It was said that this Niko-Niko En was the strangest place in Japan at the time. I visited this place in the spring of 2002. As always all hidden weird places are hard to access; this private wooden statue museum was deep inside of the countryside. I parked my MX-5 in the riverside parking lot. There were so many message boards around the house and a small shack was at the entrance gate. It was a reception desk, but no one was in the shack. There was a notice that read, “Please put in 1200 yen as your entrance fee,” on a small box. Okay, I threw in money and entered the gate.
First, I stepped into a corridor in which there were plenty of ogres made of wood. The founder named this corridor “Pleasing Way” because he made the statues himself. Posters were pasted on the walls of the corridor everywhere. Finally, I reached the dining room with so many Buddhist/Buddha statues. The handwritten route indication on the wall showed the way to the outside of the room. When I followed it, I came across many prefabricated huts. Each hut contained some wooden statues with different themes like Christianity, Buddhism, monsters, oiran: high-ranking courtesans and so on. Every wood carving was done clumsily, but had mysterious charms. I got really exhausted trying to appreciate them. When I turned around to head towards the exit, an old man in a business suit came up to me. He was the founder of this museum, Mr. Yasuhisa Hashimoto, and he said, “You only enjoyed one-third of my work! Follow me!” He was going to the other side of the museum and I had no choice but to run after him.
He started the lecture in front of Mussolini’s hut. I found two wooden people hanging upside down on a rail inside, and he told me that one was the executed Mussolini and the other was his wife. I wouldn’t have realized these were war criminals without his lecture or the signboard. The next hut’s theme was Christianity, and he pointed out a shoddy statue that he insisted was Madonna and Child. But the sculpture didn’t resemble the Western-style one that I sometimes appreciated in the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also showed me his original lyrics written directly on the hut’s wall. He had published an original song book! After the lyric hut, he opened the next hut’s door. There were several erotic Ukiyoe prints on the walls. I was burned out at this point, but his nonstop talking continued on.
I asked him why he started carving these types of wooden statues. He was a timber merchant and carpenter, so he was very familiar with how to utilize wood. One day, sixty years ago, he found a piece of driftwood and started carving. Unfortunately, he died in November 2006, and this mysterious wood-carving museum was closed and taken down completely. Now there are many solar panels in its place. I wonder where all the charming statues have gone.
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