Obuse & Hokusai-kan
小布施・北斎館
A small town famed for Katsushika Hokusai and chestnuts. The Hokusai Museum holds his late-period “nikuhitsu” (bold-brushwork) paintings and ceiling paintings on festival floats.
Obuse is a small town on the outskirts of Nagano. In the late Edo period, the wealthy merchant Takai Kōzan invited the ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai to paint here many times, leaving behind a rich body of work. The Hokusai Museum displays Hokusai's late-period nikuhitsu paintings and two festival floats decorated with “Raging Waves” and with phoenixes and dragons. Admission is about 1,000 yen. The town centre's “Chestnut Lane” is paved with chestnut-wood bricks and lined with chestnut-sweets shops (Obuse-dō, Chikufū-dō and Sakurai Kansei-dō) converted from white-walled storehouses, as well as sake breweries and art museums. Signature treats are chestnut Mont Blanc and chestnut rice. Getting there: from Nagano Station, take a Nagano Electric Railway limited express about 25 minutes to Obuse Station, then walk 10 minutes to the town centre. It makes a good half-day trip.
Opening hours
Hokusai Museum 9:00 am–5:00 pm
Nearby sights
- Gansho-in Temple
- Nagano Prefectural Art Museum
- Zenkō-ji
- Lake Nojiri
- Kawanakajima Battlefield (Hachimanbara Park)
- Matsushiro Castle & Sanada Treasure Museum
- Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters
- Togakushi Shrine