WORKSPACE

PRIVATE ARTIST STUDIOS, CERAMIC FACILITY, WOODSHOP

The Shiro Oni Art Center Workspace holds 9 individual artist studios, a woodshop, and our ceramic facilities. Each artist’s studio is unique, using repurposed wood and materials from Kanezawa Park.

Our ceramic facilities house 5 electric throwing wheels, over a dozen banding wheels, a clay and glaze room, large communal work tables, and two kerosene kilns. The Workspace also functions as a community workshop area where we hold various art-making classes such as ceramics, figure drawing, and hand-built crafts.

Our woodshop features a range of equipment, including a variety of hand and electric tools such as a table saw, miter saws, sanders, a lathe, drills, etc.

Artists have 24/7 access to the Shiro Oni Workspace facilities.

EXHIBITION SPACE

NAGA KURA

We hold our exhibitions in the Naga Kura at the Shiro Oni Art Center in Kanezawa Park. This building was originally used as a sake production facility in the 1700s.

Check out previous exhibitions under our exhibition archives page.

SHIRO ONI ARTS CENTER

KANEZAWA PARK HISTORY

Founded in 1728 in the early Showa Period, this site is home to the original Kimenzan Sake Brewery’s Sohei Fujisaki headquarters. In 1973, the company rose to the top 10 sake producers in the Gunma/Saitama region. In 2013, the brewery closed its doors due to financial difficulties, and the 285-year-old brewery left the land where it had been established and moved to Nagatoro with a new corporation.

In 2014, when artist Chiaki Horikoshi received a civilian merit award from the Spanish government, the former site of the Sohei Fujisaki store was used for the award ceremony and exhibition, opening it to the public for the first time in decades. This acre of land was then put on the market, but local businessman Masaaki Kanezawa acquired it to save it from development. Mr. Kanezawa, who used this place as a playground in his childhood, named it “Hyakunen no Mori Kanezawa Park”.  The property was used for several years by the community, but the preservation and restoration of the building became an issue, and it was put up for sale again after Mr. Kanezawa’s passing.

At the beginning of 2025, Shiro Oni Studio acquired the historic Kanezawa Park in Onishi. We would like to personally thank the Kanezawa family for their trust and support in continuing the legacy of Kanezawa Park as the Shiro Oni Art Center.

Follow along on our Instagram page @shirooniresidency for renovation updates and residency news.