Okada Museum of Art

The Okada Museum of Art is a private museum located in the Kowakudani area of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Established in 2013 by Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, the institution specializes in Asian art and archaeological artifacts. The collection comprises approximately 450 objects, centering on early modern and modern Japanese painting while encompassing Chinese bronzes, ceramics, lacquerware, and Buddhist sculpture. With the largest indoor exhibition space in Hakone, extending over five floors and roughly 5,000 square meters, the museum aims to preserve and share East Asian cultural heritage. However, major works from its collection, including Katsushika Hokusai's iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, were sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on November 22, 2025, to satisfy a legal judgment against Okada.

The museum opened in October 2013, realizing Kazuo Okada's vision to preserve cultural heritage for future generations and share the aesthetic pleasure of East Asian artifacts. Okada, a casino magnate, assembled the core collection over less than twenty years prior to the opening. The institution was built on the former site of a hotel named Kaikatei, which historically catered to Western visitors in the late 1800s when Kowakudani was developing as a premier resort area. In a significant development for the young institution, a legal judgment against Okada resulted in the sale of major works from the collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong on November 22, 2025, altering the museum's original holdings.

The museum's holdings span a broad chronological and geographic range, focusing on Japan, China, and Korea. The Japanese painting collection is rich in Edo period works, featuring Rinpa, ukiyo-e, and Kyoto circle artists, alongside modern and contemporary figures. The ceramics collection is considered one of the finest in Japan for Chinese pieces, spanning from ancient times through the Qing Dynasty, and includes Korean Goryeo celadon and Joseon white porcelain. Japanese ceramics center on Hizen ware, Kyoto ware, and ancient clay figures like dogu and haniwa. Additional strengths include Asian lacquerware from China, Korea, Ryukyu, and Japan, as well as Chinese metalwork from the pre-Common Era bronzes to Tang period silver, and religious art featuring Heian and Kamakura period Buddhist statues and paintings.

Among the most historically significant works previously held by the museum was Katsushika Hokusai's iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, which was sold at auction in 2025. The painting collection features Edo period masters such as Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ogata Korin, Sakai Hoitsu, Suzuki Kiitsu, Utagawa Hiroshige, Ito Jakuchu, and Maruyama Okyo, as well as modern artists like Hishida Shunso, Yokoyama Taikan, and Uemura Shoen. A signature piece of the museum is the massive mural KAZE TOKI (Wind/Time) by Fukui Kotaro. Measuring 12 meters high and 30 meters wide, the work was created on 640 aluminum panels with brass foil pressing as an homage to Sotatsu's national treasure, The Wind and Thunder Gods. In the decorative arts, a notable masterpiece is a ceramic bowl by Kyoto potter Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), which captures the autumn scenery of the Tatsuta River through harmonious openwork maple leaves in red, yellow, green, and white.

Designed by architect Miura Shin, the museum building harmoniously integrates with the natural slope of Kowakudani. The modern architecture spans five levels, providing approximately 5,000 square meters of exhibition space, the largest of any indoor museum in Hakone. The 6,300-square-meter grounds feature a garden space built around spring water and a natural forest, designed to reflect the changing seasons with streams, waterfalls, and ponds. A renovated early Showa-period Japanese house named Kaikatei, repurposed from the site's historical hotel, serves as a restaurant where guests can enjoy udon noodles and drinks while viewing the garden. At the entrance, Fukui Kotaro's monumental mural anchors the space, in front of which are footbaths filled with 100 percent natural flowing hot spring water, allowing visitors to soak their feet while viewing the art.

The Okada Museum of Art is located in Kowakudani, Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture. Visitors can reach the site by taking a train to Hakone-Yumoto Station and then a bus to the Kowakien bus stop, followed by a short walk. The museum is wheelchair accessible, offering ramps, elevators, and borrowable wheelchairs at the information desk. To protect the artworks, photography and video are strictly prohibited inside the exhibition areas, and visitors must store phones and cameras in lockers, with a metal detector enforced at entry. The admission fee is 2,800 yen, which includes access to the footbaths, or visitors can use the footbath cafe separately for 500 yen. The museum offers private rental plans after regular hours and provides LCD touch screens with multilingual information in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.