By JIRO OMURA/ Staff Writer
May 20, 2021 at 07:00 JST
Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji: Clear Weather with Southern Breeze,” from around 1830 to 1834 (Provided by the Shimane Art Museum)
MATSUE--The Shimane Art Museum here will close for a year from May 25 to strengthen the building’s resistance against earthquakes, but that is not stopping it from showing off its incredible ukiyo-e woodblock prints.
The prefectural museum boasts 3,000 or so ukiyo-e works, and they can be viewed on a special website (https://shimane-art-museum-ukiyoe.jp/).
The works are mainly from two collections: one put together by Matsue-born industrialist Jiro Shinjo (1901-1996), and another by Seiji Nagata (1951-2018), a researcher on master ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai. Nagata hailed from Tsuwano, also in Shimane Prefecture.
The website introduces the outline and representative works of each collection and also promotes the charms of ukiyo-e through various programs.
Museum officials set up the website because the collections popular among tourists will be closed to the public while construction is in progress and it is difficult to visit the museum while the novel coronavirus pandemic is raging.
The museum, designed by the late architect Kiyonori Kikutake, opened in 1999. Facing Lake Shinjiko, it ranks on a list of Japan’s 100 best spots to view sunsets.
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