Monet's Waterlilies with Lotus Flowers: Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art

The Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art is located in Oyamazaki-cho, Otokuni-gun, southwest of Kyoto City.

It was built between the Taisho and Showa periods as a mountain villa for a businessman in the Kansai region. After the death of him, Asahi Breweries, a close friend of him, bought the land and buildings and opened it to the public as an art museum in 1996. The museum's main building and five other structures are registered tangible cultural properties as valuable modern architectures.

 

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the museum, and the special collection "Reflecting Dreams: The Museum's Collection of Pictures" is on display.

 

From JR Kyoto Station, get off at Yamazaki Station, the fifth station in the direction of Osaka. As you walk up the hill to the northeast, you will see the entrance to the museum, a stone tunnel. This tunnel is also a registered tangible cultural property.

After entering the site and walking up the slope for a while, you will see a building that looks like a fairyland. This is the main building of the museum.

 

Inside the museum. (Actually, photography is prohibited inside the museum.

In the exhibition room named "Box of Dreams", you can see the great Impressionist artists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Signac, Modigliani, and Picasso.

 

In another exhibition room, four of Monet's "Water Lilies" are on display at once. Standing in this exhibition room, I feel as if I can relive the latter half of Monet's life as he loved the gardens of Giverny during the war of World War I.

 

What's more, the pamphlet given to all visitors to the museum is extensive, which is full of detailed explanations about each of the artists and the works on display.

It is not as powerful as the exhibition room, but you can get a sense of it through the pictures in the pamphlet.

  

The view from the balcony of the cafe. Right in front of us is the confluence of the Yodo, Kizu, and Katsura Rivers, where commerce has flourished since ancient times. It's a wonderful view, but unfortunately it was a cloudy day.

Limited time cakes at the cafe.

 

In the garden, the lotus flowers were in full bloom along with the hydrangeas. What a luxury to be able to admire the painted water lilies and the actual lotus flowers at the same time.

Beautiful Nishikigoi (i.e. colored carp) came close to me.

Arched Bridge. There was also just a work by Monet called "Japanese Arched Bridge".

 

The Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art's Special Collections will be open until July 4. After that, the museum will be closed for reconstruction until September 17, and will reopen on September 18. Admission is 900 yen for adults.

 

Museum Web site

https://www.asahibeer-oyamazaki.com/

https://www.asahibeer-oyamazaki.com/english/