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Matsudai Nohbutai

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Echigo-Tsumaricontemporary artrice terracesMVRDVTokamachi

Photo: Kentaro Ohno / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · original

A visit to Matsudai Nohbutai is easy to underplan — bring more time, and less certainty about what you'll find, than you'd expect.

Matsudai Nohbutai is the working centre of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, the permanent art landscape that grew out of a triennial started in 2000 to do something about depopulation in the snow country. The building, by the Dutch practice MVRDV, is lifted clear of the ground on legs so that snow can pass underneath it, and it sits in the middle of terraced rice fields rather than in a town.

What makes it more than a gallery is that the artworks are in the fields. Kabakov's Rice Field puts painted figures out among the terraces so that they line up with a text panel only from one viewing point; other pieces are scattered across the hillside and reached on foot. The permanent works stay up between triennials, and the site functions year-round as a museum whose exhibits happen to be farmland.

What to know before you go

Access hours

10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM)

Closed: Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays except public holidays

When to go

Late May–June for flooded reflecting terraces | May–end of October while outdoor works are accessible

Fee

¥1,200 adults for the Field Museum ticket | ¥600 elementary and junior high school | ¥600 adults for the Nohbutai building alone | Preschool free

Time to allow

2–3 hours

Access route

Directions

Matsudai 3743-1, Tokamachi City, directly beside Matsudai Station on the Hokuhoku Line. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays except public holidays. Field Museum ticket ¥1,200 adults, ¥600 elementary and junior high school, preschool free; Nohbutai building alone ¥600 adults, ¥300 elementary and junior high school. Outdoor works are generally accessible from May to the end of October.

What to bring

**Buy the Field Museum ticket, not the building ticket.** The building alone is a lobby, a restaurant and a couple of rooms. The ticket that includes the outdoor works and Matsudai Castle is what the trip is for, and the difference is ¥600. **Wear shoes for a hillside.** The outdoor works are spread across terraced fields on unpaved paths. This is not a gallery floor. **Kabakov's Rice Field only works from the platform.** The figures in the terraces align with the poem on the frame from one position on the Nohbutai deck and from nowhere else. Find the spot before photographing. **The restaurant is part of the project.** Satoyama Shokudo serves the local vegetables and the ingredient list is the point rather than a nicety. Lunch service is short. **Snow closes the outdoors.** From November the fields are under metres of snow and only the building operates. Late May, when the terraces are flooded and reflecting, is the best single window.

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