Casa Japon in San Isidro (Photo: Kamilo Hernández)

Walking through the quiet streets of San Isidro after a long bus ride, I admit I was apprehensive about visiting La Casa de Japón. With no website and only a few of articles online, I was unsure what to expect from this mysterious and hidden museum.

Arriving at the address hardly clarified things. The house is surrounded by tall, black wooden walls, with only one thing confirming it was the right place: a tiny Japanese symbol on the doorbell.

Yet, upon entering through the black gates, any apprehension quickly faded. It doesn’t take long to realise how unique this museum is – first, the tranquil garden with its modern Japanese sculptures, and then the huge, beautiful Japanese country house, which is practically an art object in its own right.

Owned by Patricia and Guillermo Bierregaard, an Argentine couple who lived and worked in Japan for 32 years, La Casa de Japón houses modern and contemporary Japanese art. And while only 10% of it is on display at any time, the museum’s collection is the largest outside of Japan.

The pieces displayed here have also been on show in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, as well as London’s V&A museum, and the couple have such a good eye for collecting that it’s sometimes them informing the museums of a new piece rather than acquiring them after they’ve been exhibited elsewhere.

And while the art collection is exciting and different to any other museum in Buenos Aires, (artists such as Hayami Shiro, Nakamura Kimpe and Masuda Masanori are all represented), the story of the museum’s construction and the couple’s dedication to Japanese culture is just as impressive as the art on display.

La Casa de Japón is not simply a replica or architectural imitation of a Japanese country house; it is a real, 250-year old Japanese country house, imported to San Isidro by its owners in 1984.

Guillermo Bierregaard shows some Japanese contemporary sculptures. (Photo: Kamilo Hernández)

Having fallen in love with Japanese culture and traditions during their time there, the couple wanted to find a way to preserve and share their experience. After fortuitously hearing about an abandoned country house that belonged to a rich couple in the Fukui prefecture, they saw the house as the perfect way to build a museum dedicated to Japanese culture. In 1984, they employed a team to dismantle the house and, along with the parts, had the same team come to San Isidro to put up the house exactly as it was in Japan.

After 20 years of construction, La Casa de Japón opened in 2005. The couple see themselves as museum curators, aiming to create a historical collection, as opposed to a personal selection of pieces. To train for the role, they attended three exhibitions every day over five years in Japan and are now experts in Japanese history, culture, traditions and artistic movements.

Guillermo guides visitors through the art pieces, and his passion and commitment to Japanese culture is clear to see. You can’t help but admire how much he has learnt and dedicated himself to a culture he is obviously inspired by. The depth of his knowledge is staggering, and his explanations of Japanese tradition and religion clarify the meanings and religious beliefs behind many of the pieces. As Guillermo says himself, “The idea is not just to see the art, but to understand the culture.”

There may not be a website yet, and although the couple are not particularly publicising the museum, once I left I understood why; this isn’t a project aimed at commercial gain, but rather one that thrives off a passion for Japanese culture, seeking only to share a journey, an experience. And that difference is exactly what makes the house so special; it’s a unique trip into another world so fondly represented, seldom exhibited in Argentina.

Take the journey to San Isidro, because this may be one of the most unique things you experience during your time in Argentina. As Guillermo notes, “If you want to see Japanese art, either come here or go to Japan. And it’s much cheaper than going to Japan.”

The art collector María Amalia Sara Lacroze Reyes Oribe de Fortabat died at six o’clock this morning in Buenos Aires, aged 90.

Although officially an entrepreneur, the collector, best known as ‘Amalita’, occupied a privileged role in Argentine society. She was considered one of the most powerful, as well as the richest, women in Argentina, with estimated assets in excess of US$1600m, according to the magazine Forbes.

The only Argentine to have her portrait taken by Andy Warhol, her political relations, marriages and eccentric decisions frequently came under media scrutiny.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1921 to the doctor Daniel Lacroze Gowland and Amalia Reyes Oribe, the family moved to Paris one year later. Consequently, French became her first language, followed by English and finally Spanish.

She married the lawyer Hernán de Lafuente Sáenz Valiente in 1942, with whom she had her only child, María Inés. Some years later, she fell in love with Alfredo Fortabat, a man 27 years her senior, whom she married in Uruguay in 1947.

Following his death in 1976, Fortabat took charge of his business empire, Loma Negra, earning her the title ‘La dama del cemento’. Under her direction, the business’s assets tripled in size.

In the 1970s, she created the Foundation Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, an institution that donates millions of dollars to charity and provides grants to children’s homes, schools and cultural centres. She maintained good relations with the state, the military government, as well as the radical factions, during the period.

In 1992 she was appointed president of the National Art Foundation. She cultivated a strong relationship with Menem, who appointed her as a plenipotentiary ambassador; a privilege later revoked by Kirchner.

In 2000, she delegated a large part of her business to her grandson, Bengolea Alexander. She sold the company to the Brazilian group Camargo Korea for US$1.025m in 2003.

Over the last decade, Fortabat continued to contriubute her services to philanthropy and art. In the last few years, she devoted her time to developing her art collection and opened Museo Fortabat in Puerto Madero in 2008.

She is survived by her only daughter, Inés Lafuente, the heir to the Fortabat estate.