About the Museum
Message from the Director
This museum is a space we have prepared in our beloved Karuizawa, with the feeling that we are inviting everyone into our home.
Humans can lose their way due to fate that is beyond their control, or due to the jealousy and desires that are part of human nature.
My husband and I have overcome these worries and hardships by talking with Fujita's cats and girls at home.
Foujita, who rose to fame during his time at the Ecole de Paris, was also at the mercy of a number of unexpected events, including separation from loved ones, two wars, and the jealousy of some people.
The lovely cats and young girls, as well as the noble Madonna and Child, that Foujita painted in his later years were painted in the utopia he reached after overcoming these hardships and making France his final home, and perhaps this is why they inspire our sympathy.
This museum has been designed to allow visitors to leisurely enjoy the journey that Fujita took to reach this utopia.
We hope that the home you will be staying in from now on will be a place where you can return to with peace of mind.
October 2022
Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art Representative Director Yasushi Ando Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art Director Megumi Ando
Message from the Director
Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art is the first private museum in Japan, and the first in the world, to exhibit only the works of Tsuguharu Foujita.
The museum's founder, Yasushi Ando, and his wife have been collecting Fujita's works for many years, cherishing them on the walls of their home.
The collection, which began with an attraction to works featuring cute cats and young girls, now spans a wide range of works from Fujita's early to later years, and has become so comprehensive that it has impressed Fujita researchers both in Japan and abroad. It is no exaggeration to say that the Ando Collection, which is on permanent display at our museum, boasts the highest quality and scale ever assembled by an individual.
Currently, Fujita's works are actively traded around the world, but for Ando, Fujita's paintings were not something he wanted to be evaluated by experts or invest in, but something he wanted to keep close at hand and cherish forever.
As the manager of an investment fund company, he is immersed in the tough world of finance every day, but he says that the time he spends with his family with Fujita's cute cats and girls is the most relaxing thing he can do.
In this way, one by one, Fujita's works were hung on the walls of the Ando residence.
While spending time surrounded by Fujita's paintings and feeling a sense of healing and bliss, he suddenly began to feel anxious, wondering what would become of these works after he passed away. This desire to not let these works, which were like his own children, be scattered, eventually gave rise to the desire to build a museum.
It was a long journey from acquiring the land to actually starting construction and completing it, and it was by no means easy, given the COVID-19 pandemic along the way. However, thanks to the cooperation of those around them who wanted to make the couple's vision a reality, the museum was able to open successfully.
We hope that visitors will feel as if they have been invited into the Ando couple's home, which is the concept of our museum, and take their time to appreciate Fujita's works.
We sincerely hope that you will continue to love this unprecedented museum, which includes everything from early works to religious paintings from his later years, with a focus on the cute cats and girls that were the starting point of the collection.
October 2022
Masami Mizuno, Director of Karuizawa Ando Museum of Art