Hakone Open-Air Museum Tickets

The Hakone Open-Air Museum planted modern sculpture across a mountain valley in 1969 and let the seasons do the curating ever since. Works by Henry Moore, Miro and dozens of others stand among lawns, slopes and streams with the peaks of Hakone behind them, and the whole collection changes character with every shift of weather, which is exactly the point.

Art in the landscape

The outdoor circuit wanders past monumental bronzes and playful modern pieces, including the beloved stained glass Symphonic Sculpture tower, whose spiral staircase climbs through walls of coloured light to a lookout over the valley. A dedicated Picasso pavilion holds a deep collection of his ceramics and works on paper, while children get rare museum treatment with large sculptural play areas they are actually encouraged to climb. The hot spring footbath near the exit, fed by real Hakone waters, is the ideal final exhibit.

Fitting it into the Hakone loop

The museum sits on the classic Hakone circuit of railway, cablecar, ropeway and pirate ship, so it slots naturally into a day or overnight using the area’s transport passes. Two hours is a minimum, and art lovers routinely stay half a day.

Getting there

Take the Hakone Tozan Railway to Chokoku-no-Mori Station, one stop before Gora, and the museum entrance is two minutes on foot. From Hakone-Yumoto the mountain railway takes about forty minutes of switchbacks and forest, an attraction in its own right.

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