Sculpture Forest Art Museum

About

Opened in 1969 at the initiative of Nobutaka Shikanai, chairman of the Fujisankei Communications Group, the Hakone Open-Air Museum is Japan's first open-air museum. Across roughly 70,000 square meters designed by sculptor Bukichi Inoue, hills, streams, and ponds flow naturally, and among them stand works by Picasso, Henry Moore, Brâncuși, Hepworth, and Miró, each catching the light of the season. The Picasso Pavilion holds around 300 works by Pablo Picasso, and the Symphonic Sculpture — an 18-meter stained-glass tower by French artist Gabriel Loharre — rises like a tower, scattering light. Past Henry Moore's Reclining Figure: Arched Leg (1969–70) and Joan Miró's Personnage (1972), visitors can dip their feet into a hot-spring footbath with mountain ridgelines spread before them. The collection, now more than 2,000 works, has taken shape through twenty-one international sculpture competitions.