Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts

Art, a relaxing cafe, and western-style souvenirs!

Stacy Kurokawa Mar 22, 2016 - 2 min read

The museum as seen from the treed park on a sunny day in early March

Each temporary exhibition lasts about two months. The poster for this one, Curators at Work, is black and yellow. Posters around town advertise the current exhibition. In the background, is a huge propeller installation which turns when it catches a breeze

The museum is 3.5 km from JR Utsunomiya Station, in an urban park, not to be confused with Utsunomiya City Art Museum which is about the same size and is in a countryside park to the north

My reflection in the mirror-like propeller installation as it swung towards me, overhead

Playpark in front of museum. Can you guess what this is? It`s shell slide. Fun for adults too!

If you would just like to hang out in the coffee Room or check out the gift shop, enter here. This is also the entrance for the temporary exhibition (¥800/adult). The permanent exhibition entrance is to the right (¥250/adult) signed "Gallery for the Collection Entrance"

Atrium at entrance, with sculptures. The coffee shop overlooks this. An entrance leads into this enclosure from near the permanent exhibition reception desk

Quiet, relaxing coffee shop where you can order a meal set, drinks or dessert. At the time I visited, the Y1,000 lunch combo consisted of sauteed chicken with sauce, a side of salad greens, mushroom soup, rice, cake and tea or coffee. You could also try a dessert set - chocolate cake, fresh fruit and ice-cream or pancakes with tea or coffee

Almost every Sunday, museum patrons can join a workshop. The collage workshop for the Sunday following my visit required no reservation or fee and was open to all ages. Here is an example of a creative project museum patrons made at a museum workshop, as displayed in the exhibit "Curators at Work." For "Curators at Work," museum patrons could try to think like a curator by pasting postage stamp- sized paintings onto a floor plan. On the wall display behind, you could post your layout and compare it with those done by others

The gift shop is small. It offers a selection of art cards by famous European and Japanese artists, as well as beautiful art-embellished pens, pins, books, umbrellas, furoshiki and toys

Check out the postcard of Nikko`s Toshogu Shrine here. How about picking up a Japanese boxed-art card collection as a beautiful, easy to carry souvenir of Japan?

Tochigi Prefecture Museum is barrier-free (slopes, elevators, washrooms), open and bright. Even if you are not an art-lover, you may want to visit to pick up Japanese art souvenirs, or for a relaxing lunch, tea, coffee or dessert. The museum lacks multi-lingual support, except for the English homepage, so read on to find out more.

Location

This museum boasts plenty of free car parking, bicycle parking and is next to a bus stop, just 3.5 kilometers west of JR Utsunomiya Station. Neighborhood families gather here for hanami in early April, to picnic under the cherry blossoms. Small children will delight in the slide, swings, and open space to romp in the park, which has plenty of shade, sculptures, a drinking fountain and benches.

Permanent Collection

The permanent collection for the most part displays art works created in Tochigi Prefecture: Japanese style paintings, oil paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and crafts. It also includes British paintings by J.M. W. Turner and John Constable, and Meissen porcelain.

My favorite art in the permanent collection is the larger than life-sized re-creation of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, made from corrugated cardboard by Shinohara Ushio, and a series of pencil crayon sketches by Tanaka Kouki titled “Sekai wo Tsku tame no Plan. ” The sketches express deforestation, desertification and so on by showing a boy playing with the planet earth, which has shrunk to about twice the height of the boy.

Price

Japan`s public museums are affordable for all. Children and youth under the age of sixteen may enter the Prefecture Museum without paying admission. Adults wishing to check out only the permanent collection pay ¥250. If the current temporary exhibition is of interest, pay ¥800 for that and your ticket includes admission to the permanent collection. High school students, and adults with a student card pay less than half. Free on Prefecture Days, June 13-15 and on Culture Day, November 3.

Stacy Kurokawa @stacy.kurokawa

It's with a love of adventure that I came to Japan in 2003. I love getting off the beaten track and getting around by bicycle. In 2020, I qualified as a Forest Therapy Guide. I guide in parks in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture nowadays.