Sagawa Art Museum

Sagawa Art MuseumHirayama Ikuoraku wareLake BiwaMoriyama

Shiga · Moriyama

35.1168°N, 135.9472°E

The Sagawa Art Museum sits on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa as two low pavilions with tiled roofs appearing to float on a shallow reflecting pool that covers most of the site, so that the approach is a causeway across water with the Hira mountains behind. It opened in 1998 and holds three collections: the Buddhist and Silk Road paintings of Nihonga artist Hirayama Ikuo, the bronzes of the sculptor Sato Churyo, and the raku ware of Raku Kichizaemon XV.

The raku pavilion is the reason to plan ahead. Kichizaemon designed it himself, largely underground and reached through a dark passage, so that visitors emerge into a room lit from a water surface above — a deliberate reversal of a normal gallery, built for tea bowls that are made to be held rather than displayed. It is entered on a separate timed booking.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

9:30 AM – 5:00 PM (last admission 4:30 PM)

Closed: Closed Mondays (the following day if Monday is a public holiday) and over the new year

Entrance Fee

¥1,000 general | ¥600 high school and university students | ¥300 elementary and junior high school | Special exhibitions priced separately | Raku pavilion and tea rooms require separate advance booking

Best Season

Year-round | Still days, when the reflecting pools work

Visit Duration

2–3 hours

Getting There

Access Information

Mizuho-cho Kitagawa 2891, Moriyama City. About 20 minutes by bus from Moriyama Station on the JR Biwako Line. Open 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM with last admission at 4:30 PM. Closed Mondays, opening the following day if Monday is a public holiday, and over the new year. Admission ¥1,000 general, ¥600 high school and university students, ¥300 elementary and junior high school; special exhibitions are priced separately. The Raku Kichizaemon pavilion and the tea rooms require separate advance booking.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Book the raku pavilion separately.** It is not included in the standard walk-round and it is the most interesting part of the museum. Timed entry, booked ahead. **The building is on water.** Reflecting pools cover most of the site and the pavilions read as floating. Still days give the effect; wind takes it away. **Hirayama Ikuo painted the Silk Road for forty years.** The collection follows the route from Nara to the Mediterranean, and it is the largest single holding of his work. **Raku ware is made to be held.** Hand-formed rather than thrown, low-fired, and the underground pavilion exists to show them at the scale and in the light that implies. **Twenty minutes by bus and no reason to be nearby.** This is a destination museum on a lakeshore. Combine it with the lake rather than with a town. **Closed Mondays and over new year.** A common trip-breaker in a prefecture where several of the other draws are also shut on Mondays.

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