An Overview of Tanimura Art Museum

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".