5/4/24: On to Hakone: Exciting Art in Nature

After being in Tokyo for five days, Steven and I headed southwest toward the mountain town of Hakone via the 30-minute Shinkansen or bullet train ride to Odawara where we picked up a rental car for the next few days. It may seem crazy but the bullet train didn't seem to travel as dizzyingly fast as I'd anticipated! Hakone is part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park and is chock-a-block full of attractions sure to please any vacationer!

We were pretty pumped to catch some great views from the train of Mt. Fuji, one of Japan's most iconic sights, appearing in the distance. 

However, we could only whiz by Odawara Castle, as there just wasn't time to see it.

When the Hakone Open-Air Museum opened in 1969, it was the first one in Japan. With nature as a dramatic backdrop, the museum showcases mostly 20th-century sculpture in a breathtaking setting of formal gardens, ponds, and meadows.

The museum's younger patrons liked having the docent suggest ways to mimic the sculpture. More museums should do the same!

Reclining Figure with Leg was one of 40 pieces by Henry Moore at the museum.

I could have watched the rotating Sixteen Turning Sticks again and again!

    

Looked like Fernando Botero and Salvador Dali joined forces to create Miss Black Power!

Kerplat is all I could think of when Anthony Gormley created his body in iron!

Moore sculpted very few male figures but when his daughter was born he added a father figure to the mother and child in Family Group.

In one of Moore's darker works, Atom Piece, a working model for Nuclear Energy, the upper half was described as the shape of an atomic bomb's mushroom cloud. In contrast, the lower half signified a cathedral protecting the people. Although I didn't understand the connection, the idea for this work came from the skull of an elephant Moore received from a friend. 

Unquestionably, my favorite piece at the sculpture park was Symphonic Sculpture by Gabriel Loire. His 18-meter-tall lookout tower featured a spiral staircase that permitted visitors to admire the stained-glass artwork from the tower's interior. Loire was a leader in the modern use of "slab glass," a much thicker and stronger stained-glass technique than what was used in the Middle Ages.

Being surrounded by the light of so much stained glass was new to both of us.

The views of the mountains surrounding the park made climbing all those stairs worthwhile!

Who would have thought that Hakone would have one of the world's largest collections of Picasso's works, including prints, ceramics, oil paintings, and gold objects? Certainly not us - we were amazed that the Picasso Pavilion contained 319 of the famous artist's works. It was reached by a circuitous path to take full advantage of the gardens, an example of how the Open Air Museum excelled at integrating harmony with nature.

Predictably, no photos were allowed in the two-story building so we'll just have to remember the selection of Picasso's masterful works that were on display.

Do you remember playing with Lincoln Logs as a child? These interconnected pieces called Woods of Net reminded us of those! Judging from the screams of glee we could hear, kids were evidently having a blast playing inside.

At ground level, Garden of Stars looked like a maze but I think it would have been easy enough to make your way around once you were inside it. I loved how the museum was very hands-on and encouraged kids to get out and play with the art. That's not a concept we see enough of in the US.

There were so many kids (and adults!) playing on the Fried Egg we had a helluva time finding it even though it was one huge play space! It wasn't until some of them moved we noticed the sunnyside-up eggs!

Sad to admit but we enjoyed the slapstick routines of this high-powered, energetic performance group far more than the kabuki theater the previous night on Tokyo's Ginza strip.

The Open Air Museum was a great art experience in Hakone's natural environment.

Not to be outdone was the nearby Pola Museum of Art Collection with 10,000 works ranging from impressionism to contemporary art set in the natural environs of the national park so much so it was almost completely hidden in the woods! The glass and concrete structure was the brainchild of the late owner of the Pola Cosmetics Group.

I don't recall our ever encountering a nature trail that was part and parcel of an art museum before. Walking past beech trees and hearing flute music in the background was an altogether new experience for us as we've always enjoyed walking and music in isolation from each other. However, the music called Wind Wood composed by Susan Philipsz complemented our stroll. The work was dedicated to novelist James Joyce's daughter, Lucia, a dancer in Paris in the 1920s who loved to dance to The Magic Flute.

Further on there were art installations like a conventional art-in-the-park.

Air Burial was a solid cast glass structure by Roni Horn.

Back inside we admired works by Sugiyama Yashui, 1909-1993, a leading figure in postwar Nihonga or Japanese-style painting who developed a particular fondness for the Middle and Near East.

Intellectual Expression Traversing a Red Line painted in 1931 by Koga Harue also caught our eye.

Who hasn't heard the controversy among musicians about what constitutes art and how their art is being corrupted by AI? Seeing this piece by Rafaël Rozendaal, among the most prominent creators of internet-based art, made me think of changes afoot in the wider art world. With this website-embedded interactive work called Into Time, the screen subdivided in response to our clicks, thereby generating new images immediately. Who, I wondered, "owned" the constantly shifting image?

We could now understand how the flue music on the trail tied in with the special exhibition Modern Times in Paris in 1925.

Call me old-fashioned but I preferred several works by Leonard Foujita aka Fujita Tsuguharu, a Japanese-French artist known for his "milky-white skin" paintings. They were based on the ukiyo-e technique of leaving areas of the white washi paper blank to represent the skin. He painted the entire canvas white before applying delicate black outlines and soft shadows to symbolize the woman's skin. During the 1920s in Paris, Foujita used talcum powder applied with a fine cloth to depict the milky-white skin.

Paired with Foujita's paintings were more recognizable masterpieces of the 1920s by Renoir, Van Gogh, Pisarro, and Monet. I found it interesting that there were barriers only in front of the Japanese works not in front of what Westerners would think would be the most valuable works on display. 

We'd hoped to walk along the Sengokuhara Pampas Grass Field on the west slopes of Mount Hakone but time got away from us and we wanted to reach Hakone before dark. 

The 10% grade road returning to Hakone had more twists and abrupt turns than any road we've traveled on since one in northern Spain several years ago. Thank goodness Steven was adept at driving on mountain roads and I could close my eyes when Highway 732 got especially hairy!

There was little chance of the embankment caving in with reinforced concrete placed at regular intervals.

If you're ever lucky enough to find yourself in Hakone, search out Box Burger for great eats and the friendliest staff around! 

Posted on May 14, 2024, on our last night in Kyoto, Japan. We'll be sad to say sayonara to this charming city so full of temples and shrines but I think our eyes might glaze over if we see another one just now! After a week here, we're looking forward to our next stops on the road, Nara and Osaka. 

Next post: One exciting day visiting Hakone's famous waterside shrine, walking along the centuries-old Hakone Highway, taking a pirate ship across Lake Ashi, and then ropeways and cable cars above the calderas!