); closed Mondays; reservations required.  Costs ¥2,100.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

10) Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

The main building of the museum.
Taisyo at Japanese Wikipedia / CC BY

The Hiroshima MOCA was established in 1989, which makes it, depending on your definition, "the first public art museum in Japan devoted exclusively to contemporary art".  Its regular collection includes copies of Andy Warhol's (1928-1987) "Marilyn" screen-print, and Henry Moore's (1898-1986) "The Arch" and "Atom Piece" sculptures.  It is situated in the middle of Hijiyama Park, a hilltop park which also boasts additional outdoor sculptures, a manga library, and plenty of cherry blossoms for springtime.

1-1 Hijiyama-koen, Minami-ku, Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima-ken 〒732-0815.  Open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Closed Mondays and from 27 December to 1 January.   Costs ¥300 for regular exhibitions, ¥1,030 for special exhibitions.  Website: (English) (Japanese)

Elsewhere in Hiroshima, I also recommend the Peace Memorial Park.  This area below the epicentre of the atomic bomb detonation was cleaned up afterwards and preserved as a public park.  It is decorated all over by sculptures designed to represent the emotions of its survivors.  You may read my report from the park here.

Wildcard) Setouchi Trienalle

"Yellow Pumpkin" by Yayoi Kusama, looking out in the direction of Takamatsu.
KimonBerlin / CC BY-SA

For my Wildcard slot, I once again present a recurring event in lieu of another museum.  The Setouchi Triennale is a festival, held every three years, intended to draw artists and tourists alike to one of Japan's poorer dwindling-population regions, much in the vein of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale mentioned above.  Even though the Setouchi Trienalle occurs only every so often, most of the installations presented each year are left standing afterwards, and can be visited year-round.  This festival is held across numerous islands in the Seto Inland Sea, accessible by ferries from Takamatsu (on Shikoku) or Uno (on Honshu), and is held every three years in three sessions during the Spring, Summer, and Autumn.  The main sites such as Naoshima, Inujima (both listed above), Teshima, and Shodoshima participate in all three sessions.  Additional sites, mainly west of the Seto Ohashi bridge, are active only during the Spring or Autumn sessions.  As of this post, the Setouchi Trienalle was last held in 2019, with the next occurence taking place in 2022.  More information: (English) (Japanese)

Higashi Chaya District

This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 17 May 2018.

Edit 15 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited Nagamachi, Kanazawa's former samurai district.  Nagamachi is one of a few neighbourhoods which retain the spirit of the city from its older times, and another can be found across town.  To the northeast of Kanazawa's city centre is the Higashi Chaya district (東茶屋街, Higashi Chaya-gai, lit. 'east teahouse district'), the largest of Kanazawa's three former teahouse and geisha districts.

As with Gion in Kyoto, geisha perform to this very day at certain high-class restaurants in Kanazawa's three teahouse districts.  One of the most accessible places to see them in action is the Kaikaro Teahouse, a hundred metres down the main road (shown above).  Whilst operating under the usual referral-based admission system at night, during the day they sell more affordable cups of tea to anyone who visits.  Another place, the Shima Teahouse, has been converted into a museum which preserves how it looked and operated as a teahouse restaurant since almost 200 years ago.


Traditional Japanese architecture is in abundance here, and in the streets leading up to the core of this neighbourhood, there is distinct contrast between each storefront.

But as you get further in, it becomes harder to tell one specific place apart from another, unless you can read its Japanese name on the little signs by each door.

On top of that, it was difficult to get the clear photographs I wanted because, given the mid-afternoon time, I had to share the place with many other tourists, and asking them to move aside wasn't as easy as it sounds.

Kanazawa is famous for its gold leaf production, producing 99 percent of all the gold leaf in Japan.  These particular objects are for sale... for hundreds of thousands of yen (thousands of US dollars)!

The many stores along the way sell considerably cheaper golden goods, although as far as I can tell, some of them merely use gold paint instead of actual foil.  The good-luck charms displayed in this window include owls, ojigi fukusuke (a bowing man showing off his shaved/topknot haircut), and maneki-neko, the "beckoning cat" which invites fortune when its right paw is raised, or customers with its left hand.  Without that helpful placard to refer to, I would forget which side is which!

User: (WT-shared) Jpatokal at wts wikivoyage [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

One of the more high-end purveyors of gold leaf goods is Hakuza, with a half-dozen stores in the Kanazawa area.  Their branch in Higashiyama, although appearing nondescript in the front, is special for two reasons.  In the building's rear courtyard stands a former storehouse, now used for tea ceremonies which has been wrapped completely in gold foil inside and out.  Furthermore, they offer reasonably-priced experiences where, with an instructor's guidance, you get to affix a gold-leaf pattern onto one of several goods (chopsticks, dishes, etc.) and take home the results.  These sessions run six times a day from Monday through Friday, cost ¥756 to ¥1620, and must be reserved no later than the day before, by phone or e-mail.  More information: (Japanese)

金沢市 [CC BY 2.1 jp], via Wikimedia Commons

If you're not the shopping type, you can still enjoy the Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, a short walk along the main road.  It has permanent exhibits about the history and manufacturing process of gold leaf, and a rotating collection of objects made with the material.

Alas, I never got to any of those special places.  There was no one place in particular I was searching for during my meanderings, trying to find good shots while dealing with the extra crowds stressed me out, and more than anything my travel partner's shoes started falling apart on her, so we felt it best to cut our adventure short for the day.  I didn't completely enjoy my spin in Higashi Chaya-gai for those reasons, but I still loved Kanazawa as a whole and would highly recommend it, if you could perhaps plan a bit better.  Still, there are other cities left to explore, so join me as I recount my day-trip to Takayama, plus the top ten modern art museums in Japan, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Access: From Kanazawa Station, take the Kanazawa Left Loop bus to Hashiba-cho (10 minutes, ¥200).  The Right Loop bus will be considerably faster when returning to the station.  Many local JR buses also stop at Hashiba-cho (7-15 minutes, ¥200, JR Pass OK).

Shima Teahouse Museum

Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  No regular closing days.

Costs: ¥500.  Tea service costs ¥500 to ¥700 extra.

Address: 1-13-21 Higashiyama, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0831

Directions: From the Hashiba-cho bus stop, head north on the main road, away from the bridge.  Turn right at the traffic light, continue straight down for three blocks, turn left, then immediately right.  The entrance is the fourth down on your left.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

Hakuza Hikari-gura

Hours: Open from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM.  No regular closing days.

Address: 1-13-18 Higashiyama, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0831

Directions: The shop is four doors down from the Shima Teahouse, above.

Website: (Japanese)

Kaikaro Teahouse

Hours: Open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  Free tours are given on the hour, every hour, during open time.

Costs: ¥750.  Tea service costs ¥500 extra.

Address: 1-14-18 Higashiyama, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0831

Directions: The shop is across from the Hakuza Hikari-gura shop, above.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

Yasue Gold Leaf Museum

Hours: Open from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.  No regular closing days.

Costs: ¥310.

Address: 1-3-10 Higashiyama, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0831

Directions: From the Hashiba-cho bus stop, head north on the main road, away from the bridge.  The museum is 2 minutes away on foot, in between the next two traffic lights.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

Nomura Samurai House

This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 17 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited the Nagamachi samurai district in Kanazawa, starting with the Shinise Memorial Museum, a former merchant's home.  As much as I enjoyed that place, it is perhaps not an ideal representation of what Nagamachi is all about.  But I sought to correct that image by heading deeper into the neighbourhood.

The samurai, the warrior class of Edo-era Japan, were given preferential treatment by the ruling daimyo lords.  Samurai were the only caste who were allowed to own swords, and were paid in large sums of rice, which was used as currency in that time.  In Kanazawa, the lords of the Maeda clan set up homes for them in this location near the castle.  This system went on until 1871, near the start of the Meiji era.  Whilst not many original samurai houses remain, their families having sold the land for other development, recent efforts have been made to preserve what is left.

The canal running through here served both as a moat to protect the area, and to channel supply boats to and from the port.  The walls are built in layers of bamboo, gravel, and mud.  In the winter, they are protected further by an additional layer of straw cladding, known as komokake (薦掛け, lit. 'hanging straw').  Between this and the pine tree supports over in Kenroku-en, the people of Kanazawa take snow preparation seriously.  And with the kind of weather this place gets, I can imagine why.

Nagamachi may not match the scale or degree of preservation of Kyoto's Higashiyama district (i.e. you'll still see some overhead power lines here), but still boasts a few pleasant alleyways to explore.  Mind you, most of the older buildings here are private homes with nothing to offer the average traveller besides aesthetics.

That said, Nagamachi still punches hard with a few museums documenting the area in its glory days, which brings me to the focus of this article: the Nomura family house (野村家, Nomura-ke).  The Nomura family was one of the wealthier samurai families of the area, earning a yearly salary of 1,000 to 2,200 koku of rice (equivalent to 71-157 million yen / 0.66-1.455 million US dollars in 2019) and possessing a homestead of 3,300 m² at their peak.  When the feudal system was abolished, this plot was passed around multiple owners and eventually sold to the city of Kanazawa, which re-opened it as a public museum.

The largest room in the house is the drawing room, or jodan-no-ma (上段の間, lit. 'raised-floor room').  It is blocked off, but visible from the adjoining rooms.

One of those rooms has a gilded Buddhist altar recessed in the far wall.

The Nomuras' wealth shows in the many artistic details adorning the place, such as these carved panels above the sliding doors.

The rooms on the first floor look out upon a small private garden.  Given the relative size of this garden, the Nomuras must have been very wealthy back in the day.  Today's visitors may only look out onto the garden and not step into it, but it is as dense as all get-out, especially in this season.

The garden also incorporates a pond, sourced from the canals outside, where a few golden carp had swum out to greet us.

Some of the doorways, such as this one leading up to the second floor, are small and short, so taller people -- even yours truly -- will have to take care crossing them.  But once you're past those, a teahouse operates on the second floor, allowing visitors to savour a cup of green tea for only ¥300.  However, at that time the place was booked by a school group on a field trip.  Not that I minded so much, since I already got to experience a cup at Kenroku-en earlier that day, but I still couldn't explore this floor as much as I wanted to.

Also included among the manor's grounds is a small museum.  Its name, the Onikawa Bunko (鬼川文庫, lit. "ogre river library"), refers to the Onikawa irrigation canal, which in turn referred to an oni spirit that was deified nearby.  The museum holds a collection of swords, letters, and other objects d'art pertaining to the Nomura family and the Maeda daimyo clan.

These are examples of mon (文), Japanese coins used from the 14th to 19th centuries.  Like the concurrent Chinese wen and Korean mun, mon coins all had holes in the centre, allowing them to be strung together in bundles.  Some merchants would offer slight discounts when paid in strung-together mon.  Even today, the 5 and 50 yen coins retain holes like these.

I found the Nomura House in particular to be a bit of a tourist trap.  There’s not an awful lot of specific things to see, or room to move around in, especially around the otherwise-pretty garden.  At least, it seemed that way with how many guests we had to pass by.  I actually preferred the Shinise Memorial Hall, as I wrote about previously.  Of course, my experience may not be the same as yours.  Perhaps you might visit at a different time of day and get fewer crowds, and then it may feel just as serene as intended.  Until then, I'll just try my luck at our last stop for the day: the Higashi Chaya district, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Hours: Open from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, or until 4:30 PM between October and March.  Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.  Closed on 26-27 December and 1-2 January.

Costs: ¥550.

Address: 1-3-32 Nagamachi, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0865

Access: The Nomura House is 5 minutes on foot from the Korinbo bus stop.  From Kanazawa Station, take the Kanazawa Left Loop bus, the Kenrokuen Shuttle, or a JR bus to Korinbo (10 minutes, ¥200).

Directions: From Korinbo, walk north and turn left at the 2nd traffic light, the Korinbo Ni-chome (香林坊二丁目) intersection.  Walk down to the end of the road, turn left, then right.  The museum will be on your left at the next crossing.

From the Shinise Memorial Museum, simply head left (facing away from the building) along the canal for 200m (650 ft.), about 2 minutes.  Turn right at the second crossing along, and the Nomura House will be on your right.

Website: (Japanese/English)

Shinise Memorial Museum

This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 17 May 2018.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited Kanazawa, going from the Kenroku-en garden straight to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.  From old to new, our next destination took us back to Kanazawa's old side.  I led my grandmother and myself due west to Nagamachi, a former samurai district.  I shall go more in-depth into Nagamachi in the next article, but for now, let us focus on the museum which met us at the entrance to this neighbourhood: the Shinise Memorial Hall (老舗記念館, Shinise Kinen-kan).

Nagamachi (長町) was set up during the early 17th century as a neighbourhood for the samurai class to live, due to its proximity to Kanazawa Castle.  Whilst the samurai thrived during the Edo period, their fortunes fell upon entering the Meiji era in the mid-19th century, having lost many of their privileges amidst the sweeping societal reforms.  It was in that power vacuum that the status of merchant class rose, which brings us to the Nakaya family.

The Nakayas were the owners of a medicine shop which served the lords of the Maeda clan since 1579.  Three centuries later, they set up this new building as a pharmacy, which was eventually donated to the city of Kanazawa and turned into a public museum.  As you enter, you will first walk along the storefront (みせの間, mise no ma), which has been re-created to appear as it would have back in the Meiji era.

Along the way, you will also see the tools and ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine, as was made by this shop.  From left to right, the jars here contain rubber tree (トチュウ, tochū), dried viper (ハンピ, hanpi), bishop's hat flowers (インヨウカク, in'yōkaku), turmeric (ウコン, ukon), cinnamon (ケイヒ, keihi), and cloves (チョウジ, chōji).

Directly behind the storefront is the lounge or living room (おえの間, oe no ma).  Merchant's houses like these made room for both the shop and the living quarters of its proprietors.

Behind the lounge and other rooms is a small, but pleasant garden to look out upon.

The second floor of this building showcases different regional crafts.  For example, there is a whole room devoted to temari (てまり/手まり, lit. "hand ball"), hand-sized cloth balls with intricate fabric patterns.  The ones made around Kanazawa are called Kaga temari (加賀てまり), named after the former Kaga domain which covered this area during the feudal ages.  Originally, temari were used to play games, but it soon became fashionable to craft them for display, with embroidery and finer materials.  In Kanazawa, there is a tradition of mothers donating a temari to their daughters upon marriage.

Another decorative craft associated with weddings is the mizuhiki (水引, lit. 'pulled water'), the cords that are tied around wedding gift packages.  The level of detail on some of these, especially the one shaped like a pair of fish, seem like origami on steroids!

Think I'm joking?  Here's a close-up!

And if you thought that was amazing, this tree was made entirely out of candy.  Now that's dandy!
(Lame rhyme is lame.  I apologise.)

The rotating exhibition during my visit showcased even more crafts which Kanazawa is famous for.  One of its most renowned exports is lacquerware with gold-leaf foil.  They can make just about anything with this stuff, from mirrors to trays to sword scabbards.

And here are some tools and techniques that go into making gold leaf.  Pure gold is melted with certain other minerals (right) to create the desired tones, and then pounded into sheets of a near-microscopic thickness, usually around 0.1 to 0.125 micrometres (4-5 millionths of an inch) [1].  The sheets of gold are laid in between sheets of parchment (upper left), which is one of the best materials for withstanding the many blows dealt during the beating process.  The resulting product is so delicate that just touching a pounded sheet could be enough to melt it with one's body heat, so chopstick-like tongs (lower-left) are used to handle them.

I thought I'd end on another shot of temari, just for my grandmother.  All in all, the Shinise Memorial Museum was a low-key yet pleasant museum.  Compared to the more famous Nomura samurai house, we had this place almost all to ourselves.  That may not always be the case, and there isn’t as much room to move around should it be so, but our impression was exceedingly pleasant.  Still, if you want to see what the Nomura house was like, along with the rest of Nagamachi, join me next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Hours: Open from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.  No regular closing days.

Costs: ¥100.

Address: 2-2-45 Nagamachi, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-0865

Access: The Shinise Memorial Museum is 5 minutes on foot from the Korinbo bus stop.  From Kanazawa Station, take the Kanazawa Left Loop bus, the Kenrokuen Shuttle, or a JR bus to  Korinbo (10 minutes, ¥200).

Directions: From Korinbo, walk south and turn right at the next traffic light, the Nichigin-mae (日銀前) intersection.  Walk down to the end of the road, turn left, then right.  Continue straight to the end of this road, crossing a small bridge along the way.  The museum is off to the left along the intersecting road.

Website: (English) (Japanese)

[1] Vilfranc, Jenifer M.  "Thickness of Gold Leaf".  The Physics Factbook.  1999, retrieved 4 June 2019.  https://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/JeniferVilfranc.shtml

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

This article is based on a visit made on Thursday, 17 May 2018.

Edit 15 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.

Previously on Sekai Ichi, I visited Kanazawa.  After doing the rounds at Kenroku-en, which is on many a tourist's radar, my next stop was one of a more personal interest: the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (金沢21世紀美術館, Kanazawa Nijūichi-seiki Bijutsukan).  This museum, founded in 2004, showcases modern art installations from creators the world over.

The museum is situated in a circle-shaped, glass-walled building with three different entrances.  This design is meant to encourage visitors not to experience art from only one viewpoint.  Although, if you wound up gravitating towards the entrance by the ticket desk, as we did, I wouldn't blame you.  Some of the museum's works are situated outside the main exhibit areas, and are free to explore.  One of these is "Colour Activity House" by Olafur Eliasson (Denmark, b. 1967).  It consists of three curved transparent panels forming a round pavilion.  By passing your gaze through multiple panels, additional colours can be seen.  Because that's how light works.  The orb in the centre can reflect the light of the sunset and project even more colours about the landscape... if the cloud cover cooperates, which in Kanazawa is not a given.

Heading into the museum itself, the entrance hall was dotted by pillars dressed in trouser-legs and shoes!  That's what I like about modern art: you never know what to expect.

Arguably the museum's most iconic piece is "The Swimming Pool" by Leandro Erlich (Argentina, b. 1973).  Within the free zone, you can walk up to it and look at it from above, where it appears to be an ordinary swimming pool.

But, as part of paid admission, you can step down into the pool!  The water on top is actually a thin layer atop a glass sheet, letting you walk underneath.  There's not much down here, but if you're already checking out the paid exhibitions, it's a nice bonus.

Cameras and cell phones are not allowed within the paid areas, presumably to protect the artists' copyrights, so I don't have any pictures to show you of the artworks within.  So instead, I shall describe some of my favourites.  Note that the pieces described below may no longer be on display by the time you visit.  In that case, the museum's website has an online catalog of the works in its past and present collections, which I shall be linking to as we go along.  More information: (English) (Japanese)

• "setting the butterfly free" by Takehito Koganezawa (Japan, b. 1974).  This piece consists of a looped video clip projected onto three walls of a room, showing a flipbook being flipped through, animating a series of coloured splotches.  The flipbook used in the film is on display in the centre of the room.
• The sculptures "My Own" and "One Way or Another" by Tony Cragg (England, b. 1949), and "Glass no.4 H" by Kazuo Kadonaga (Japan, b, 1946).  All three pieces are abstract sculptures of different media (fibreglass, marble, and glass respectively) which feature wild, twisting shapes.
• Various pillar sculptures by Isa Genzken (Germany, 1948).  These works, including the "New Building For Berlin" series, consist of wooden columns adorned with all manner of materials: paint, metal, marble, mirrors, photos, etc.
• "Rotating Pyramid II" by Jeppe Hein (Denmark, b. 1974).  This piece consists of a mirror-lined pyramid, mounted sideways along the wall, that rotates by a motor behind the base.
• "L'Origine du monde" by Anish Kapoor (India, b. 1954).  This piece consists of a grey concrete room.  The back wall slopes upwards and has a large, black, oval-shaped hole cut into it. 
• "Scale (1/16 Inch = 1 Foot)" by Runa Islam (Bangladesh, b. 1970).  This piece consists of two videos projected onto two separate panels, one in front of the other.  One is of an empty parking garage, and one is of a restaurant.  Both sets were filming locations for Get Carter (1971), a British crime drama starring Michael Caine.  Occasionally the two shots will switch places, and while nothing much seems to be happening in either video, they are presented with an ominous ambience to make you feel like they're leading up to something, even if you can't figure out what.  I didn't stay to find out, but as somebody who has dabbled in video editing before, this kind of juxtaposition creates interesting effects for the viewer.

During my visit, the museum's secondary exhibit was devoted to Christine Ay Tjoe, an artist born in Bandung, Indonesia in 1973 and active since 2000.  Her paintings are inspired by her previous experience with drypoint print-making, and thus have a scratchy, sketchy look to them, with many works also employing the use of negative space.  Thematically, most of her works are based on matters of Christian spirituality.  For example, the painting "Too Many Fishes" (2013) consists of lots of simple fish-shaped figures surrounding an explosive burst of red in the centre of the frame.  Given her usual subject matter, I would imagine this was based on a Biblical event like the Miraculous catches of fish.  Again, I don't have my own pictures, but the museum's website has a page on this exhibition with some samples of her work: (English) (Japanese)

But as part of this exhibition, something completely different stuck with me the most.  "Lama Sabakhtani #01" (2010) consists of a guillotine (with its blade thankfully in the "down" position), a network of small metal balls hanging from the ceiling, and some lights mounted onto the guillotine's frame, which cast shadows of the balls all across the walls of the otherwise-empty room.  The title "Lama Sabakhtani", which means "why have you forsaken me" in Aramaic and other languages, and is taken from one of the sayings of Jesus Christ during His crucifixion, as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.  I suppose that is where the idea for the guillotine came from.  But really, you can't go wrong with such stark imagery.  It's bound to evoke vivid images in anyone who sees it.

I very much enjoyed this museum and found it quite relevant to my interests, although bear in mind that I am a bit weird.  I don't expect this type of art to be in everyone's tastes, but then again, you know what they say about the eye of the beholder.  Having a bunch of pieces on public display without needing to pay for them is a welcome bonus.  If nothing else, check those out, and see what else captures your fancy!  But for now, I must press on with the recount of my adventures in Kanazawa, continuing with Nagamachi, the former samurai district, next time on Sekai Ichi!

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Hours: Paid exhibitions are open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, or to 8:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.  Free areas within the museum building are open from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM.  Closed on Mondays and New Year's Day.

Costs: Up to ¥1,200 for paid exhibitions.

Address: 1-2-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken 〒920-8509

Access: From bus stop 6 at Kanazawa Station, take a JR or Hokutetsu bus to Hirosaka / 21st-Century Museum (10 minutes, ¥200).  You can also take the Kanazawa Loop buses or Kenrokuen Shuttle to the same stop, albeit in twice the time. (20 minutes, ¥200).  For those also visiting Kenroku-en, the museum is across the corner from the park's western Mayumizaka Gate.

Website: (English) (Japanese)