Nakanojo Biennale: Contemporary Art in Mountain Villages

Mountain Villages Become Galleries

The Nakanojo Biennale is an international contemporary art festival held every two years in Nakanojo Town, Gunma Prefecture. Using as its stage the very spaces scattered around the town — closed wooden schoolhouses, disused old farmhouses, sericulture farmsteads, and the fields and rice paddies of the mountain villages — artists develop works that respond to the memory of the land and to its nature.

Fusion of Region and Art

Nakanojo Town, the festival venue, is also a hot spring district with celebrated waters such as Shima Onsen and Sawatari Onsen. You can enjoy a luxurious trip that combines art appreciation and hot springs, soaking in famous baths between visits to the works displayed in each location. The warm exchanges with local residents who guide you around the works are another delight unique to this festival.

Domestic and International Artists Gather

Many artists from Japan and abroad take part, and a wide variety of expression spreads across the town, from avant-garde works with a strong message to approachable installations that merge with nature. It offers a one-of-a-kind spatial experience in which the peaceful scenery of the mountains and cutting-edge contemporary art hold a dialogue.

An Art Festival Grown Over Twenty Years

The Nakanojo Biennale is an international contemporary art festival held biennially in Nakanojo Town, Gunma Prefecture. As it reaches its 11th edition in 2027, its every-other-year journey will span roughly 20 years. At the previous, 10th edition in 2025, 147 participating artists and groups (98 selected by open call and 49 others) presented work at 50 venues around the town, and cumulative attendance reached about 500,000. It shows how an undertaking that began in a town among the mountains has grown to a scale that draws people from all over Japan.

Making by Staying: Artist in Residence

What characterises this festival is its artist-in-residence programme. According to the official website, artists create their work while staying in residences opened up in this distinctive mountain-village area, and present the results at the Nakanojo Biennale. Rather than visiting for a few days to install a piece, they live in the place and build the work while engaging with the landscape and with people's lives. That is precisely why the works fit so uncannily well with venues such as closed schools and old farmhouses, and why there are moments when you can no longer tell where the original space ends and the artwork begins.

Satoyama Culture as the Background to the Works

Nakanojo Town has accumulated its own satoyama (village-mountain) culture: landscapes ringed by mountains, wetlands registered under the Ramsar Convention, hot spring districts with long histories, and the culture of sericulture and tensan wild silk. The official website positions this local background as the soil in which the art festival grows, so that touring the works leads directly to learning the history and nature of Nakanojo itself. Stepping into a sericulture farmhouse, looking up at the ceiling and being astonished by the sheer size of the space where silkworms were raised — that experience is itself part of the festival.

The Next Theme: "ECHOING GREEN"

The theme for 2027 is "ECHOING GREEN." Inspired by the poetry of the 18th-century poet William Blake, the official website explains it as a phrase symbolising the moment when "past and future, the old and the young, life and death intersect upon a single green." It expresses the cycle of life in the land of Nakanojo and frames the artists' works as a resonance with the region. If you keep this theme in a corner of your mind as you look at the works, the meaning of each one comes powerfully into focus.

Tips for Touring

The venues are dispersed across the town, and in 2027 the festival will unfold in five areas: central Nakanojo, Isama, Shima Onsen, Sawatari-Kuresaka and Kuni. Central Nakanojo can be covered on foot through the streets; Isama and Sawatari-Kuresaka take mountain schoolhouses and hamlets as their stage; and at Shima Onsen the hot spring town itself becomes the venue — so the way you walk and the scenery differ completely from area to area. Covering everything in a single day is difficult, so it is realistic either to narrow down to a few areas and look deeply, or to stay overnight and split the visit over two days. If you build your plan around touring area by area, pausing at a hot spring between journeys, you can take in the festival together with the mountain-village air itself. Because many of the works are in places continuous with daily life, such as private houses and schools, do not enter neighbouring homes or fields, and view the works following the designated routes and photography rules.

Combine It with Shima Onsen

Shima Onsen, whose waters are said to "cure forty thousand (shima) ailments," is a celebrated spa known for its Taisho-retro scenery, including the red bridge of Sekizenkan. A stay combining an art tour with a hot spring cure is recommended not only during the Biennale but also in the seasons of autumn foliage and fresh greenery.

Best Season

The festival is held once every two years (odd-numbered years), usually for about a month in autumn (around September to October). In 2025 it ran for 31 days from 13 September to 13 October, and 2026 is not a festival year. The next edition is scheduled for Saturday 18 September to Sunday 24 October 2027. It coincides with the time when the autumn leaves begin to turn, so you can enjoy both the art and the natural scenery. Please check the official information for the dates.

Access

JR Agatsuma Line "Nakanojo Station" is the base. Because the works are scattered over a wide area, touring by car is convenient.

Practical Information

• Next edition: Saturday 18 September to Sunday 24 October 2027, 37 days, open every day during the festival (held once every two years, in odd-numbered years)
• Venues: various locations around Nakanojo Town, Gunma Prefecture. Shopping streets, hot spring districts, wooden schoolhouses and old farmhouses all serve as venues
• Areas (2027): five areas — central Nakanojo, Isama, Shima Onsen, Sawatari-Kuresaka and Kuni
• Scale of the previous edition (2025, 10th): 147 participating artists and groups (98 by open call plus 49 others), 50 exhibition venues, cumulative attendance of about 500,000
• Viewing passport: adults need a paid passport, and high school students and younger are free. Prices for 2027 are officially listed as "to be decided" (for the previous 2025 edition, the full-period viewing passport was 3,000 yen at the door and 2,500 yen in advance, and the weekday-only viewing passport was 2,000 yen). Last time, high school students and younger, residents of Nakanojo Town (on presentation of a resident's passport), and holders of a disability certificate were admitted free
• Parking: free car parks are provided in each area
• How to get around: because the venues are dispersed around the town, the organisers themselves advise that "we recommend coming by car as far as possible"
• Access (rail): Tokyo Station to Nakanojo Station, about 2 hours by Joetsu Shinkansen and the Agatsuma Line / Ueno Station to Nakanojo Station, about 2 hours by the Limited Express Kusatsu / Shinjuku Station to Nakanojo Station, about 3 hours by the Shonan-Shinjuku Line and the Agatsuma Line
• Access (highway bus): Shinjuku Station to Kusatsu Onsen on the "Joshu Yumeguri-go," alighting at Nakanojo Station Iriguchi, about 3 hours / Tokyo Station to Shima Onsen on the "Shima Onsen-go," alighting at Nakanojo Station Iriguchi, about 3 hours
• Local transport: route buses, taxis and rental cars are available at Nakanojo Station and in front of Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi Station

*The opening hours of each venue and the passport prices for 2027 have not yet been announced. Please check the official website for the latest information before visiting.*

*(Source: Nakanojo Biennale official website)*