Seibo Kitamura 's Sculpture Garden
You can view the works of sculptor Seibo Kitamura outdoors, as well as in Sculpture Museum A, Sculpture Hall B, and the Studio Hall (approximately 200 works are on display at all times; exhibits inside the halls may be changed).
Photography is not permitted inside Sculpture Museum A and B, or the Atelier Hall. However, photography is permitted for outdoor sculptures.
About Sculpture Museum
About Sculpture Museum
Highlights of the Sculpture Garden
Inokashira Park Zoo houses a life-size plaster prototype of the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Statue, widely known as one of Seibo 's masterpieces. The prototype for casting the bronze Peace Memorial Statue was created in the studio located within Inokashira Park Zoo.
In the autumn of 1950, Seibo was commissioned by Nagasaki City to create the Peace Memorial Statue, and he began conceptualizing and creating prototypes in his studio in Kita Ward, where he was living at the time. Since a large space was needed to create a full-scale prototype that would stand 9.7 meters tall, he negotiated with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and in 1953, he built his studio (now the Studio Museum) adjacent to Inokashira Park Zoo. It was here that he completed the prototype. At the sculpture park, you can enjoy various sculptures by sculptor Seibo Kitamura, centered around this "Full-Scale Plaster Prototype of the Peace Memorial Statue."
The beginnings and present of the sculpture garden
In 1958, after the completion of the Peace Statue, the prototype and a group of works stored by Seibo were donated to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, laying the foundation for the current Sculpture Garden. With the addition of subsequent donations, the Museum now houses more than 500 pieces of bronze and other cast statues, plaster casts, etc. Seibo, as well as many calligraphies, paintings, drawings, etc.
Visitors can view the works in three buildings: Hall A, which mainly houses the original Peace Memorial Statue and postwar works; Hall B, where visitors can see works from the period when Seibo studied sculpture, before and during World War II; and the Atelier Hall, where the Peace Memorial Statue was created. Visitors can also see more than 30 works outdoors.
Sculptor Seibo Kitamura
He was born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1884 (Meiji 17) and died in 1987 (Showa 62). His representative works include the Peace Memorial Statue in Nagasaki Peace Park and Itagaki Taisuke in the National Diet Building, and he has many other statues installed throughout Japan. Before the war, he excelled in works that expressed the beauty of male muscles and statues of heroic soldiers on horseback. After creating the Peace Memorial Statue, he began creating works with themes of peace and freedom, and continued creating until his death at the age of 102. He was one of the leading sculptors of the Showa era, and was a recipient of the Order of Culture, the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon, and a Person of Cultural Merit.
