Hakone Museum of Art

Opened in June 1952, the Hakone Museum of Art is the oldest art museum in Hakone. The exhibits focus on Japanese pottery.

There is a timeless collection of artifacts on display. Ancient items begin with deep pot Jomon flame-style vessels from the Jomon period and hollow clay figures and unglazed ceramic ware from the Kofun period, and then continue with the Kamakura and Muromachi periods with works from the “Six Ancient Kilns”, including Seto, Shigaraki, and Bizen. Of all these, the famous ceramic works of the Momoyama and Edo periods and the Chinese celadon (greenware) and wucai (five color) porcelains have been admired in Japan since ancient times.

In addition to the main building, whose large windows let in natural light, and the annex, which displays the life and times of the original museum director, Okada Mokichi, the Shinsenkyo gardens are not to be missed if you visit the Hakone Museum of Art. The gardens are registered as a Place of Scenic Beauty on the national list of Registered Monuments.

As introduced on the Gora Park web page, this land known as Gora was developed during the Meiji period and there were many villas belonging to industrialists and businessmen here. These Shinsenkyo gardens are the part that was bought for a Japanese-style garden near Gora Park and then developed and maintained.

Besides the Moss Garden, which features around 130 species of moss and 200 Japanese maples, there is also the Hagi-no-Michi Path, whose bush clover flowers are best viewed in September, the Chinese-style Bamboo Garden, and Sekiraku-en, which boats giant rocks and mountain stream. Furthermore, in November during the autumn leaf season there is a special public opening of the Inner Garden, where the colored leaves surrounding the ponds are reflected in them. Sekiraku-en is like a painting. As a garden designed to be enhanced by its surrounding landscape, which is a method used since ancient times in garden design, it pulls in Hakone’s natural scenery with the view beyond the end of the grouping of giant rocks extending over and pulling in Mt. Myojingatake, Mt. Myojogatake, Mt. Asama, and the Sagami-nada Sea.

The Shinwatei tea house can be found in the Moss Garden, where organically grown matcha tea can be savored together with seasonal sweets (10:00 – 15:30, ¥700).

Address: 1300 Gora, Hakone-machi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture
Tel. 0460-82-2623
Open: April – November 9:30 – 16:30, December – March 9:30 – 16:00 (Last entry: 30 minutes before closing)
Closed: Thursday (except for national holidays and all of November), Year-End/New Year holiday period
Admission: Adults ¥900
Access: Located immediately in front of Kōen-Kami Station on the Hakone Tozan Cable Car.
10-minute walk from Hakone Honbako.
Official homepage: http://www.moaart.or.jp/hakone/