The Hakone Open-Air Museum (箱根 彫刻の森美術館, THE HAKONE OPEN-AIR MUSEUM) opened in 1969 as Japan’s first open-air sculpture museum, set on a roughly 70,000-square-meter site overlooking the mountains of Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture.[1] The museum’s visual identity is closely tied to its founding era and to the graphic designer Hiromu Hara (1903–1986), a prominent figure in Japanese graphic design who helped found the Nippon Kobo studio in 1933.[2]
Design and History
In 1969, the year the museum opened, Hara created a silkscreen poster titled “The Hakone Open-Air Museum,” which is held in the collection of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic.[3] The poster, dated 1969 and acquired by the gallery in 1971, is catalogued as graphic design and measures 78.5 by 77.7 centimeters.[3] This work is part of a broader body of posters Hara designed for Japanese cultural institutions during the 1960s, including exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.[4]
Hara’s connection to the museum extended beyond its opening year. He also designed the cover for the catalogue of the 2nd Hakone Open-Air Museum Grand Prize Exhibition, published by the museum in 1975.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The museum’s own materials describe its setting, where approximately 120 sculptures by leading modern and contemporary artists are displayed across the open-air grounds with the Hakone mountains as a backdrop.[1] The museum’s press materials describe it as having opened in 1969 as Japan’s first open-air museum, making use of its natural surroundings.[6] Beyond this contextual framing, no official source in the available research documents a specific symbolic meaning for the museum’s logo or mark.
Typography and Design
The museum’s official website displays the name “THE HAKONE OPEN-AIR MUSEUM” in its English-language materials, but no design specifications are published there.[1] A separate logo for the on-site café, “The Hakone Open-Air Museum Café,” was designed in 2015 by the Tokyo design studio Central Park, with drawing credited to Ai Sasaki.[7] This café logo is distinct from the museum’s own identity.
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
