An Illustrated Japan / Tokushima / Townscape & Scenery
Also written: 大塚国際美術館 · 大冢国际美术馆
One of Japan's largest museums, the Otsuka Museum of Art reproduces world-famous paintings at full scale on ceramic plates. It is highly regarded as a unique venue where visitors can enjoy Western art all in one place.
The Otsuka Museum of Art in Naruto Park, Tokushima Prefecture, is the world's first museum dedicated entirely to ceramic reproduction masterpieces, and it redefines what a museum can be. Covering a total floor area of 29,412 square meters, it was once Japan's largest museum building and remains the second largest today after the National Art Center, Tokyo. Conceived as the 75th anniversary project of the Otsuka Group and opened on March 21, 1998, after ten years of negotiations for reproduction rights and five years just to obtain a building permit inside the Setonaikai National Park, the project cost approximately 40 billion yen. To meet the strict 13-meter height limit to preserve the landscape, architects from Sakakura Associates excavated the mountain and inserted a structure of five underground floors and three above-ground floors before backfilling, creating five exhibition floors linked by a four-kilometer viewing route from B3F to 2F. Inside, more than 1,000 works—often cited as 1,075 pieces—from over 190 museums in 26 countries are reproduced at full scale on large ceramic plates using a proprietary transfer and firing technology developed by Otsuka Ohmi Ceramics. Unlike paper or canvas, these ceramic plates resist fire, flood, sunlight, and humidity, retaining their color for over 2,000 years, a contribution to cultural preservation that also allows photography with flash restrictions, tactile viewing for visually impaired visitors, and even outdoor installation. The exhibitions are organized as three immersive methods: Environmental Exhibitions that reconstruct the entire spaces of the Sistine Chapel, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii; Systematic Exhibitions following the chronological history of Western art from antiquity to the modern era with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt's Night Watch, and Botticelli's Birth of Venus; and Thematic Exhibitions comparing motifs across centuries. Highlights exclusive to this museum include the Sistine Hall where Michelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgment are reproduced enveloping the viewer, the restored before-and-after versions of Leonardo's Last Supper, Van Gogh's seven Sunflowers gathered in one room including the long-lost version once in Japan and destroyed in an air raid, and Picasso's Guernica, permitted by his family for ceramic reproduction. Monet's Water Lilies is displayed outdoors around a pond where real water lilies bloom from June to September, fulfilling the artist's dream of open-air viewing. Guided tours by volunteer guides run daily free of charge, audio guides cost 500 yen, and the museum shop sells miniature ceramic plates, one of the few products allowed to reproduce these works. With 340 free parking spaces and a shuttle bus, direct highway buses from Itami and Namba, and a location five minutes from Naruto-kita Interchange, the museum functions as a dam to keep travelers in Tokushima, as originally intended. Visitors should allow three to four hours minimum, wear comfortable shoes for the four-kilometer route, and remember that the museum can be re-entered on the same day, making it possible to intersperse lunch at the Garden Restaurant or Café Vincent with art. For international visitors, it offers the chance to study Western art history in one day without flying to 25 countries, and to understand how a Japanese ceramic technology preserves world heritage for future millennia.
