Suzaka City Museum、須坂市立博物館

Suzaka City is in Nagano prefecture (central Japan). The museum shows exhibits concerning the primitive and the ancient age mainly (it is not related to the theme of this blog). So, I show you its exhibits briefly with its city scape.

須坂市は、長野県北部の都市。長野市の近くです。博物館では、須坂の原始時代、古代の発掘物を主に展示しています。このブログのテーマとは異なりますが、須坂の町とともに簡単にご紹介します。

Six facilities show about Suzaka; it says “functionally distributed general museum”. Exhibits about folklore which is related to this blog's theme is in Suzaka City “Kasaboko” dream hall. I’ll show it in the following article.

須坂市では博物館の機能を分散していて、本館（須坂市立博物館）は原始古代と自然の展示、笠鉾会館が私が好きな民俗と須坂藩を展示しています。ユニークですね。次の記事では、笠鉾会館を紹介します。

Swords in the ancient era、古代の刀剣などの展示

Ancient highways, post-towns and government ranches in Nagano prefecture

古代長野県の地図と街道・宿駅・牧

The exhibition room above is about Garyu-park, wherein the museum is. The park was planned as a recreational place for silk mill workers. A famous professor (Dr. Honda) designed the park, because Suzaka was a wealthy city due to silk business.

However, the great depression happened at that time. So, the city hired unemployed people as construction workers. The park has an interesting history.

臥竜公園の展示室：博物館がある臥竜公園は、製糸工場で働く人の保養場所として計画されました。設計は明治神宮の森や日比谷公園を設計した東大の林学博士・本多教授に依頼しました。須坂の財力を感じます。

しかし、世界恐慌に見舞われ、池の築造は工場労働者の失業対策となりました。ストーリーをもった公園です。

Pond in Garyu-park、臥竜公園の池

Suzaka city、須坂の町

Fireproof storehouse-style buildings are at the heart of the city. Some are open to the public.

町の中心部には蔵造りの家が点々とあり、公開されている家もあります。長野電鉄・須坂駅の近くです。

Mansion of wealthy merchant “Tanaka-honke (head house)”: Tanaka family started trading grain, canola oil and so on in the mid-18^th century. They evolved into the wealthy merchant and the large landowner in the region. The mansion (around 10,000 sqm) and its treasures are open to the public.

豪商の館「田中本家」：田中家は江戸中期に穀物や菜種などの商売を始め、北信屈指の豪商、大地主になりました。３千坪の屋敷は所蔵品とともに公開されています。

Visited in May, 2025

Official website：
https://www.city.suzaka.nagano.jp/shihaku/index.html (in Japanese. Automatic translation is attached), accessed in February of 2026

Previous post (museum in the same prefecture): Kinasa Folk Museum (2/2)、鬼無里ふるさと資料館きなさーれ (part2)

Next post (branch of this museum/分館です): Suzaka City “Kasaboko” dream hall、須坂市笠鉾会館ドリームホール (coming soon)

Comments

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