Yatsugatake Museum of Art
I visited the Yatsugatake Museum of Art (Hara Village, Suwa County, Nagano Prefecture) at the end of November.
I wanted to see the special exhibition running from September 20th to December 7th.
(By the time you read this, it will have ended.)
I believe the last time I visited this museum was last May. Visiting from spring to summer, the building was often hidden by the green leaves of the trees, making it hard to see the whole structure. But in this season, with fewer leaves, the building itself was visible.
The special exhibition, “Life and Memorial Photographs,” was excellent.
The “Memorial Photographs of Objects” series by Murayama Photo Studio (the working name of photographer Murayama Riyo) featured photographs of family heirlooms or cherished items that people had to part with, taken as requested.
The photos themselves were about postcard size, not large. They were displayed on the walls, but without captions.
Paperback books like this were placed in the exhibition space. Visitors picked it up, read it, and walked around viewing the photos.
Wall captions can be hard to read, and sometimes I just walk past them. But this way, I could read it right in my hands, making it very easy to read.
This was a welcome solution for someone with presbyopia like me. And the experience of opening a book and reading in front of the artwork was also a bit unusual and interesting.
I arrived at the museum late, so by the time I stepped outside, it was already
I’ve visited this museum several times, but seeing it at dusk like this was a first, which was also fascinating.
The Yatsugatake Museum of Art is a building designed by Togo Murano and completed in 1979.