Iida City Museum (1)
On January 3, 2025, architect Hiroshi Hara passed away.
Among the buildings in Nagano Prefecture, the Tasaki Museum of Art in Karuizawa (1986), the Iida City Museum in Iida City (1988), and the Iida Takaha joint government office (2002) were designed by him.
I visited the Iida City Museum in early November of 2024, so I will show you some photos from that visit.
On that day, I visited the museum after seeing the Kunio Yanagita Museum, so I entered the museum from the east side instead of the front.
The building is shaped like this, and we can go up to the roof.
This time, let’s walk on the rooftop before going inside.
The alphabets in the figure indicate the locations where the following photos were taken.
At the top of the first stairs.
Now I could see where I was because I looked at the diagram, but when I was walking around, I didn’t really understand the shape of the building. It was a bit like exploring.
Going up the stairs again.
At the top of the stairs, I turned around and took this photo.
The passage seems to head straight west from here.
Around the center of the building. The north side of the passageway is elevated, and there is something standing on top of it.
I went up. When I saw the two on the left, I thought of Roman ruins, but the triangle on the right is different from them. I wondered what it represented. (I found out later.)
Looking east from the position G, I saw an entrance at the point indicated by the arrow, and it was marked “Entrance to the sightseeing tower”. However, it is not possible to go directly from the rooftop. We have to pass through inside of the museum to get to the tower’s entrance.
This building allows access to the rooftop even when the museum is closed, so I guess they had to design it this way for safety reasons. Let’s go up to the sightseeing deck later.
There is the dome of the planetarium.
I am now on the west side of the building.
The white building on the far right is the Otemachi Elementary School building.
Built in 1929, the school building and auditorium were registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2005.
Going down the stairs on the west side of the building.
Here, too, stands a triangular steel-frame object.
Going down the stairs, I came to the main entrance.
I did not take many pictures from the north side this time, so I will use this photo taken in 2023.
The shape of this roof was inspired by the Southern Alps.
Hiroshi Hara was born in Kawasaki City in 1936. Just before the end of the World War II, he was evacuated to his parents’ hometown in Shimoina, Nagano Prefecture, and spent from elementary school to high school in Iida City.
It was because of this connection that he was entrusted with the design of the Iida City Museum.
Now, let’s go inside.
On this day, I came to see the “Special Exhibition Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Hishida Shunso’s Birth: Pathways of Creation” (October 5 – November 4, 2024). I was glad I made it in time because the exhibition was almost over.
I decided to visit the exhibition first, and then go up to the observatory afterwards.
(To be continued.)