A Museum Lover’s Guide to Toyama Glass Art Museum

Northeast of Tokyo, on the side of Japan that faces the ocean, Toyama sits on Toyama Bay—an inlet of the Sea of Japan. A city generally unfrequented by tourists but treasured by those who call it home, it maintains a progressive arts scene, a rich culinary heritage and a history of traditional craftsmanship. Commonly referred to as the Glass Art City, Toyama’s origins trace back to the late 20th Century, when it became famous for its production of glassware medicine bottles for the pharmaceutical industry. During the Edo Period, early glass vials were made to order, and that industrialization of blown glass grew Toyama’s reputation as a hub for experimentation. Glass, in the hands of those who worked with it, was a visually dynamic material with infinite possibilities.

Today, backdropped by the Tateyama Mountain Range, the Toyama Glass Art Museum invites adventurous art lovers to peruse one of the largest international exhibitions of contemporary glass art in the world. Housed in one of architect Kengo Kuma’s prized works, and flanked by wooden shops and humble restaurants, the museum’s angled cylinder, the mirrored glass and aluminum infrastructure mask a wood foundation. The façade feels like an artistic anomaly; sound, glass and metal converge to create what feels like an open-air experience. Japan’s outdoor ethos relishes forest-bathing, and the museum’s ground floor references the practice for those who know what to look for. Travel up the escalator, and the sunlight dances off your skin as if you were a work of glass yourself.

Toyama Glass Art Museum celebrated its 10-year anniversary this summer. It opened seven months after the Hokuriku Shinkansen extension was made on the bullet train, making Toyama easier to navigate for travelers and tourists, and since then, the museum has welcomed over 1 million visitors curious to know more about how Toyama’s history as a medicine manufacturing capital evolved into an indulgent culture and affinity for glass. Thirty exhibitions have been staged at the museum since its founding; at any given time, the museum has two temporary and three permanent exhibitions on view.

One of the latter is Dale Chihuly’s “Glass Art Garden.” A godfather of contemporary glass art, Chihuly has his off-world chandelier masterpieces installed on the ceilings of the museum, and his works are shown on the top floor, where a glowing formation of glass icicles called Toyama Reeds grows out of cedar sourced from Toyama Bay. Then, guests enter a black void where Chihuly’s garden blooms without sunlight. To get to the garden, you pass by the Toyama Float Boat display in which a traditional wooden vessel transports an all-glass solar system of planets to another world. The closing act is his hallucinatory, exotic garden, Toyama Mille Fiori, an impressive array of massive glass orbs that resemble marbles, primary-colored tentacles, sharp crystal formations and out-of-this-world whimsy.

A temporary show, “Baccarat, Gallé, Daum Frères—French Art Nouveau Glass,” has multiple pieces of French glass art that was created during the Art Nouveau period, a stylistic rejuvenation of craftsmanship steering further away from the nobility and bourgeoisie. Daum’s vase travels through time; the top half displays hues of a sunset as the foreground experiences nightfall. A grape tree accentuates the change of time as the sun’s light disappears, revealing that the day has passed on the vase. Baccarat’s vases are a cooling blue with a wild goose squawking at the moon. Both glasshouses depict aestheticized references to Japanese landscapes. Especially notable is Daum’s floral lamp, a soothing mixture of yellows, greens and oranges.

The museum’s permanent “Glass Art Passage” exhibition showcases a rotating selection of over 50 modern pieces, including translucent vases, etched bowls, humorous silhouettes and other objets d’art, that the museum has identified as reflective of social changes in the region and beyond. All told, the museum houses more than 660 glass artifacts—some delicate and ethereal, others massive in scale and concept.

“Reflecting Encounters With The Now” is the museum’s anniversary exhibition, which is an arresting tribute spotlighting the works of local Toyama Prefecture glass artists. Pieces from the late 1970s to today show how glass has transitioned from decor to abstract artifacts to imitations of life-forms. Today, there are many ways you can cultivate artworks of glass, and the contemporary artists’ different perspectives and expressions emulate that power. Toyama Glass Art Museum seeks to expand the glass art community. The museum has facilities that include a glass-making studio and an institute that props up the next generation of glass innovators. There are over 660 glass artifacts living at the Toyama museum; some are delicate formations and others require tons of manpower to bring into a space for exhibition. Kengo Kuma’s touch has made the museum an emblem and attraction devised from the art and technology that has evolved Toyama from a port town to a spectacle of a metropolitan center heading toward the future.

Today, there are countless ways to consider glass as an artistic medium, and contemporary artists continue to explore its potential through a range of perspectives and expressive approaches. Toyama Glass Art Museum is more than just a venue to see what’s been made; it actively supports the global glass art community, with facilities including a glass-making studio and an institute training the next generation of glass innovators. It stands not only as a cultural destination but as a symbol of Toyama’s evolution from glassmaking hub to international center for contemporary glass art.

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