Lake Biwa Rowing Song Museum, Music museum in Takashima, Japan
The Lake Biwa Rowing Song Museum is a music museum in Takashima that documents the local rowing tradition through photographs, documents, audio recordings, and historical artifacts. The collection shows how a historical journey became the subject of a song that people have kept alive for generations.
The museum opened in 1998 to preserve the memory of a four-day rowing journey in 1917 when seven college students from Kyoto circled Lake Biwa. This expedition inspired the famous song that kept the story of their achievement alive for future generations.
The museum houses recordings of the famous folk song Biwako Shuko no Uta, which describes various locations around Lake Biwa and remains central to local traditions today. Visitors can understand how this song shaped the way people connect with their surroundings.
The museum is located near JR Omi-Imazu Station and moved to the Imazu-Higashi Community Center in 2020. Visitors will find listening stations and displays easy to explore without needing much advance planning.
Six monuments are placed around the lake, each corresponding to a verse of the rowing song and marking locations mentioned in the lyrics. These scattered memorials invite visitors to explore the story not just in the museum but also out on the water.
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