Tomioka White Museum

Tomioka White Art Gallery

The gallery holds permanent exhibition of over 500 masterpieces by a Niigata (Takada) born oil painter, Soichiro Tomioka (1922-94) from his White World series. He painted his works using the white oil paint he created Tomioka White, which does not discolour, crack or exfoliate, and an extra long painting knife which he had specially made by a swordsmith. Throughout his career his subject was landscape in snow. The unique black and white works attracted fans especially in the U.S., where the unlikely characteristics of oil painting - smoothness, clarity and brightness found in his works were considered Oriental White or Haiku in Painting and was collectively called Tomioka White. It was the artist's wish for the works created in the snow country to be returned, and so the gallery was opened in the early winter of 1990, at the foot of Hakkaisan (Mt. Hakkai).

Sake brewing of Minamiuonuma

Bokushi Suzuki, a writer during the Edo period wrote Uonuma district, where I live has the heaviest snow fall in Japan. Sake is made by snow, water, soil and people of this snow country - Echigo, in his most famous Hokuetsu seppu. The snow is the origin of sake-making here. Plentiful snow melts to enrich the rice paddies and grow the best rice. Then this water eventually become the spring water and finally reborn as Sake. Snow-country Uonuma is blessed with a great combination of good water and people with tradition and techniques for high quality sake-making.

Shiko Munakata Art Station

Visitors are pleasantly surprised and impressed by the collections of 144 works by Shiko Munakata and first grade domestic and foreign masterpieces. Works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Maurice Utrillo, Bernard Buffet, Utamaro Kitagawa, Hokusai Katsushika, Hiroshige Ando, Taikan Yokoyama, Tsuguji Fujita and Seiji Togo are exhibited quarterly.