A Journey Through Niigata, Gunma, and Nagano — Part 1, Niigata Art Triennale
A Journey through Niigata, Gunma, and Nagano — Part 1, Niigata Art Triennale
The first stop on a three-prefecture, three-flavor journey through Japan: a Niigata summer at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, where an entire region becomes a stage for art.
Words Pyo Youngso
Photos Jung Sooim
In collaboration with Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)
The Artistic Spirit of Niigata
Rice, sake, snow. Famed for these three whites, Niigata is known as the “Land of Three Whites” (三白の郷), yet its summer is the exact opposite of the scenery that nickname evokes. This is especially true of Echigo-Tsumari (越後妻有), which is known for some of the heaviest snowfall even within Niigata. Mountains, fields, forests, and valleys are all a deep green, and when an art triennale arrives, as it has this summer, every imaginable color is layered on top.
Echigo (越後) is the old name for Niigata Prefecture. Tsumari (妻有), which refers to the area around Tokamachi (十日町市) and Tsunan (津南町) in southern Niigata, is a mountainous region where traditional farming culture endures, and it is far from a typical tourist destination. That is especially so when compared with the prefecture’s better-known destinations: Echigo-Yuzawa (越後湯沢), a historic hot spring town and ski resort that served as the setting for Kawabata Yasunari’s novel ‘Snow Country’; Sado Island (佐渡島), once home to Japan’s largest gold mine; and the city of Niigata (新潟市), site of one of Japan’s five treaty ports of the 19th century. What Tsumari could offer was its satoyama (里山, land where people carry out productive activity and which must also be ecologically protected and managed), the landscape its people had relied on for generations. But rapid depopulation had put even that at risk of vanishing, which is the stark reality of the region. The name “Echigo-Tsumari” began to be known to the wider world some 20 years ago, when local residents decided to expand the very concept of satoyama.
First held in 2000, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale transformed the setting of everyday life into a stage for art. Often called a “land art festival,” it uses an entire region of 760 square kilometers as a contemporary art exhibition space. Works by artists from around the world are installed not only in museums but also in abandoned houses and schools, rice paddies, and fields. The project, which aims to revitalize the region through the interplay of people, art, and nature, has done little to boost the population, but it has succeeded in drawing outside visitors to a neglected farming area. It has also won the active participation and cooperation of local residents across every aspect of the festival, from producing and installing works to managing and running events. Now in its ninth edition, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024 presents more than 100 new works. Even outside the festival period, there are plenty of reasons to visit. More than 200 permanent works are always in place, and with the landscape changing each season, the region looks new whenever you come.
Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art
越後妻有里山現代 美術館 MonET
A cultural complex that combines a contemporary art museum with a hot spring, café, and shops. It began in 2003 as an exchange center introducing local specialties and tourist information, and reached its present form after two renovations. Designed so as not to go against the surrounding terrain, the building wraps around the banks of a central pond. On clear days, the sky and the building are reflected perfectly on the water’s surface, making the scene a work of art in itself. The paths that connect the inside and outside of the building so naturally are also impressive. It was designed by Hiroshi Hara (原広司), the Japanese architect known for the Sapporo Dome and Kyoto Station. Along the building’s corridors around the central pond, you can see special exhibitions prepared for this year’s land art festival, most of them participatory works that visitors can touch and experience for themselves. Inside the museum, you can view experimental contemporary works by Japanese and international artists on permanent display.
6-1-71-2 Honcho, Tokamachi, Niigata
Nakago Wonderland
どうぶつ達の 息吹と
A drive of just over 10 minutes north from the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art brings you to Nakago Green Park (ナカゴグリーンパーク), a park ringed by mountain slopes where visitors can enjoy golf, camping, and more. Its broad 1.3-hectare lawn is one of the main stages of the land art festival. Nature, art, and play come together in exhibitions that children can enjoy too, and this year’s theme is the zoo. Humorous works fill the open-air space: a tiger made of black-and-yellow rope, a life-size giraffe, and monkeys hanging from a horizontal bar.
2930-3 Ueno-ko, Tokamachi, Niigata
The Museum of Picture Books and Tree Nuts
絵本と木の実の 美術館
A former elementary school in a mountain village in Tokamachi has been reborn as one giant 3D picture book at the hands of the celebrated Japanese picture book artist Seizo Tashima (田島征三). Starring the last three students before the school closed, an imaginary story unfolds not on the page but throughout the building, in the old gymnasium, classrooms, and elsewhere. As you follow the colorful installations made from natural materials such as branches and nuts, you will understand the exhibition’s title, “The School Is Never Empty.” The children have gone, yet the school remains as lively as ever, and forever. After touring the exhibition, try the meals made with local ingredients at the school’s café, or blend coffee from a local roastery, and take a look around the schoolyard, where a father and son pair of goats live, as if they had stepped out of Tashima’s picture book ‘Shizuka the Goat.’ ehontokinomi-museum.jp
Matsudai Nohbutai
まつだい 農舞台
Officially called Matsudai Nohbutai Field Museum, this is the place to experience the essence of the Land Art Festival, which seeks a communion between nature and art, just as its name, “Farming Stage,” suggests. Around a building nestled against the mountainside, more than 40 installations stretch all the way to the summit of a nearby peak, including ‘Tsumari in Bloom’ by the Japanese installation artist Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生) and ‘Perspective of Desire’ by the Italian-born contemporary artist Esther Stocker. Especially memorable is ‘Rice Fields,’ in which a poem about the region’s seasonal rice paddies is laid over the real terraced fields. It captures the identity of Matsudai, a village that has farmed for generations on hard, barren mountain land, and it lingers long after you leave. For a complete visit, the ‘Satoyama Buffet’ at the Echigo-Matsudai Satoyama Restaurant inside the building is a must. As you enjoy a healthy meal made with local ingredients, scenes of the region’s four seasons from the *artwork installed in the ceiling lights are reflected in the mirrors on the tables, while floor-to-ceiling windows open onto a panorama of terraced rice fields. matsudai-nohbutai-fieldmuseum.jp
*This is a work by the French artist Jean-Luc Vilmouth. Photographs of the views from their windows, taken by local residents at home over the course of a year, are mounted in circular light fixtures and reflected in the mirrors on the tables.
The Last Classroom
最後の 教室
This work is a collaboration between the French conceptual artist Christian Boltanski and the lighting designer Jean Kalman. It was first unveiled at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in 2006. A dark, stifling space of memory, filled with dim light, the smell of rice straw, and objects brought by local residents, it uses a school that closed in 1997 as its stage and creates an even more dramatic atmosphere. Inspired by the sight of the village buried in heavy snow, it was conceived as a contrast to ‘Summer Journey,’ an installation the artists presented in the same place in 2003.
新潟県十日町市松之山東川192
Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel
清津峡 トンネル
West of Tokamachi, a steep, V-shaped gorge runs 12.5 kilometers along the Kiyotsu River. Together with Kurobe Gorge (黒部峽谷) and Osugidani Gorge (大杉谷), Kiyotsu Gorge is counted among Japan’s three great gorges, a landmark that carries 15 million years of history. The Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel, opened to tourists in 1996, was reborn as the ‘Tunnel of Light’ through the Land Art Festival. The 750-meter tunnel is divided around the five natural elements (wood, earth, metal, fire, and water), and each section conveys a different mood. At the end of the tunnel, the stainless steel–clad arch and the gorge beyond are reflected perfectly in a shallow layer of water on the floor, so that the view inside and outside seems to expand into one striking scene. nakasato-kiyotsu.com
Echigo-Tsumari Kiyotsu Warehouse Museum
越後妻有清津倉庫 美術館
This museum opened in 2015 in a converted former elementary school gymnasium. It adopts the concept of a “warehouse museum” that can both exhibit large-scale works and store them, offering a new alternative to artists working in cities and serving as a link between city and countryside. It also doubles as a memorial hall for Isobe Yukihisa (磯辺行久), an artist who has taken part in the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale since 2000, so visitors can explore his vast body of work, which has focused on the relationship between humans and nature from an ecological perspective. Especially fascinating is a large-scale installation on the theme of the Shinano River, which traces on the land the changes in the river’s course brought about by various factors in the local community.
新潟県十日町市角間末1528‐2
To See
Hoshitoge (星峠) is the most popular photo spot among the region’s terraced rice fields. The scene is especially mystical in the transplanting season, when the paddies stacked layer upon layer along the gentle hills fill with water and mist settles over them. Bijinbayashi (美人林, “Beautiful Woman Forest”) is another place that refreshes both eyes and mind, with beech trees more than 100 years old growing so thick that they hide the sky. True to its name, the three-hectare forest shows a beautiful face in every season. If you want a more leisurely rest, head to Matsunoyama Onsen (松之山温泉). Thanks to its highly saline spring water, this hot spring town has been famous for its medicinal baths (薬湯) since the Edo period. It is about a 30-minute drive from Tokamachi.
To Stay
Ryugon is an inn perfectly suited to a Niigata trip themed on the coexistence of nature, community, and people. This ryokan opened by relocating 11 traditional farmhouses (古民家) from across Niigata Prefecture, including one built 270 years ago in the Edo period. A full renovation in 2019 put the focus on the distinctive traditions and culture of this heavy-snow region. It offers a fascinating glimpse into the wisdom of locals who have lived by overcoming environmental limits, from buildings made to withstand heavy snowfall to preserved foods. The inn has a bar and restaurant serving fresh sake from nearby breweries and local regional dishes, as well as hot spring facilities, and its lounge, with floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the charms of all four seasons, is lovely too. ryugon.co.jp
To Eat
Sobadokoro Nakanoya Yuzawa Main Store (そば処 中野屋 湯沢本店) is the place to try hegi soba (へぎそば), a specialty of Niigata’s Uonuma (魚沼) region. Hegi soba is made by adding funori (布海苔), a type of seaweed popular in Niigata Prefecture, to buckwheat flour, which makes the noodles chewier and smoother going down than ordinary buckwheat noodles. The noodles are divided into bite-size portions and arrive piled in coils on a large rectangular wooden tray made of cedar and zelkova. “Hegi” (へぎ) refers to the wooden tray the soba is served on. Since its founding in 1970, Nakanoya Yuzawa has held to the traditional method of grinding buckwheat in-house on a millstone and making the noodles by hand. There are two locations in Niigata, and the main store is near Echigo-Yuzawa Station. umaisoba.com
▹Read Part 2 of Japan Travel Across Niigata, Gunma, and Nagano