Takayama's Art Museum

When I headed to the Takayama Museum of Art, which is right next to the Koito Pottery studio (the front gates are actually only about 20 feet from the studio's backdoor!), I was expecting a lot of traditional Japanese crafts, which is what Takayama is known for. I was so wrong. There was no Japanese art in the Takayama Art Museum. None. The museum is Japan's only museum devoted to the Interior Arts and Art Deco style. I was pretty impressed. It was shiny and modern, not at all what I was expecting. It had some nice furniture and a room full of some pretty amazing perfume bottles. These extremely luxurious objects are very much the antithesis of Wabi Sabi, the Japanese aesthetic style that I am here studying. They provide an interesting contrast, being so lavish and decorated, to the worn and humble objects I have recently studied.