Hakone Open-Air Museum Guide: Tickets, Hours and What to See

Japan · Hakone · Gora

By Nobu · a researched guide, not a trip report · checked 26 October 2026 against the museum’s official site, Odakyu’s Hakone Navi, Hakone Gora Park, the Hakone Museum of Art and the Hakone Town Tourist Association

The Hakone Open-Air Museum is a sculpture park two minutes on foot from Chōkoku-no-Mori Station on the Hakone Tozan train. Adult admission is ¥2,000 at the gate and ¥1,800 on the museum’s web ticket. The Hakone Freepass takes only ¥100 off.

It opened on 1 August 1969 as Japan’s first open-air museum devoted to sculpture. Today it shows about 120 modern and contemporary works on a site of roughly 70,000 square metres, with the Hakone mountains behind. Below: what each ticket costs, what to see, how to get there, the parking rule that catches drivers, and what changes in late autumn.

Jump to: Tickets · What to see · Why Hakone · Getting there · Time, lockers, kids · Autumn · Where to stay · FAQ

Hakone Open-Air Museum tickets: gate, web ticket or Freepass?

These are the museum’s individual prices on its information page, checked on 26 October 2026.

The web ticket is ¥200 off; the Freepass is ¥100 off. The museum’s FAQ says a Hakone Freepass shown at the ticket counter gets ¥100 off admission, and Odakyu’s own Freepass page lists the same “¥100 off”. Neither page says whether the Freepass discount can be added to a web ticket, so don’t count on it.

No time slot. The museum’s FAQ says tickets are not reserved for a time, and one person can buy web tickets for up to 14 people.

Other reduced prices. Disability-certificate holders pay ¥1,000 as adults, and university, high-school, junior-high and primary-school holders go free. One companion pays ¥1,000. Groups of 15 or more pay the same as the web-ticket prices.

Klook also sells admission. Compare its final price and terms with the museum’s own ¥1,800 web ticket, sold through the official site, before you buy.

What to see at the Hakone Open-Air Museum

The museum says some works can be out of view during changes of display or maintenance, so treat this as what is there most of the time.

Symphonic Sculpture

A stained-glass tower by the French artist Gabriel Loire, made in 1975. The museum gives it as 18 metres tall with an inner diameter of 8 metres, its walls made of 480 stained-glass panels. A spiral staircase runs up the middle, and from the top, the museum says, you can see the whole site and the Hakone mountains.

Picasso Pavilion

The Picasso Pavilion opened in 1984. The museum’s collection of 319 Picasso works is built around 188 ceramics bought from Maya Picasso, and it is shown in turns. Since 29 June 2025 the pavilion has held a permanent themed exhibition, ピカソの原動力 (roughly, “what drove Picasso”), with 135 works arranged in 20 themes.

Henry Moore and the lawns

The museum holds 26 works by Henry Moore, from his mature period to his last years, which it calls one of the largest Moore collections in the world. Much of the outdoor collection sits on open lawns with the mountains as a backdrop.

Sphere within a Sphere and the woodland works

Arnaldo Pomodoro’s bronze “Sphere within a Sphere” (1978–80) is one of the works set among the trees.

Woods of Net (children only)

A hands-on artwork that children climb and play inside. The museum’s FAQ says it is for children up to 12, and its home page says it is for primary-school age and closed in bad weather. It is only partly covered, and it may close in storms or snow.

The foot bath

The museum has a foot bath fed by a hot spring on its own grounds, about 28 metres long with room for 39 people, plus a hand bath and seats arranged for wheelchair users.

Why Japan’s first open-air sculpture museum is in Hakone

The museum’s founder and first director, Shikanai Nobutaka, set out to “contribute to the development of sculpture”, the museum says, because Japan had no museum for sculpture. It adds that this was the time when sculpture was starting to move outdoors in Japan and abroad, and the term “environmental sculpture” had appeared. For more art museums with gardens within reach of Tokyo, see museum gardens near Tokyo.

On the choice of site, the museum’s own words are that this part of Hakone has hills, a stream and ponds, mountains on both sides as a borrowed backdrop, and a distant view of the sea on the horizon. The museum and grounds were designed by the sculptor Inoue Bukichi. The foundation that runs it says it was set up by the Fujisankei Group, led by Fuji Television, the Sankei Shimbun and Nippon Broadcasting, and that 173 Japanese companies contributed to building it.

How to get to the Hakone Open-Air Museum

By train. The museum’s access page gives the route as Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto, then the Hakone Tozan train to Chōkoku-no-Mori Station and a 2-minute walk. Odakyu’s Hakone Navi gives the IC fare from Hakone-Yumoto to Chōkoku-no-Mori as ¥460. For the whole journey from Tokyo, see our Tokyo to Hakone guide.

With the Hakone Freepass. The pass covers eight kinds of transport in Hakone, including the Hakone Tozan train, the cable car, the ropeway, the sightseeing cruise and the Hakone Tozan bus, and it gives discounts at about 70 places. At this museum the discount is ¥100, so if you plan to use several of the covered services, compare the pass price with the single fares.

By car. The car park has space for about 300 cars and 15 coaches, plus two wheelchair-accessible spaces, and is open 8:30–17:00. On holidays and during Obon, the museum says, it can be full from about 10:00. Cars pay ¥500 for up to three hours, then ¥500 an hour.

How long to spend, lockers, re-entry and visiting with children

• Time. The museum’s FAQ gives 60–90 minutes to go round once, and 90–120 minutes if you include the indoor galleries and breaks.
• Re-entry. Allowed on the same day if you show your ticket stub.
• Lockers. Free coin lockers at the entrance (your ¥100 coin is returned). Ask staff about bags that don’t fit.
• Pushchairs and wheelchairs. Lent free at the main gallery and the information desk in the new building, but they can’t be reserved and may run out. There is a nursing room at the new building’s information desk. The museum lists lifts for the Picasso Pavilion’s upper floor and the Maruta Hiroba Kitoki hall, and an outdoor ramp for the main gallery’s upper floor.
• Pets. Not allowed, apart from assistance dogs. Pets in carriers are also refused, and the museum does not look after them.
• Bad weather. The museum may close for typhoons or heavy snow and says it will post closures on its website and social media.

The Hakone Open-Air Museum in autumn

The museum’s own leaflet calls autumn the season of autumn colour, but neither the museum nor the Hakone Town Tourist Association gives a usual peak for the museum’s grounds, and we found no 2026 forecast for it. We also found no evening opening or light-up in the museum’s 2026 listings. For forecasts across Hakone, see our Hakone autumn leaves guide, which covers Lake Ashi, Sengokuhara and Gora.

Two gardens are one stop up the line at Gora, and both have official autumn information for 2026.

Hakone Gora Park. Adults pay ¥650; children of primary-school age and younger are free, and Hakone Freepass holders get in free. For 2026 the park has announced photo spots at two places in the gardens “where the autumn leaves reach their best”, from 16 October to 6 December. It closes for maintenance on three days a year: 1 January, the third Monday of January and the second Monday of May.

Hakone Museum of Art. It has been closed for renovation since 7 May 2026 and pre-opens on 30 October. From 30 October to 20 December, adults pay ¥1,000 and university and high-school students ¥500; from 21 December the prices are ¥1,500 and ¥700. Junior-high pupils and younger are free. It closes on Thursdays (except public holidays), at New Year and on display-change days. The Hakone Town Tourist Association gives the usual peak for its garden of more than 200 maples as mid to late November.

One more date for families in late autumn: Woods of Net is closed from 30 November to 4 December 2026.

For autumn elsewhere in Kanagawa, our Kamakura guide covers when the leaves turn there and which temples open in the evening, and our Hase-dera guide covers the temple on its own.

Where to stay near the Hakone Open-Air Museum

The museum is on the Hakone Tozan line between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora, so anywhere along the line or around Gora works for an early start. Search Hakone hotels on Booking.com, or compare Hakone stays on Agoda. If you want a room with its own outdoor bath, see our Hakone ryokan with private open-air baths. For a day bath by Lake Ashi instead, see Hakone Ryuguden’s day onsen.

Hakone Open-Air Museum: FAQ

Some links above are affiliate links — they cost you nothing extra and help keep this site going.