The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum is a privately owned Japanese art museum in Matsumoto

Matsumoto

Matsumoto is the 16th most common Japanese surname and the name of a city in Nagano Prefecture.-People:* Chizuo Matsumoto, a.k.a...

, Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

. It specializes in Japanese woodblock prints

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

.

The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum was established in 1982 by the local business family Sakai. It is based on collections of ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 owned by the family. The items were mainly collected by Yoshitaka Sakai (1810–69), paper wholesaler and art patron, and his son and grandson.

The museum's main building was designed by the architect Shinohara Kazuo

Kazuo Shinohara

was a highly influential Japanese architect, forming what is now widely known as the "Shinohara School", which has been linked to the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa. As architectural critic Thomas Daniell put it, "A key figure who explicitly rejected Western influences yet...

(1925–2006) and extended in 1995 by the architect Haba Kuniharu.

External links

• Web site of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum
• Web site on the museum, edited by Museum Director Nobuo Sakai