Shiga
From World travel guide
Shiga prefecture (滋賀県 Shiga-ken) is in the western Kansai region of Japan.
Contents |
Understand
Shiga was formerly known as the province of Omi (近江).
Cities
Other destinations
- Lake Biwa — Japan's largest lake
- Mount Hiei — an ancient temple complex guarding Kyoto
Talk
Get in
By train
The Tokaido Shinkansen line stops at Maibara on its way from Kyoto to Nagoya.
Otsu and the Lake Biwa area are easily accessed on local trains from Kyoto.
Get around
See
Miho Museum, [1]. The Miho was the dream of Mihoko Koyama (after whom it is named), the heiress to the Toyobo textile business, and one of the richest women in Japan. In 1970 she founded the Shinji Shumeikai spiritual movement which is now said to have some 300,000 members worldwide, and in the 1990's she commissioned the museum to be designed by I M Pei and built close to the Shumei temple in the Shiga mountains. It houses Mihoko Koyama's private collection of Asian and Western antiques as well as US$300 million to US$1 billion (depending on your sources) worth of other pieces bought on the world market by Shumei in the years before the museum was opened in 1997. Over a thousand pieces in total, of which about 250 are displayed at any one time. I M Pei's design is a masterpiece, executed in a hilly and forested landscape that he came to call Shangri-La. About three quarters of the building is situated underground, carved out of a rocky mountaintop. The roof is an enormous glass and steel construction, while the exterior and interior walls and floor are made of a warm beige-coloured limestone from France – the same material used by Pei in the reception hall of the Louvre. Compared to marble, it creates a softer atmosphere and a more relaxed lightness. The colours of the stone, the silver space frame, the textured louvers and the vegetation outside each counterbalance each other in wonderful harmony. Perhaps the most spectacular part of Pei's achievement, however, is the approach to the hilltop "paradise". When you arrive at the site, you first see a modest reception pavilion amid cedar trees, facing a circular courtyard, and you may be forgiven for thinking this is the museum. Opposite this building is a wide curved walkway lined with peach trees that leads to the mouth of a gleaming stainless-steel-lined tunnel cut into a ridge. As you walk into this silent, echoless, vast tunnel – it is at least three traffic lanes wide – it sweeps you in a single, 200-metre curve until sunlight suddenly appears, and – through the graceful cables of a half suspension bridge cantilevered 120 metres across a deep, narrow gorge – you finally see the Chinese-style moon-gate entrance to the museum pavilion. Allow at least two hours to browse the exhibits – each stunning piece was carefully selected as much for its artistic beauty as its historical significance, and the whole collection is brilliantly displayed and skilfully lit. Admission ¥1000, open from 10 AM to 5 PM daily except Monday; note that the museum is normally closed from mid-December to mid-March, as well as parts of June/July and August/Sept, so check the calendar first. From Kyoto station, take a twenty-minute train ride to Ishiyama on the east shore of Lake Biwa, and from there a 40-minute cab ride or shuttle bus to the museum.
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