A Japanese painter, Kaii Higashiyama (1908-1999), prefered to depict Shinshu Region’s landscape. The museum curates a precious collection gifted by Kaii and altogether over 5500 pieces of Shinshu landscape and work of local artists. The structure has a bright open space facing a park, blending with the surrounding scenery, and is called the “Landscape Museum.”
At the time of the main building renovation in 2021, the Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum along with the renewed Higashiyama Kaii Museum were named as the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum. Besides art appreciation, the museum space outside the exhibition is opened as a Free Zone. It is functioning as an open museum for the residents in the prefecture and other users.
The main building was designed by Hiroshi Miyazaki. There are many architectural highlights such as “the Park with a Roof” opened toward Joyama Park, the terrace by the water between the main hall and Higashiyama Kaii Museum, and the ceiling that reflects the water rings from the terrace water.
The main hall displays modern and contemporary art under the theme of “nature“ and “nature and human,” as well as the work of painters, sculptors and artists from Nagano such as Shunso Hishida, Rokuzan Ogiwara, and Yayoi Kusama. In the Higashiyama Kaii Museum, more than 970 pieces of his work and related books are curated. The display is changed once in two months and shares the refinement of Higashiyama’s art, who said “Landscape is the mirror of your soul.”
