Northern Culture Museum (北方文化博物館) 北方文化博物館
Rather than give up the villa to the 1946 land reform, the Itō family made it a museum.
Located in the Sawami district, now in Kōnan Ward, Niigata, the complex was the residence of one of the richest families of large landowners (豪農) in the prefecture. Faced with the 1946 land reform, which would have broken up landholdings, the family chose to set up a foundation and open the estate to the public as a museum (the first private museum in Japan after the war) with the assistance of Lieutenant Ralph E. Wright, an officer of the Civil Information and Education section of the Allied command. The complex has twenty-six structures registered as Tangible Cultural Properties (2000) and two national Important Cultural Properties.
Niigata
上沢海博物館前, 沢海ふれあい広場（横バス）, 北方文化博物館（横バス）
