Tanimura
Art Museum was established in 1983 solely to display the works of sculptor Seiko
Sawada（澤田政康）, a sculptor representing the Showa era whom the Emperor of Japan also awarded the Order of Culture. Sawada is from Atami City,
Shizuoka Prefecture, and had ties to Itoigawa as his favorite pupil, Yukou
Ishizuka（石塚裕康）, was from the City.
The
name “Tanimura Art Museum” is derived from
the name of Shigeo Tanimura(谷村繁雄), the president of a
construction company in Itoigawa and the founder of the museum.
Tanimura,
an art lover and collector of Buddhist art, was fascinated by Sawada's Buddhist
statues that he encountered at a temple in Nara and commissioned Sawada to
create one. Sawada felt connected and readily agreed to the offer from
someone from his favorite pupil's hometown. As a result, there was talk of
building a museum to house Sawada's works, and the Tanimura Art Museum was
built.
The
museum was meticulously designed and supervised by Togo Murano（村野藤吾）, who like
Sawada was a recipient of the Order of Culture and a friend of Sawada.
When the idea of founding the
museum came up, Murano was working on a large-scale architectural design in
Tokyo (the New Takanawa Prince Hotel), but he accepted the idea, saying that he
wanted to make it his last handmade building. Although Murano was 92
years old at the time (Sawada was 88), he personally took the lead
on site.
The building was completed by redoing parts that had
already been completed many times. It took about a year from the start of
construction to the opening of the museum. When the museum was completed,
Murano said, "Now I have no regrets".
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