The small Nagano town where Hokusai spent his final years — chestnuts, sake, and the world's best local museum
Obuse in Nagano Prefecture is a town of 11,000 that punches far above its weight: the Hokusai-kan Museum holds the largest collection of late-period Hokusai works outside Tokyo, including two spectacular festival float paintings made when the artist was in his 80s, the years he spent here under the patronage of local merchant Takai Kozan. The town is Japan's chestnut capital — kuri (chestnut) is in almost everything served here: chestnut sweets, chestnut rice, marron-flavoured soft-serve. The main street has a cluster of exceptional sake breweries (Masuichi-Ichimura being the standout) and th…
Obuse's prosperity was built on sake brewing and the patronage culture of the Edo period. Takai Kozan, the town's great merchant patron, invited Hokusai to work here in the 1840s — the elderly master made multiple visits and produced some of his most experimental late works in this small provincial town. The town's chestnut culture is centuries old, tied to the agricultural identity of the Hokusin region. Obuse's unusually high concentration of well-preserved Edo-period storehouses (dozo) gives it a distinctive streetscape.