Niseko is a hive of artistic talent and activity with galleries and workshops dotted across the countryside, and there’s no better time than the green season to get in a car and go on a journey of inspiration.
Shu Ogawara Museum of Art
01: KEIYU NISHIMURA MUSEUM OF ART Art museum featuring works spanning the 70-year career of local Kyowa painter Keiyu Nishimura.
02: KIJIRO KIDA MUSEUM OF ART A huge, oceanside museum in nearby port town Iwanai featuring works by Western-influenced landscape artist Kinjiro Kida.
03: SHU OGAWARA MUSEUM OF ART One of Hokkaido’s great artists, Shu Ogawara, died in 2002, leaving behind Niseko’s largest art gallery, the Shu Ogawara Museum of Art in Kutchan.
04: FRONTIER ART FARM Traditional Kyoto pottery gallery located on a sheep offering craft classes.
05: SOMOZA GALLERY Venture into the hills beyond Hanazono and discover regular exhibitions of modern and historical Hokkaido art and history inside a spectacular relocated Japanese farmhouse.
06: ST GALLERY & ST DESIGN View the Niseko landscape through the eyes of local painter Shigeru Tokumaru, and photography by his son, in this quaint gallery on the outskirts of Hirafu.
07: E-KAR KAR GALLERY “Nihonga” traditional Japanese-style paintings of cherry blossoms and other botanica by a Hokkaido artist in a house gallery in East Hirafu.
St Gallery & St Design
Gallery Katachi
08: GALLERY MOND Quaint gallery curated by a local art lover featuring regular exhibitions of paintings by Japanese artists.
09: UPAS GALLERY Boutique gallery by the founding father of photography in Niseko, Yoichi Watanabe. By appointment only – email [email protected].
10: GALLERY KATACHI Gallery Katachi A collection of local artists put together this eclectic boutique showcase in the centre of Hirafu.
11: AJ GALLERY Prints on hand-made Japanese paper by Powderlife and Summerlife photo editor and internationally renowned Hokkaido photographer Aaron Jamieson.
12: DYEING AND WEAVING RAFU Gallery featuring naturally dyed clothes.
13: GALLERY & CAFE FUYUKI Cloth, ceramic and wooden craft by Hokkaido artists in a refurbished old Japanese warehouse on the outskirts of Hirafu.
14: GALLERY RAM Showcasing and selling wood and steel sculptures and furniture by local “hammer artist” Masafumi Sawada.
15: GALSS DUOMO Selling all types of glass products from delicate ornaments to wine and beer glasses and offering workshops.
16: WOOD WORKS WEST HORSE View handmade furniture and craft in a house and atelier built by the owner.
17: GALLERY FUZANAN Featuring local landscape artwork by a local artist.
18: ARISHIMA MUSEUM Commemorating Niseko’s farming history and its namesake, a novelist who inherited land in Niseko and gifted it to poor farmers in the early 1900s.
Gallery Ram
Kachi Kiln
19: ART SCAPE MICHINONE Unique concrete sculptures can be viewed in this historic old school house.
20: NIWATAZUMIGAWA Traditional Kyoto-style pottery from a kiln and gallery near the shores of Lake Toya by an artist living in the area since the 1950s.
21: TOYAKO MUSEUM OF ART A charming gallery on the shore of Lake Toya housed in a Japanese-style former local government building featuring local works by sculptors, painters and photographers.
22: GLA GLA Peruse a wide range of glass-blown pieces in the shop and take a look at the workshop of this creative glass artist.
23: YUNOSATO DESK Beautiful hand made furniture and other woodwork pieces housed in a charming historic school building.
24: KACHI KILN Visit this ramshackle kiln housed in and around old dairy farm structures and take home some unique pieces made from Hokkaido clay.
25: GENTEM GALLERY View various photography and other exhibitions at Niseko’s temple of ocean and snow surf soul in this gallery above the Gentemstick snowboards showroom.
26: PANORAMA ART PARK Enjoy this incredible family of larger-than-life steel “higuma” bears by OG Niseko gaijin Matt “Fatty” Hill at the Panorama Estate Art Park on the outskirts of Hirafu.
Gentem Gallery
