Hello Japan fans! Today I would like to introduce you to the largest oil painting in Japan, or even the world, that I have visited.
I went here alone and I remember being overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the museum and spending quite a long time walking around by myself. You should definitely go.
What is the Museo the Sun Forest di DiMasio ?
A private art museum in the town of Shimkap in Hokkaido is the Museo the Sun Forest di DiMasio! The director, Mr Tanimoto, fell in love with Mr Dimasio’s paintings and founded the museum here.
The director himself is from Osaka and visited Shimkap for the first time when the museum was founded, and there is a reason why he chose this location, which I will explain later, but it fits very well!
Mr DiMasio’s profile is below, and the number of works in the museum was astonishing.
The works of Gérard Dimasio (now living in London), a genius of French fantasy painting, were first shown in Japan in 1988.
His large paintings of male and female nudes, so finely detailed that they could hardly have been painted in oil, and his extremely realistic depictions of the unknown shocked the art world and created a huge following in Japan at the time.
Extract from the museum’s official website.
Museum housed in a former primary school
At first glance, the Museo Dimasio does not look like a museum, but it was originally used as a primary school!
If you ask us, it looks like a primary school, but it is a modern and stylish building with an elaborate shape.
The director bought the former “taiyo- (=Sun) Primary School”, which had been closed down, and reopened it! It is a renovated facility that has been reborn as a museum showcasing Dimasio’s work!
A memorial to the 30th anniversary of the primary school has also been left on the site. If you look closely, you can see that the base is from the 50th anniversary celebrations, so you get a sense of the long history of the closed Sun Primary School.
The museum is named after the former Taiyo Elementary School, hence the name Sun Forest. There is a lot of rubbish in Japan, so this kind of use of an abandoned school is a wonderful initiative that also gives a sense of the history of the building itself!
The world’s largest oil painting, recognised by Guinness World Records!
The highlight, of course, is the world’s largest oil painting ! The size of the painting is a whopping 9m long and 27m wide! The painting is mirrored at the top, bottom, left and right, giving it a sense of infinite depth, and in contrast to its size, the painting itself is so finely detailed that if you look at every corner of the 9m x 27m = 243m2 and try to interpret the meaning of each plot in your own way, you will be drawn into a magnificent view of the world.
This oil painting is displayed in the former gymnasium of Taiyo Primary School, and when they were looking for a building large enough to display a large oil painting, they found this primary school gymnasium. It’s a wonderful coincidence!
To further enhance the fascinating world view of the world’s largest oil painting, a sound and light show is performed several times a day, enveloping the entire gymnasium.
It was a weekday when I went to the museum, so there were hardly any people in the building, and I remember feeling a kind of fear as I stared at the painting alone.
I was brought back to reality when people entered the gymnasium and I quickly left the gymnasium.
It’s a bit chilly because it’s air-conditioned to preserve the paintings, and because of the aforementioned staging, if you’re alone, you’ll lose all sense of time and experience a journey as if you were really in space!
There is much more to see at the museum.
The museum’s interior is bigger than you might expect for a former primary school, and there are many Dimasio paintings on display, in addition to the world’s largest oil painting.
In addition to Dimasio’s paintings, there are various other works of art on display, so take your time to look around the museum.
There is a huge stained glass window where the hall is thought to have once been! It brings to mind the image of elementary school children running around at the time. It’s interesting to walk around the building, looking at the structure of the building while imagining what it was like as an elementary school.
The museum’s assistant director is a cute cat!
The museum is basically unmanned and tickets are bought from a ticket machine. So who is in the museum? Well, there’s a cat. The cat is the assistant director of the museum! shes name is Mask-chan.
I have a cat at home and I love cats! So I went looking for her to make sure I said hello to the assistant director.
That day she was in what was probably the former headmaster’s office. While you are looking at the artworks, be sure to look for the assistant director of cats!
There’s plenty to see outside the museum building too
Before you park your car and enter the museum, you’ll also find some strange things in the old schoolyard. Mysterious gorillas and dinosaurs will be waiting to welcome you!
There is also an annex in the school yard with a collection of glass sculptures, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to look at it at the time…
There are many other sights to see besides the world’s largest oil painting, so take your time and visit slowly.
Where is the Museo the Sun Forest di DiMasio ?
The best way to get to the DiMasio Art Museum is by car.
The DiMasio Museum of Art is located in Shimkap Taiyo, south of the centre of Hokkaido.
I took the mountain road from Asahikawa through Furano and Tomamu, but the highway runs along the sea, so if you are just coming for the DiMasio Museum, the route is to come the highway from Sapporo or Chitose direction.
I was driving along the mountain road, scared that I might encounter a bear! I was surprised by the sign!
To be honest, there aren’t many other tourist attractions around Shimukappu besides this museum, so I recommend visiting Tomamu, Biei, Furano, etc. as well.
Hokkaido itself is huge, so everyone will probably be travelling by car, but please be aware of the speed limits and be careful on your way to the museum!
When you head to the museum, there is nothing around, so you may be worried if you are really on the right path, but just trust your GPS and keep going!
On the way to the museum you can see lots of race horses!
That’s because the area around Shimukappu is a place where racehorses are bred. Seeing all the thoroughbreds makes you excited and want to race them!
I also follow horse racing, so I was really excited to see the wild (not wild) horses! I’d like to post more articles about Tokyo Racecourse in the future!
I didn’t have time to stop by at the time, but it seems that Monbetsu Racecourse is nearby, so I’d like to go there someday and get rich quick!
Come visit the DiMasio Museum and see the world’s largest oil painting for yourself!
This time, I wrote an article about DiMaggio’s oil paintings to introduce various things that are number one in Japan, but it turns out that in 2024, it will be recognized by the Guinness World Records and officially become the best in the world!
Looking at the photo of the oil painting again, it’s so big that I’m sure you’ll be overwhelmed by its size and worldview when you visit.
I hope you’ll go and see it for yourself!
Fan Fan Japan!
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