Hakone Open-Air Museum — sculpture garden
leon&mae · CC BY 2.0

Hakone Open-Air Museum

  • 1 min read
  • 35.245° N 139.052° E

Interesting facts

  • The Symphonic Sculpture, an 18-metre tower by French stained-glass artist Gabriel Loire completed in 1975, is lined with hundreds of pieces of stained glass.
  • The colourful climbing net in the Woods of Net pavilion was knitted entirely by hand by textile artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam over about a year.
  • Tezuka Architects built the Woods of Net pavilion in 2009 from some 320 cubic metres of timber, using interlocking joinery with no nails, screws or bolts.
  • The Woods of Net received a Good Design Award in 2010, rare recognition for a children's play structure inside an art museum.
  • The sculpture grounds cover about 70,000 square metres, roughly seven hectares of lawns and slopes in the Hakone hills.
  • The layout of the grounds was designed by the Japanese sculptor Takekichi Inoue, so the park itself was conceived by an artist.
  • Henry Moore's Reclining Figure: Arched Leg dates from 1969–70, the very years the museum was opening its grounds.
  • The museum has a sister institution, the Utsukushigahara Open-Air Museum, set on a high plateau in Nagano Prefecture.

Why it is worth it

The Hakone Open-Air Museum opened in 1969 as Japan's first open-air art museum, and its idea is simple and generous: modern sculpture set among lawns, ponds and wooded slopes in the mountains of Hakone, with the surrounding peaks as backdrop. It is run by the Fujisankei Communications Group, and its collection holds more than a thousand works, around 120 of which stand permanently in the grounds.

The outdoor collection reads like a short history of twentieth-century sculpture. Henry Moore's bronze Reclining Figure: Arched Leg lies in the grass, Aristide Maillol's Action Enchained twists on its plinth, and Joan Miró's Personnage stands nearby. Barbara Hepworth, Constantin Brâncuși and the Japanese masters Taro Okamoto, Kōtarō Takamura, Rokuzan Ogiwara and Churyo Sato are all represented. The Symphonic Sculpture, a tower of stained glass that visitors can climb inside, is one of the most photographed works, and a crocheted net structure invites children to climb and bounce through it.

Five indoor galleries complete the visit. The best known is the Picasso Pavilion, with around 300 works by the artist. The museum also makes the most of Hakone's hot springs: a foot bath fed by natural spring water lets visitors rest their feet among the sculptures. Changing weather, from mountain mist to autumn colour, keeps the same pieces looking different through the year.

Getting there

The museum lies about 10 km from Minamiashigara, in the Hakone hills. From Odawara, take the Odakyu line to Hakone-Yumoto and change to the Hakone Tozan Railway, a mountain line with switchbacks, to Chōkoku-no-Mori station, a 2-minute walk from the entrance. Buses from Odawara and Hakone-Yumoto stop at Ninotaira-iriguchi, 6 minutes away on foot. The nearest airport, Oshima Airport (OIM), about 59 km away, is on an island across the sea; most visitors arrive by rail via Odawara.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Japan 122The Most Beautiful Modern Sculpture Gardens 9The Most Beautiful Sculpture Gardens 12The Most Curious Places 38

From the encyclopaedia

The Hakone Open-Air Museum, opened in 1969, is Japan's first open-air museum. It is located in Hakone, Ashigarashimo District, Kanagawa Prefecture. Hosting over 1,000 pieces, it includes artworks by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Taro Okamoto, Yasuo Mizui, Churyo Sato, Susumu Shingu, Constantin Brâncuși, Barbara Hepworth, Rokuzan Ogiwara, and Kōtarō Takamura, among others. About 120 sculptural works are on permanent display across the park. The museum is affiliated with the Fujisankei Communications Group media conglomerate.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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