Researchers including the artist stay in the homes of Echigo-Tsumari’s villages. The discoveries made while living there, and modern documents on ethnic customs are displayed here.
For example, let’s look at the work “oil painting on the beam”. The lady of the household enjoyed oil paintings, but why did she choose to hang it on the support beam? It was because her father adopted a tendency to look down when he became ill after falling from a tree. Hence, she hung the oil painting in a high place as a way of telling her father, “I want you to look up”.
One time during a researcher’s stay here, one morning when they woke up, the lady of the house brought breakfast on a tray to them. The researcher did a double take and saw that the canvas of the oil painting was used for the tray. It seems as though her concealed personality became noticeable. “Canvas that became a Tray” is also exhibited here.
What are displayed here are not simply objects but stories.
And here, the art poses a question to you.
Post-war, there was a period of time during which Japan faced a severe food shortage. During this time the government carried out land reclamation for agricultural purposes. The impetus for the development of vast expanses of land was to give people land for personal cultivation.
There were many developers in Echigo-Tsumari as well, and during the building it was discovered that this region is a treasure house of Jomon pottery. There were instances in which farmers excavated pottery but never reported it to the government. Why is this? Because doing so would render the land that the farmers painstakingly cultivated unusable due to being set aside for further excavation. That is why some farmers decided to shatter the pottery and bury them in the fields. They pretended that they did not see them.
Who could blame those farmers, faced with the need for basic survival? This story was told to the researchers over sake when they were here on their homestays.
Exchange words with the locals at your travel destination. Get along well with someone, and they may even invite you into their homes. Trade tales of your personal life with theirs. Stories that emerge this way are treasured by travelers and locals alike. On your journey, you too might find a story that’s as special as the ones you see at the homestay museum.