Chairman Eiichi Kobayashi, founder of Kitanihon Seiki, has a deep interest in art, and in between overseas business development, he has visited art museums in various regions to view masterpieces from the West and the East to deepen his knowledge and understanding of painting.
It has been Kobayashi's desire for many years to create an art museum to showcase his own collection in the hope that people in rural areas, who rarely have access to art, will be able to appreciate genuine paintings and enrich their lives.
The Eiichi Kobayashi Memorial Museum of Art, housed in the gymnasium of the former Nishi-Ashibetsu Elementary School in the coal mining town of Ashibetsu, is an unadorned black building in a quiet rural setting, and we hope that it will remain a unique museum that takes advantage of natural light forever in the northern part of the city.