🇯🇵 Igor Mitoraj in Hokkaido, Japan

Tsuki-no-hikari (月の光 — Moonlight) is permanently installed in Abuta, Hokkaido, Japan. This is the original of a work that Mitoraj created in multiple casts — replicas stand before the British Museum in London (purchased 1994), on the dunes of Scheveningen in the Netherlands, and in Poznań, Poland. Abuta is a small lakeside town on the shores of Lake Tōya in southern Hokkaido. The dialogue between Mitoraj's fragmented classical figure and the serene volcanic landscape of Hokkaido is striking. His work was also shown in Tokyo, confirming Japan's strong connection to his artistic legacy.

Abuta, on the shores of Lake Tōya in southern Hokkaido, sits within the Shikotsu-Tōya National Park — a volcanic landscape of extraordinary drama. The placement of Tsuki-no-hikari here, on the edge of a volcanic caldera lake surrounded by mountains, creates one of the most poetically charged settings of any Mitoraj installation worldwide. The title — Moonlight — resonates particularly in Japan, where lunar imagery carries deep literary and aesthetic associations stretching back to classical poetry. The Abuta Sculpture Park was developed specifically to integrate international contemporary sculpture with the Hokkaido landscape.

Japan's relationship with Mitoraj was long and serious. His works entered major Japanese collections from the early 1990s onwards, and the country produced some of his most dedicated institutional patrons — including the Tokyo Sogo Bank and the Oya Museum in Utsunomiya. The Abuta Sculpture Park on the shore of Lake Tōya reflects Japan's broader tradition of integrating international contemporary sculpture into natural landscapes, a tradition that also produced the Hakone Open Air Museum (1969), one of the world's first dedicated outdoor sculpture venues. Mitoraj's Tsuki-no-hikari fits naturally into this tradition.

Permanent Work