Sagawa Art Museum

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

Researched and written by Hinato

Sagawa Art MuseumHirayama Ikuoraku wareLake BiwaMoriyama

Photo: 663highland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5) · original

Sagawa Art Museum is one of the less-obvious reasons to build a day around this part of Shiga.

The Sagawa Art Museum sits on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa as two low pavilions with tiled roofs appearing to float on a shallow reflecting pool that covers most of the site, so that the approach is a causeway across water with the Hira mountains behind.

The raku pavilion is the reason to plan ahead. Kichizaemon designed it himself, largely underground and reached through a dark passage, so that visitors emerge into a room lit from a water surface above — a deliberate reversal of a normal gallery, built for tea bowls that are made to be held rather than displayed. It is entered on a separate timed booking.

Visiting essentials

Cost

¥1,000 general | ¥600 high school and university students | ¥300 elementary and junior high school | Special exhibitions priced separately | Raku pavilion and tea rooms require separate advance booking

Hours

9:30 AM – 5:00 PM (last admission 4:30 PM)

Closed: Closed Mondays (the following day if Monday is a public holiday) and over the new year

Best season

Year-round | Still days, when the reflecting pools work

How long to allow

2–3 hours

Finding your way there

Getting there in detail

Mizuho-cho Kitagawa 2891, Moriyama City. By bus from Moriyama Station on the JR Biwako Line. Closed Mondays, opening the following day if Monday is a public holiday, and over the new year. Admission ¥1,000 general, ¥600 high school and university students, ¥300 elementary and junior high school; special exhibitions are priced separately. The Raku Kichizaemon pavilion and the tea rooms require separate advance booking.

Local tips

**Book the raku pavilion separately.** It is not included in the standard walk-round and it is the most interesting part of the museum. Timed entry, booked ahead. **The building is on water.** Reflecting pools cover most of the site and the pavilions read as floating. Still days give the effect; wind takes it away. **Hirayama Ikuo painted the Silk Road for forty years.** The collection follows the route from Nara to the Mediterranean, and it is the largest single holding of his work. **Raku ware is made to be held.** Hand-formed rather than thrown, low-fired, and the underground pavilion exists to show them at the scale and in the light that implies. **Twenty minutes by bus and no reason to be nearby.** This is a destination museum on a lakeshore. Combine it with the lake rather than with a town. **Closed Mondays and over new year.** A common trip-breaker in a prefecture where several of the other draws are also shut on Mondays.

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