Art/Architecture
A museum of art, where works of local artists are collected, and a museum, where you can learn about the history of the area.
We have selected arts and amazing architecture that we can see around the surrounding areas such as historical buildings, and quirky and modern buildings.
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Burn logs, enjoy a handmade meal, and let the wild birds wake you from your sleep in this vacation house.
MAOIQ, in the Maoi hills, is a vacation house. One house is used by one group (1 to 4 people) of guests, with a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. The kitchen has basic cooking utensils and cutlery, so you can just bring in your own ingredients to cook. The plot has two houses, and the MAOIQ built 4 years ago is coordinated in a vintage style with antique furniture. MAOIQ komfort, built 2 years ago, is coordinated in a northern European style. Both have a wood stove. Spend a while relaxing here, savouring the beautiful seasons of the hills.
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Enjoy the historic building and the works of the western-style painter Masayuki Matsushima, who traveled through and painted Japan, China and Europe.
Masayuki Matsushima is an artist from Iwamizawa, who worked as a part-time instructor at the Iwamizawa division school of the Hokkaido Kyoiku University. In his final years he built an atelier in Cannes, France, and traveled the world, leaving behind many paintings. 10 years before he died in 1999, at the age of 89, he donated his works to Iwamizawa City. At first they were displayed in a painting hall set up in the civic hall, but the next year, in 1990, the old Iwamizawa police station building was put to use and the works moved there. The Iwamizawa City Painting Hall/Masayuki Matsushima Memorial Hall was born. Built from reinforced concrete in 1932, the outer appearance, lobby, ceiling, stairs and more about this building are made in a style unusual today. In addition to this, other paintings, sculptures and crafts by Iwamizawa artists are displayed here.
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Next to the Nopporo Forest Park, with all its beautiful autumn colours. Passing on the culture of Hokkaido’s bricks and pottery to today.
Hokkaido’s red brick production is said to have started around the end of the Edo period. The Ebetsu City ceramic centre has a "brick information exhibit room"displaying the history of Hokkaido brickwork, and the "northern pottery exhibit room" that displays the works of Hokkaido’s current pottery artists, as well as a workshop that holds pottery classes, and a library with materials concerning pottery and ceramics. Additionally, the Shinobu Komori Memorial Room keeps the works of Hokkaido’s greatest pottery researcher, Shinobu Komori, on permanent display for you to look at. If you want a souvenir, try the pottery shop that sells the works of artists living in Ebetsu. Climb to the watchtower of the building, and you’ll see the Noppori Forest Park, as well as a majestic view of countless trees painting the mountains.
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Let the themed gardens and ranch full of animals soothe you. Popular for its cute alpaca soft-serve, and its lunches of pizzas and hamburger patties.
Ecorin Village is a small community made with the goal of "lessening environmental burden and contributing to the shaping of a more sustainable society". This roughly 40 hectare area contains the "green ranch" where alpaca and sheep graze, the "galaxy garden" filled with themed gardens, and various hands-on farming experiences and nature activities. "Forest Restaurant Tenman" looks like a little hideaway built from warm stone and wood, where you can enjoy a slow lunch. "Camel House" has a recommended seasonal menu as well as a wide selection of pizzas, pastas, hamburger patties etc. The famous alpaca soft-serve is a local speciality, with a marshmellow on the head, and chocolate and bolo made to look like the alpaca’s head.
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A comfortable roadside station themed around northern Europe, a little ahead of the competition for souvenirs
"Winds of northern Europe: Roadside station Tobetsu" greets you with its big triangular roof, as the closest roadside station to Sapporo. Tobetsu town has close ties to Sweden, and entire residential distrincts with rows of houses made with Swedish designs. This roadside station, too, has northern Europe as its theme. The warm, spacious wooden atrium gives you space to relax on the northern European furniture, while the shop that carries local produce also sells northern European groceries. The furniture and toys in the kids’ corner is likewise from northern Europe, enough that you might almost forget you’re in Hokkaido. The other theme is food. A branch of Terzina, a popular Hokkaido restaurant, opened here, making Italian food from local farm and animal produce. Apart from this, you can also get soba, pork rice bowls, sweets, bread and all kinds of gourmet takeout.
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A Hokkaido-designated tangible cultural property, this building will teach you the history of the golden days of herring fishing
Built at an impressive height overlooking the sea, the Otaru Nishin-Goten was built in Tomari village in 1897, and moved to Shukutsu in 1958. The two-floor construction covers a total area of 611 square metres, and at the height of herring fishing, a full 120 fishermen stayed here. To compare it to modern society, this would be something like a herring-fishing company combining its office, the CEO’s house, and employee dorms, and the result is designated a Hokkaido tangible cultural heritage. Built from luxurious lumber like local ash and Sakhalin fir, as well as hinoki cypress brought in from Aomori, its bulky and sturdy construction gives it great value as a structure already, but it also offers exhibits or herring fishing tools and photos, giving insight into a part of Hokkaido’s history.
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A magnificent worship space created by the world-famous architect, Tadao Ando.
The Great Buddha enshrined in Makomanai Takino Cemetery in Sapporo city. It's called "Atama Daibutsu (Head Great Buddha)”. Although it's a cemetery, it has become a famous place where tourists from all over the world visit. The Great Buddha itself was originally built outdoors as a "Great Buddha of spiritual commemoration". But an architect, Tadao Ando designed Hill of the Great Buddha as a commemorative project in 2016 which is the 30th anniversary year of the opening of the park. Now, it has tourists coming to visit its unique shape. As you can only see its head sticking out from the hole in the center of the dome-shaped roof, it's called "Atama Daibutsu (Head Great Buddha)”. Its appearance integrated with fresh green in spring, lavender in summer, and the snow-covered hill in winter has become a new famous place with its artistic charm in Sapporo. There is "Rotunda Cafe & Store” on the banks of the water garden. You can take a break with a light meal or tea, and also buy original souvenirs. In addition to this Atama Daibutsu, 33 Moai statues which are nearly 10 meters high are lined up, and there are also statues which were modeled on Stonehenge of an ancient English ruin, and Kannon statues. It's a mysterious art space, and you can enjoy its own view of the world. This vast site with a total area of 1.8 million square meters is a cemetery where graves of the deceased are lined up. But since it's a park cemetery regardless of denominations, welcoming a lot of people for sightseeing and leisure.
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History and art mingle together.
Otaru prospered as the gateway to the sea and built the foundation of the Hokkaido's economy as the center of the economy. Otaru Art Base, which consists of three facilities utilizing the four buildings that are former Arata Trading Co., former Takahashi Warehouses, former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch, and former Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Otaru Branch, built during the early 20th Century, when Otaru prospered greatly, is where you can appreciate domestic and foreign arts and crafts that have colored each era, and experience their cultures. “Nitori Museum of Art” begins with stained glass works of Louis C. Tiffany spreading in front of you, and you can appreciate a wide range of art works closely such as Japanese paintings by Taikan Yokoyama, Japanese and overseas Western paintings by Ryusei Kishida and Renoir, wood carvings by Koun Takamura and his disciples, and Art Nouveau and Art Déco glass works. At “The Former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch”, you can see the inside of the heavy bank building built in 1927. At “Stained Glass Museum”, you can enjoy the beautiful and majestic space of light crafted by the use of stained glass of churches in England.
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Three buildings that stand in a row on a massive site. The "gigantic complex bookstore" is beyond the level of an ordinary "bookstore".
The"gigantic complex bookstore"consists of three buildings of "Food", "Knowledge", and "Living" on the concept of "slow life in a rural city". 12 stores are in the food park, the"Food Building". There are a lot of famous restaurants where you can enjoy a variety of foods such as curry, tantan noodles, dim sum, and hamburgers as well as the Italian restaurant, "nodo", produced by Chef Hideki Horikawa, who is a leading person of Hokkaido's Italian cuisine. The"Knowledge Building", located in the center, has a massive amount of books. You can read almost all books before buying them while having coffee there as they apply to the "Book＆Café" style. There are power receptacles and free WiFi available in the work space on the 2nd floor. You can use the space for extensive purposes such as opening your laptop for working, or preparing theses / reports by utilizing many books in the bookstore. Books for kids and creative items are available in the"Living Building". The kid's book section has one of the largest space with a wide assortment of items in Hokkaido. There are shops such as "BørneLund", which sells imported toys useful for education of kids, a select shop of lighting and furniture, and a shop that sells outdoor goods and sportswear in the building. You don't get bored even if you spend all day in the theme park of books and living.
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Limited wine and soft serve ice cream are popular at the Hokkaido winery.
The winery is the first winery in Iwamizawa. It's located in Hosui district, which has beautiful scenery and rich nature, The building with a red triangular roof was built using old materials. There are both a winery and a direct sales depot in the building. The scenery is coupled with the vineyard next to it, and it's like a rural town in southern France. The "RICCA" series using grape of own vineyard, the "Snow Genealogy" series of high-class brands, and wines limited to the shop are sold at the direct sales depot on the 1st floor. If you have questions about the characteristics of wine or how to choose wine, etc., please ask the staff, and they are more than happy to answer you! Since the brewery is in the same building, you can also tour around it while shopping. Art works inspired by the brewing process, etc. are displayed in the gallery on the 2nd floor of the building.When you get tired, you can also sit on a chair equipped, and take a break. Soft serve ice cream with homemade grape juice on it is very popular at the soft serve ice cream shop "Vieagrest", which is located next to the direct sales depot. You can select from two types of sauces - white grape sauce and red grape sauce. The soft serve ice cream is even tastier while viewing the vineyard of the winery! You should definitely try the sweet at least once! (Soft serve ice cream is on sale during a limited time.)
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The exhibition is centered on works of artists related to Otaru.
Otaru has a landscape of houses dotted around the undulating terrain of the sea, canal, and harbor. The art museum was the Otaru Regional Savings Office at that time, in a corner of the street where banks and such in Otaru City, which was also called Northern Wall Street. This museum has two memorial halls and a themed exhibition room, and exhibits and preserves works of contemporary artists who are related to Otaru, centered on works of artists who made excellent achievements during the time when Otaru prospered as a commercial city. One of the memorial halls is Zensaku Nakamura, who is known as a landscape painter from Otaru. The rich colors of the landscape paintings, which show a kind and gentle personality of his, draw viewers’ attention. In Ichihara Arinori Memory Hall on the 3rd floor, there are a lot of works by Arinori Ichihara, an internationally renowned printmaker with a unique style of art using a technique called Monotype. There is also ingenuity in appreciation as well as works such as a section that reproduces a part of the art studio, and a section where you can watch the work production process. In addition, the citizen gallery on the 1st floor holds a variety of exhibitions by citizens throughout the year.
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A blissful time to spend while feeling the connection between the climate and culture of Otaru.
A museum of literature on the 2nd floor of the building that was the Otaru Regional Savings Office at that time, in a corner of the street where banks and such in Otaru City, which was also called Northern Wall Street, were lined up. You can appreciate books and materials of novelists, poets, and haiku poets related to Otaru such as Takiji Kobayashi, Sei Ito in the building built in 1952. Valuable items such as handwritten manuscripts and letters, and the Takiji's death mask as well as artists’ biographies and photographs are displayed in the exhibition room where the scent of old books seems to waft. Among them, there are personal bags and cameras that the writers actually used. There is also a section where the personality and characteristics of the writers are explained, and you can get to know a new aspect of the writers. In addition to the permanent exhibition, special exhibitions and themed exhibitions are held on various themes such as literature lectures and literature walks to visit places related to the writers and their works.
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The hot spring town and forest are colored by illuminations and projection mapping.
After 150 years since Jozankei hot springs opened in 1866, “Jozankei Nature Luminarie” was born in 2016. The event was created to enable people to enjoy the richness and charm of the nature on this land that we are proud of. The event that colors the hot spring town and forest with illuminations and projection mapping is produced by a Japan's leading creative company, “NAKED” which has worked on 3D projection mapping at Tokyo Station and such. You will be fascinated by the fantastic beauty of nature scenery such as the river of light, the suspension bridge colored with flowers, the bench surrounded by grains of light, and the trees and rocks that emerge brightly in the jet-black forest. The whole process that you can enjoy in about 20 minutes is free of charge! You can see stunning illuminations in various places such as footbath facilities in the hot spring town during this period. The night of Jozankei colored with mysterious lights. Why don't you relax in a yukata and enjoy the collaboration between the valley and the light?