Adachi Museum of Art

The Adachi Museum of Art stands in the countryside of Yasugi, in the east of Shimane Prefecture, between Matsue and Yonago. Its founder, Adachi Zenkō, was born in the area and made a fortune in business in Osaka; at the age of 71 he opened the museum to show his collection of modern Japanese painting and to create a garden that would itself be a work of art.

The collection of around 2,000 works focuses on nihonga, Japanese-style painting of the modern era, with some 120 paintings by Yokoyama Taikan at its core, together with works by Takeuchi Seihō, Uemura Shōen and others, ceramics by Kitaōji Rosanjin and Kawai Kanjirō, and children's book illustrations.

The garden cannot be walked through. It is viewed from inside the museum through large windows and from set viewpoints, with the wooded hills behind incorporated as borrowed scenery. Its gardeners maintain every tree and stone daily, and the view is designed to change with each season. The Journal of Japanese Gardening, an American magazine, has ranked it the best garden in Japan every year since 2003.

Adachi Zenkō worked from a young age as a charcoal carrier and trader before building a business career in Osaka after the war. He devoted his later years to the museum, travelling across Japan to find trees and stones for the garden, and personally shaped its composition. After his death in 1990 the foundation continued his work, expanding the collection and the garden.

Adachi Zenkō's guiding idea was that a garden is also a painting. The museum therefore treats the garden and the paintings as a single experience, and visitors move between galleries and windows that frame outdoor views. The seasonal changes, snow on the pines in winter, azaleas in spring and red maples in autumn, are part of the programme.

The museum has also been awarded three stars in the Michelin Green Guide Japan and is a destination in its own right on journeys through the San'in coast between Izumo and Tottori.