Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography

Stunning building and beautiful view of Daisen. However, and it pains me to say this, I was really disappointed by the lack of personal artifacts for more in-depth context of his work. The two short documentaries with near identical content helped a little bit. Also I think in total there was less than 60 works on display (from an archive of 12,000).

It would have been nice to see photos of Ueda when he was young, replicas of cameras he used, contact sheets, notebooks or other ephemera that showed his thinking. For his fashion series—showing the ads or magazines they were shot for would have been interesting. His many awards!! Hello!!

For a museum in his name it didn’t feel all that intimate. I guess with all the time and effort it took to get here I felt a little bit slighted. But again, the space is gorgeous so if you’re willing to make the trek and the weather is good definitely stop by.

Access notes: I ended up spending over 4000yen on a taxi from Yonago Station. Whoops! Just as well though because Kishimoto Station is teeny tiny. If you have a Japanese phone you could call a cab from this station and save some yen. Or wait for the bus or walk ~35min uphill. If you’re traveling through this area you already know you need cash but entrance is 1000yen cash.

Merch: Cash only because their system was down. Wanted the book but only had enough yen left for the poster. They didn’t have tubes so had to carry it in a small bag. Please offer tubes for sale for posters!

TL;DR: Go if you’re already in the area and wanna get a nice view of Daisen and see a few interesting photos.