The Adachi Museum of Art is located in Yasugi City, Shimane Prefecture, and is renowned both in Japan and overseas for its exceptional collection of Japanese art and its beautifully designed Japanese gardens. Founded in 1970 by Yasugi-born businessman Adachi Zenko, the museum houses approximately 2,000 works, including Japanese paintings, ceramics, children’s illustrations, and wood sculptures.
The museum’s greatest attraction is the remarkable harmony between its artworks and gardens. Guided by his belief that “a garden is also a painting”, Adachi Zenko created an extensive Japanese garden covering approximately 50,000 tsubo, or about 165,000 square meters. Viewed from inside the museum, the garden is carefully framed like a living painting, allowing visitors to experience the Japanese sense of beauty alongside masterpieces of Japanese art.
The garden has received international recognition for its beauty. It has been ranked as Japan’s top Japanese garden by a leading American magazine specializing in Japanese gardens since 2003. The museum has also received the highest three-star rating in the French travel guidebook Michelin Green Guide Japan, making it one of Japan’s most celebrated cultural destinations.
The Adachi Museum of Art opened in 1970 through the efforts of Adachi Zenko, a successful businessman born in Yasugi. Born in 1899, Adachi built his business career from humble beginnings and devoted the latter part of his life to collecting Japanese art and creating beautiful gardens.
He had a deep passion for Japanese art, particularly the works of the renowned Japanese painter Yokoyama Taikan. His dedication led him to build one of Japan’s most important collections of Taikan’s paintings.
Adachi was already 71 years old when the museum opened, but he continued collecting artworks and developing the gardens until his death in 1990 at the age of 91. His vision continues today through the museum’s ongoing exhibitions, collection activities, and careful maintenance of its gardens.
The heart of the Adachi Museum of Art’s collection is the work of Yokoyama Taikan, one of the masters of modern Japanese painting. The museum owns approximately 120 of his works, making the collection one of the finest in Japan in both quality and scale.
Approximately 20 Taikan paintings are displayed at any one time, allowing visitors to appreciate firsthand his distinctive artistic style and his important role in the development of modern Japanese painting. Famous works include “Autumn Leaves” and “Clearing After Rain.”
The museum also houses many important works by other leading Japanese painters of the modern era.
Visitors can encounter masterpieces by artists including Takeuchi Seiho, Kawai Gyokudo, Hashimoto Kansetsu, Uemura Shoen, Sakakibara Shiho, Kawabata Ryushi, and Hayami Gyoshu.
The museum changes its displays according to the seasons, creating a different relationship between the artworks and the surrounding gardens throughout the year. Even returning visitors can therefore discover something new each time.
The museum’s new building features an impressive collection of contemporary Japanese paintings. The museum established the Adachi Museum of Art Prize and now holds approximately 350 contemporary Japanese paintings, including award-winning works.
Every autumn, the museum also hosts the Inten Exhibition, an exhibition organized by the Japan Art Institute. It provides an opportunity to see the latest developments in Japanese painting and offers visitors a broader perspective on the evolution of Japanese art from the modern period to the present day.
In 2020, the Rosanjin Museum opened as a dedicated space for the works of Kitaoji Rosanjin, a celebrated Japanese artist and gourmet known for his achievements in ceramics, calligraphy, painting, and cuisine.
The Adachi Museum of Art owns approximately 500 works by Rosanjin, with around 120 displayed at any one time. The exhibition rooms use soft lighting to highlight the delicate textures and colors of his ceramic works, allowing visitors to appreciate their details at a leisurely pace.
The museum’s collection extends beyond Japanese paintings to include children’s illustrations, wood sculpture, and lacquerware.
Children’s illustration, known as doga, refers to artwork created for children’s magazines and related publications. Although it was not always regarded as fine art, many artists developed the genre during the Taisho and Showa periods, creating a distinctive part of Japanese visual culture.
The museum introduces works by artists such as Hayashi Yoshio, Suzuki Toshio, and Takei Takeo, offering insight into the history of Japanese children’s culture. Visitors can also see wood sculptures by the renowned sculptor Hirakushi Denchu.
The approximately 50,000-tsubo Japanese garden is an essential part of the Adachi Museum of Art experience. The garden was designed by renowned landscape architect Nakane Kinsaku, with Kojima Saichi also contributing to the development of the moss garden.
The grounds include several distinctive gardens, such as the Dry Landscape Garden, Moss Garden, White Sand and Pine Garden, and Pond Garden. The gardens also incorporate the surrounding mountains, including Mt. Katsuyama, through the traditional Japanese landscaping technique known as shakkei, or borrowed scenery. This creates the impression that the gardens and the natural landscape beyond them form a single vast composition.
The Dry Landscape Garden uses white sand and carefully arranged stones to represent mountains and waterfalls. Three upright stones symbolize mountains, while the arrangement of the stones and sand creates the impression of a waterfall flowing toward the white-sand landscape.
The Moss Garden is characterized by soft, sweeping curves covered primarily with Sugi moss. Its quiet atmosphere creates a sense of serenity. The red pine trees are planted at an angle, recreating the natural appearance of trees growing on a mountain slope.
The White Sand and Pine Garden was inspired by Yokoyama Taikan’s famous painting “White Sand and Green Pines.” The white, dune-like landscape contrasts beautifully with the green pine trees, creating a scene that looks remarkably like a traditional Japanese painting brought to life.
The Pond Garden is designed around the beauty of reflections on the water. Its appearance changes dramatically with the seasons. In autumn, colorful foliage is reflected on the surface of the pond, while winter brings a serene landscape of snow.
The Adachi Museum of Art has created many ingenious ways to view its gardens as works of art. Two of the most distinctive are known as “Living Picture Frames” and “Living Scrolls.”
Windows inside the museum are designed to function like picture frames, turning the garden beyond them into a carefully composed landscape painting. Because the scenery changes with the season and time of day, the same viewpoint can reveal a completely different beauty each time you visit.
The museum also has a traditional tea room, Juraku-an, where visitors can enjoy matcha green tea and Japanese sweets.
The matcha is prepared using water boiled in a pure-gold tea kettle, and guests can enjoy their tea while looking out over the garden. The tea bowls are made by pottery artists from Shimane Prefecture, while the accompanying sweets are created by local Japanese confectionery shops.
This makes Juraku-an a wonderful place to experience an aspect of traditional Japanese culture while taking a break from viewing the museum’s artworks.
The Adachi Museum of Art is accessible by a free shuttle bus from JR Yasugi Station, with the journey taking approximately 20 minutes. The museum is also about 8 kilometers from the Yasugi Interchange by car.
A large parking area is available, with space for approximately 30 large buses and 400 regular cars, making the museum convenient for both individual travelers and organized sightseeing tours.
The Adachi Museum of Art offers a unique experience in which Japanese paintings and Japanese gardens are presented as a single work of art. The changing gardens and masterpieces displayed throughout the museum create a beautiful encounter between art, nature, and the Japanese aesthetic.
Each season offers a different atmosphere, from fresh green foliage in spring and lush greenery in summer to brilliant autumn colors and tranquil snowy landscapes in winter. For travelers exploring the San’in region, the museum provides an opportunity to experience Japanese beauty through art, landscape, and traditional culture in one unforgettable setting.