Sunday, 26 October 2025

While the day started with sunshine the forecast was for heavy rain and so it was a day for staying inside, i.e. museum day!

View from my hotel window

Close to me is a collective called Otaru Art Base which is comprised for 5 facilities, including a stained glass museum and a Ukiyo-e museum so that got my attention. The closest was the stained glass museum. This is all glass rescued from the UK when the buildings it was in were deconsecrated.

historic building plaque

There are a lot of designated historic landmarks and they all get these multilingual plaques describing their original use.

about the museum

I took a lot of photos, how could I not do when the stained glass is properly lit without having to rely on the sun and clouds playing nice. Here’s a sample, note they would have all come out of an Anglican church. Also the info panels were only in Japanese but there was a web site where you could enter the number of some pieces and get an audio description.

stained glass windows

more stained glass

a series of panels

the last supper

The building itself was also quite impressive, as was the transformation into the museum. It was also quite popular.

quite a few people enjoying it

the stairs between the two levels

Next up was the Ukiyo-e museum. This one had replicas on one level that you could photography and originals on another which you couldn’t.

welcome

Some useful info on the print.

info on the print identifying various parties

poem of love

five beauties

the wave

Next up was the House of Western Art which has a lot of Art Nouveau and Art Deco glass.

glassware

lights

more glass

lamp

a vase

The green in that glass is caused by uranium and so when you light it under UV light it looks like this.

under uv light

There was furniture too.

furniture

And ancient mosaics!

mosaic

More stained glass.

more stained glass

And whatever you want to call this!

nick on a goat?

paintings too

The final museum of the day was the Nitori Museum of Art but there was only one section you could photograph and it was stained glass 🙂 This time rescued from St John’s Episcopal church in New Jersey.

not bored of stained glass yet

wide shot

The rest of the collection was eclectic, Japanese swords, strange statuary, European paintings by Japanese artists in Europe, etc.

I have one more building to visit but tomorrow I hope to catch a train or two.