The museum garden, designed by the sculptor Isamu Wakabayashi, was created based on the concept that it is an extension of the foothills of Mount Asama. The angles of the slopes found throughout the garden correspond to those of the surrounding landscape: 17 degrees, reflecting the incline of the foothills formed by volcanic deposits from Mount Asama, and 30 degrees, corresponding to the terraces shaped by vegetation and water erosion.
These angles, which have stabilized the local terrain over many years, create a striking sense of three-dimensionality. Together with the iron gate, iron bridge, and weathering steel plates inclined at 30 degrees—whose surfaces have gradually changed from reddish-brown to deep brown—the garden’s landscape is shaped by the natural colors of Karuizawa: sunlight, rain, mist, fresh greenery, and autumn foliage that fill the space throughout the changing seasons.

＊For more information about the concept and creation of the Museum Garden, please see Isamu Wakabayashi－The Garden of the Museum of Modern Art, Seibu Takanawa, Karuizawa.