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Some 20km northeast of Nagano, the small town of OBUSE has several well-preserved Edo-era buildings, but its main attraction is the Hokusai-kan (daily: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Jan-March, Nov & Dec 9.30am-4.30pm; Y500), a small museum displaying rare paintings and other works by the master of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Hokusai Katsushika . Pick up an English map of the town at Nagano's tourist information centre before setting off, so you can find your way straight from the station to the Hokusai-kan. In 1842, the 83-year-old Hokusai was invited to live and work in Obuse by Takai Kozan, the town's leading salt merchant and art lover. A special studio was built for the artist, and it was here that he completed four paintings for the ceilings of two large festival floats and a phoenix mural for the Ganshoin. The beautiful floats, decorated with dragons, seascapes and intricate carvings, are displayed in the museum along with some forty other works, including painted scrolls, delicate watercolours and woodblock prints. You can also watch a slide show on Hokusai's life, with English subtitles. The quiet Ganshoin temple (daily: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Jan-March, Nov & Dec 9.30am-4.30pm; Y200), housing the phoenix mural, lies 1km east, towards the hills. Opposite the Hokusai-kan is the Takai Kozan Memorial Hall (daily: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Jan-March, Nov & Dec 9.30am-4.30pm; Y200), the atmospheric former home of Hokusai's patron, who was also an accomplished artist and calligrapher. His drawings of ghosts and goblins are meant to be ironic comments on the turbulent early Meiji-era years and are quite intriguing, as is the giant mammoth sketch. In one of the rooms you can see long banners inscribed with kanji characters as well as the 2.5-metre-long brush used to paint them.
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