Yufuin may not be the most obvious place to celebrate midcentury American illustration, but the Normal Rockwell Yufuin Museum serves this role quite nicely. The art here is made up of private works owned by several Yufuin families, who saw captured in the illustrations a common sensibility.
The collection is a fitting retrospective of Rockwell’s work and influence. Revered for his magazine illustrations, featured in the American weekly magazine Saturday Evening Post for 47 years, Rockwell was also the illustrator for several editions of Mark Twain’s work. Peruse the collection for a taste of the way midcentury American popular media affected all of Japan.
Walk up the stairs to the room where the collection is displayed in neat frames along a pleasing light wood wall. Move slowly between the more than one hundred examples of his work, ranging from lithographs to giclée prints, drawings and more. Though the labels are in Japanese, get a sense for how influential these illustrations were, often reproduced and used as decorations in homes throughout America and Japan. Notice messages from Rockwell fans, displayed in spots throughout the collection.
Lean in to appreciate the charismatic expressions on the faces of his subjects, particularly the children. Continue on to the small museum shop, which sells beautiful postcards with some of Rockwell’s most famous illustrations on them. Send one to a friend back home, emblazoned with the perhaps confusing message, “Greetings from Yufuin!”
The Norman Rockwell Yufuin Museum is just off the town’s main street, very close to other attractions and the Oita River. Walk here in 5 minutes from the main train station. Use the small, free parking lot outside the museum.
The museum is open from Thursday to Monday from midmorning to early evening. On Tuesdays, it is open only in the afternoon. The exhibition is on the second floor of the building, but there is an elevator. A wheelchair is available to be borrowed. Pay the entrance fee and bring documentation for a discount offered to foreigners.
