After nine years in the hospital due to an unfortunate accident, Tomihiro Hoshino returned to his boyhood home, Azuma, a quadripalegic. Azuma is just a little village with 4,000 or so residents, surrounded by the deep green poetry of the mountains, the blue sky, and four seasons of wildflowers, groves of rhododendrons, and red striped azalea trees. A Christian, he took up Shi-Ga, a spiritual form of nature painting with Bhuddist origins. Flowers are especially popular subjects. Critics have given his art the ultimate compliment, "It was as if he were seeing that familiar nature for the first time." The museum originally opened in Spring, 1991, as a village revitalization project and the number of visitors has grown remarkably far outstripping the original building's ability to handle them. A competition was organized to create and pick its successor.
The competition programme described a visit to the proposed museum as follows:
"The minute you step into the museum, the treasures of Hoshino's works bid you a gentle welcome. Hoshino's pieces tell you unpretentiously but firmly of the courage and joy of living which comes from the midst of ordinary nature."
We tried to respond in kind. Our entry is enclosed on three sides by a double wall of 2 cm thick, 10 cm wide, 2 meter long laminated glass plate stacked on its 10 cm wide side like masonry creating a green, gentle, glowing presence (see detail below right and center) high in the trees (see section above right) that invites visitors up the long path into a friendly courtyard (see sketch above left). The unusual use of glass and play of light are intended to complement and celebrate the unique life and positive attitude of Tomihiro Hoshino. A finicular operates on this path and stops at the entrance and then continues onward to transport visitors to nature trails that begin at the end of the path.
The building is sited to the north and up the hill from the existing building (red polygon on site model above) allowing for the construction of the new with minimal interruption of the old. The first level (see section above) features underground employee parking and service access. The ground level is accessible via elevator from the service drive below and from a bridge (see site model and section above) that crosses the highway and runs under the Gallery space (see sketch below right). It opens into a court where one can sit inside at a café bar and watch people come and go (see sketch above left).
One enters the buidling on the left and once inside, there's a point of control. The theater is to the right (see plan above, middle) the elevator to the offices upstairs straight ahead and the major visitor circulation to the galleries runs counterclockwise through the building. One encounters the one-story temporary gallery. Next is the spectacular two-story permanent gallery (see below middle and right) Its translucent walls emit a soft, somewhat greenish light that makes the space warm ans inviting. The paintings are hung on movable partitions and indirect lighting is filtered through skylights above and direct lighting is mounted on the ceiling. Once through the gallery, the visitor encounters the museum shop, bathrooms and a café with a bar designed for people watching. All offices and research facilites reside on the second floor.
