Ken Nobuhara translated “Sherlock Holmes” into Japanese in the post town of Oiwakejuku. This monument was built here to celebrate the hundred year anniversary of Holmes’ birthday.

This facility displays materials related to Nakasendo’s past using Ukiyo-e (a Japanese art). Images from Nihonbashi to Kyoto Sanjo Ohashi are compared with those from the present. In the garden of the museum, you can experience a quasi-experience of going around all the Sixty Nine Stations of Nakasendo.

Materials for preserving the culture of Oiwakejuku that flourished as a post town during the Edo Period are exhibited. Models are used to explain the history of Karuizawa in a fun and comperhensive manner.

A literature museum exhibiting materials relating to Hori Tatsuo, an author in the early Showa Period. Manuscripts and first edition books are displayed as well as the life, background and history of the writer himself.

This museum collects and displays wooden toys manufactured in the Erz region in Germany, such as the Nutcracker doll and the Christmas pyramid. It is a sister house of Seiffen village museum “The Erzgebirge Toy Museum of Seiffen” in Germany.

This art gallery introduces picture book culture from all around the world from various interesting angles. It captures the theme of “The History of Western Picturebook” perfectly and takes you on a pleasant journey through the ages in a magical, forested atmosphere.

Oil paintings, drawings and prints come together here to create a warm atmosphere the likes of which you’d find in a fairytale. Western-style painter Wakita Kazu not only exhibited here but also created the main design for the museum’s building. The adjacent studio was designed by Yoshimura Junzo, in a more modern style.

The works of a successful and international Japanese painter, Hiroshi Senju, are displayed here. This bright and open art museum has architecture designed by Nishizawa Ryue, a representative architect in Japan, and merges the styles Karuizawa and Senju together.

An individual art museum displaying works by Ishikawa Koichi, the famous painter who created watercolour sketches and oil paintings of Karuizawa’s flowers. With his delicate touch, he tried to mirror the enternal life of a flower which breathes in harmony with the nature of Karuizawa.

This museum displays modern literature relating to Karuizawa, including works from writers like Hori Tatsuo, Muro Saisei and others. The building was relocated and the studies and tea rooms that were once used by these famous writers have been made public now.

A museum exhibiting French painter Raymond Peynet’s work. The museum also exhibits some of his original drawings, lithographs and his favourite painting materials. The building is a relocated atelier built by Antonin Raymond, which is now a valuable cultural heritage of Karuizawa.

This exhibition focuses on the works, ideas, and activities of Nishimura Isaku, an architect, artist and ceramist representing Japan’s Taisho and Showa Period. The English cottage style building is a reproduction of the cultural institute Isaku designed himself.

A collections of over 501 pieces including those from the origins of abstract painting, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. The works of groundbreaking, American contemporary artists such as Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol are displayed here as well as the works of Japanese writers such as Arakawa Shusaku, Nakanishi Natsuyuki and Yokoo Tadanori.

The Tasaki Museum Of Art was created by Tasaki Hirosuke, a landscape painter who received the Order of Cultural Merit, to permanently preserve his work in Karuizawa. Hirosuke has had a workshop in Mikasa in Karuizawa since 1973 and has since come to call it his second home. The work displayed here particularly focuses on the neighbouring landscapes, including images of Tateshina, Yatsugatake mountains, Myoko, Lake Nojiri, Mt. Asama and Lake Shirakaba.

Displaying works from some of the top ranking Japanese artists in the world, such as Kusama Yayoi, Atsuko Tanaka, Nara Yoshitomo and Takashi Murakami, this contemporary art museum is a quiet place to spark your imagination amongst the surrounding greenery. You can also purchase works at the gallery and the admission fee includes a tea treat.

Mainly displaying excellent contemporary art from the end of World War II to the present and works of avant-garde artists whose international profile has been increasing in recent years, this freshly planned exhibition is simply something you cannot miss. Not only is the building, designed by Rikuo Nishimori, deeply impressive, but the art will take any fan on the emotional and inquisitive journey of a lifetime.