Access

As part of the 2018 program, MAD Architects was invited to revitalize the Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel – a historic, 750-meter passageway that cuts through distinctive rock formations, offering panoramic views over one of Japan’s three great chasms. Drawing on the ‘five elements’ of nature (wood, earth, metal, fire, water), MAD’s scheme transforms points along the historic tunnel through the realization of several architectural spaces and artistic atmospheres.

Designed by architect Hiroshi Hara, the building was unveiled in 2003 as a place for an exchange between people, products, and information. In conjunction with the ETAT2012, the building was renewed as the current Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art, KINARE. The museum serves as a gateway to the Echigo-Tsumari region with artworks inspired by this area and representing its topography, history, villages, fields, closed schools and abandoned houses, and cuisine.

Matsudai Nohbutai is located just a few minutes' walk from Matsudai Station on the Hokuhoku Line. This building serves as an innovative platform for connecting art and agriculture, comprising of a visitors information centre, gallery, restaurant, and museum shop, and is a significant piece of contemporary architecture in its own right.

※ The museum is closed during winter: from end of November to end of April
A walk-in picture book created by Seizo Tashima in 2009 in a former elementary school. The story behind this museum is based on the last three students of the school and visitors can physically experience the picture book as they walk through the museum. The space is filled with objects made of driftwood picked up in Izu Peninsula and from the Sea of Japan, reshaped to represent students, teachers, and even monsters.

A 10-minutes drive from Matsudai Station, Kyororo is a natural science museum that provides deep insights into the ecology of the local area and its characteristic natural landscape of terraced rice fields, beech forests, and thatched roof houses.

At the Echigo-Matsudai Satoyama Shokudo, we invite you to enjoy fresh vegetables, "sansai" (wild mountain plants), and locally-cultivated rice while overlooking terraced rice field landscapes. The restaurant serves a unique menu inspired by local traditional recipes passed down over generations - but with a modern twist.

The House of Light is a work of art created by James Turrell, renowned globally as "an artist of light". At this experimental piece you can experience the artist's world of art, is an architectural structure unparalleled elsewhere in the world. It was conceived as a guest house for meditation, as Turrell found this concept in Junichiro Tanizaki's essay "In Praise of Shadows". He came up with the idea of incorporating his work on light into the intimate light of a traditional Japanese-style house.