This article is based on a visit made on Saturday, 12 May 2018.
Edit 10 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
Previously on Sekai Ichi, I began our stopover in Hakone by riding up to the
Hakone Museum of Art, and being pleasantly surprised by its beautiful gardens. Our next stop thus had a high bar to beat, but I think it did a pretty good job: the Hakone Venetian Glass Museum, a.k.a. the Hakone Glass Forest (箱根ガラスの森,
Hakone Garasu no Mori).
A few trees decorated with crystal leaves are "planted" just outside the park grounds, as if to whet one's aesthetic appetite. But pay the admission fee and enter the park proper, and you will be treated to a veritable wonderland of glassy delight. One of the highlights was the towering tunnel of crystal, front-and-centre in the above shot, which led into the museum itself. It, and the other buildings about the place, had a pseudo-Italian design to fit the theme of the place. Concessions included an Italian restaurant, where I dug into a nice lasagna. And -- oh look, there's another view of Owakudani up in the back, spewing its sulphurous gases as always.
While it may seem more natural to refer to the whole place as the Venetian Glass Museum, that name technically only applies to one of its buildings, where the actual museum of Venetian glass is housed.
Back in the day, Venice was a stand-alone nation. The
Most Serene Republic of Venice lasted a full eleven centuries (AD 697-1797) before being taken over by the Hapsburg monarchy, and later the Kingdom of Italy. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Venice grew especially wealthy from controlling trade, and set up colonies across the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The ruler of Venice was known as the
Doge, one of whom is depicted in this mosaic. wow. such ruler. many glass.
...Lame meme is lame. I apologise.
Given Venice's prestige in seafaring, a glass model ship is a logical creation to include here. Much of Venice's glass industry originates from the suburb of Murano, where the Venetian government of the time forcibly moved all its glass factories to in 1291. The glassmakers living there were given special living privileges, but were not allowed to leave Venetian territory under penalty of death. Some of them still managed to escape anyway, and set up factories elsewhere in Europe.
There are several examples of this particular style of glass, whose thin stems are designed to sway in the wind. This was a specialty of the artist Giuseppe Barovier (1853-1942).
Much of the museum's documentation is in Japanese with limited English translations, but while non-Japanese readers may not get much of the history of the art-form from visiting, the actual works speak for themselves. Especially when you have such expert craftsmanship as on these... tea pots? Gravy boats? Maybe a little translation wouldn't hurt...
I also liked this bowl. The blue backgrounds, profile-view face, and the intricately-lined backdrop reminded me a bit of '80s-era anime art, specifically from
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
"Lattimo", also known as "
milk glass", is a kind of milky, opaque glass, styled after Chinese porcelain. Pieces of lattimo can be solid white, other solid colours, or most impressively, consist of alternating patterns of solid and transparent parts.
Towards the mid-20th century, we start to see the growth of modern art styles across many mediums, and glass is no exception. There is an entirely separate building in the Hakone Glass Forest showcasing modern glass art. The pieces by
Dale Chihuly (b. 1941, work not pictured) are especially brilliant, colourful, and whimsical. Elsewhere in Japan, this American glass artist also has a permanent exhibit devoted to him at the Toyama Glass Art Museum.
Of course, there are too many examples of glass art to be confined to one building. Climb down the valley in the back of the museum grounds, and you will come across this piece. Titled "Vegetazione 95" (Italian for "vegetation"), this work is by the artist Livio Seguso (b. 1930), who hails from none other than Murano.
In that same area, I also found this Romanesque statue and pond, surrounded by blue and white flowers which I assume to be hydrangeas. Hydrangeas in Hakone typically bloom in the rainy season of June to early July, so either I am mistaken about the species on hand, or these flowers also started blooming ahead of schedule -- but for once, just in time for me to witness them in their full splendour. On the whole, Hakone Glass Forest was just as splendid as my last stop, for its own reasons. But one doesn't come to Hakone just for the museums, and there was something else I simply had to try out while still in the area. Find out what, next time on Sekai Ichi!
Hours: Open from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM. No regular closing days.
Costs: ¥1,500, or ¥1,400 with an active Hakone Free Pass.
Address: 940-48 Sengokuhara, Hakone-machi, Ashigara Shimo-gun, Kanagawa-ken 〒250-0631
Access: From Hakone-Yumoto (platform 3), take the Togendai (T) line bus to Hyoseki / Hakone Glass-no-Mori ("俵石・箱根ガラスの森前", 22 minutes, every 15 minutes, ¥760). The Hakone Free Pass fully covers this bus.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
