Hokusai Museum — Attraction in Obuse

For visitors: I strongely recommend you to confirm which work of Hokusai you can see before you enter the museum. Previously, we could enjoy a lot of Hokusai’s works. Recently, however, sometimes not so many his works are available sadly.

To museum: I have been a big fan of this museum as the unique place in Japan where we can enjoy and learn Hokusai’s work and life. For recent exhibition “Influencer Hokusai”, however, I was very disappointed because the focus was his “Influence”, namely arts inspired by Hokusai’s work, rather than Hokusai and his original works (number of his works seem to be highly reduced); The title of exhibition was very misreading.I would strongly request the owner to keep the museum where we can enjoy Hokusai’s work as before. In the case you would like to show the related other works, perhaps we can do it as a sub project and inform it to visitors clearly at the entrance (perhaps, we can even sprit the tickets/fee for Hokusai’s work and other related works.) I think that this way is a more honest attitude for Hokusai, arts and...

Art museum a little off the beaten track but worth a visit particularly if you have a Leeloo Dallas monkey pass (sorry but that's how it was in my head every time I flashed it at a train official or bus driver!) and are looking for something to do on the way back to Nagano. 10 minute walk through friendly Obuse from the train station, with several good souvenir shops around it. The museum itself has a short video explaining Hokusai's life with English subtitles, and then 3 main sections. The first is a display of illustrated "books for reading" which are basically early manga (stories seem to revolve around monks getting drunk and deciding who is the fightiest). Second is a collection of art works by Hokusai and third is the festival floats featuring waves, a dragon and a phoenix. Be warned, "the wave" picture (i.e. The great wave of kanagawa) is not here itself, though there is a short section on its composition. At only 1000 yen for entrance it's well worth...

Adult ¥1000, high school student ¥500, junior high student ¥300. There are basically four rooms of exhibits, many of which are leaves from books published extensively during the artist’s lifetime. Simply not enough art to justify the visit, especially at entry prices that are similar to the Ueno museums.

When we visited, the entire final room was replicas because the originals had been lent to a museum in Nagano. Was the entry price 25% off? Not at all.

The gift shop is tasteless, including a Hawaiian-style shirt with a Kanagawa wave.

Especially with the many food and souvenir shops surrounding this museum, the project feels like an opportunistic attempt to leverage Hokusai’s time in Obuse.

There is a research centre on the second floor that is closed to the public. It might be a good idea to put some of that material on display and show something that is special and resonant about the artist’s work...