[Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum]

Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture is a place deeply associated with folk crafts. Walking around the city, you will be surprised to see many cafes, restaurants, and inns that use folk crafts. In 1909, three people born in Matsumoto became involved with Muneyoshi Yanagi, a member of the folk craft movement, and together they developed Matsumoto into a folk craft town. Taro Maruyama of the Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum, Sanshiro Ikeda of Matsumoto Folk Crafts Furniture, and Hisashi Sawamoto III, a stencil dyer. In this issue, we introduce the Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum, which we visited previously while touring folk craft museums in various regions.

The Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum was founded in 1962 by Taro Maruyama, the first owner of the Chikiriya Craft Shop on Nakamachi-dori in Matsumoto and a folk craft artist of prints and mother-of-pearl inlay. In 1983, the land, building, and all of the collections of the Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum were donated to the City of Matsumoto, and the museum is now operated as a branch of the City Museum, continuing Maruyama's wishes. Taro Maruyama wrote in his calligraphy, "Beautiful things are beautiful," and his words well express the spirit of folk art, which sees beauty in everyday objects made by the hands of unknown craftsmen.

The Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum is located in the east of Matsumoto City, next to houses and rice paddies, and has a nostalgic and peaceful atmosphere with its "namako-kabe" warehouse-style building, a garden with large zelkova and beech trees, and artisans' handiworks. In the nine exhibition rooms, over 700 of the 6800 items in the museum's collection, including furniture, wooden boxes, plates, pots, and local household goods collected in Nagano Prefecture and abroad, are on permanent display. The pottery collection features representative pottery from various regions of Nagano Prefecture.

One of the characteristics of the Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum is that the exhibits are named and not explained in detail, as Taro Maruyama, the founder of the museum, wanted visitors to intuitively appreciate the beauty of folk crafts. The museum is located in the suburbs, in a quiet and restful building surrounded by nature, where visitors can see and feel the beauty of the folk art works themselves. Special exhibitions and pottery classes are held from time to time. If you visit Matsumoto, be sure to visit the museum together with the Chikiriya Craft Shop and the Matsumoto Folk Crafts Furniture and Chuo Folk Craft Showroom.

Matsumoto Folk Crafts Museum
https://matsu-haku.com/mingei/
Okubo House Wood Craftsman (born and lives in Matsumoto City)
https://www.shokunin.com/en/okubo/hera.html

Reference materials
https://shinshu.fun/museum/mingei
https://visitmatsumoto.com/coverstory/matsumoto-selection/第3話-民芸の町から工芸の町へ/
https://matsumoto.keizai.biz/headline/2308/