Nakahara Teijiro Memorial Asahikawa City Sculpture Museum
📍 Hokkaido, Asahikawa
A sculpture museum inside a Nationally Important Cultural Property — a 1902 Imperial Army officers' club — showing the work of Rodin-influenced sculptor Teijirō Nakahara alongside actual Rodin pieces.
In Asahikawa’s Shunkō district stands a red-brick building from 1902 that once served as the 7th Division’s officers’ social club — and is today Asahikawa’s only building with National Important Cultural Property status. Since 1994 it has held the Nakahara Teijirō Memorial Asahikawa City Sculpture Museum.
Why It’s Interesting
The museum is built around the life and work of Teijirō Nakahara, a sculptor from Asahikawa who died young at 32 but left a body of work heavily shaped by his study of Auguste Rodin. Twelve of Nakahara’s own pieces are on permanent display alongside works by Rodin and other artists who influenced or were influenced by him, plus rotating special exhibitions. The building itself does a lot of the storytelling: its Western-style architecture, preserved through the 1994 renovation into a museum, is as much the draw as the sculpture inside.
Best Time to Visit
Open year-round, 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30); closed Mondays (next day if a holiday) and over New Year’s, but open daily through July and August.
Getting There
In central Asahikawa’s Shunkō district, reachable by local bus from JR Asahikawa Station or a short drive; a small on-site lot has about 7 spaces.
🐿️ Cinnamon was here
Field report
Jason wanted "weird museum" and "historical landmark" both, and this one's sneaky about doing both at once. From outside it just looks like a handsome old brick building. It's actually the Asahikawa Kaikōsha, built in 1902 as the 7th Division's officers' social club — the only building in the whole city with National Important Cultural Property status.
Inside, the army's old dining hall is now hung with twelve works by **Teijirō Nakahara**, a sculptor who studied Rodin's influence closely and died at just 32, plus pieces by Rodin himself and other contemporaries. I sat very still near a bronze for almost a full minute pretending to also be a sculpture. Nobody noticed. That felt like a compliment to Nakahara.
Visitors keep saying the building steals some of the show from the art, which is fair — my tip is to look up at the ceiling moldings on your way through, not just at the pedestals.
— Cinnamon 🐿️
📸 Cinnamon's camera roll
Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.
Where it is
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Nearby discoveries
Asahikawa Design Center
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