Art Festivals & Events

In 1934, the region around the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai) was one of the first places in Japan to be designated as a “National Park” for its “outstanding natural landscapes that are worthy of representing the geographic features of Japan.” The 90th anniversary of that event is celebrated on March 16, 2024.
Surrounded by the Japanese main islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, the Seto Inland Sea is the biggest inland sea in Japan, dotted with more than 700 islands of various sizes. Not limited to the realm of art alone, the unique scenic beauty of these myriad islands, and the ample resources they provide, have greatly affected and enriched our daily life. This exhibition introduces a number of paintings that recount the history of the area, as well as familiar examples items of folk craft and architecture in Setonaikai. We hope that it will be an opportunity for visitors to reflect on the appeal of the Setonaikai region across different fields and eras, and also contemplate on what ”The Sea and I” means for them personally.
For a deeper and rather multifaceted understanding, resources and research results are being shared with the Museum of Ehime History and Culture and the Ehime Prefectural Science Museum, both of which concurrently also show exhibitions related to the Seto Inland Sea/Setonaikai.