Rokka no Mori
Garden Art Gallery
Rokka no Mori is an art gallery that incorporates waterways, the landscape, and trees and flowers as design and art elements. Virtually everything here was built or grown or arranged in the past decade or so, including the hill that dominates one end of the garden and is topped with a metallic sculpture Bando Yu created that was inspired by Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker. Every stone, flower, tree, brook, chirping bird, and visitor here is part of a vast and timeless artwork reinvented each day.
Rokka no Mori is the creation of Oda Yutaka, the former president of a popular confectioner named Rokkatei in nearby Obihiro. Oda built his garden in a place once dominated by moors and wild woodland.
Oda imported nearly a dozen traditional country houses from Croatia and turned them into art galleries. Most serve as galleries for the works of artist and illustrator Sakamoto Naoyuki (1906–82), who created Rokkatei’s iconic wildflower packaging. The garden also features many pieces of art al fresco, including sculptures of wild animals created by Aoki Sanshiro scattered around the forest and along the Sanban River.
Adjacent to this garden gallery is a Rokkatei factory. Visitors generally note its existence when the sweet scent of fresh cookies and other treats drifts into the garden. The garden’s café and shop are located at the factory as well. Diners in the café can look out on a scene of lawn, forest, and garden through its massive glass wall.
Rokka no Mori is open from mid-morning to late afternoon every day between late April and the beginning of November.
