The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum was the former residence and workshop of world-renowned Japanese American artist and landscape architect, Isamu Noguchi. Some of the major works by Noguchi include the design for the garden at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, bridges of Hiroshima Peace Park, and varies modern furniture designs. Noguchi first visited Kagawa Prefecture in 1959, in search of rocks suitable for his designs for the gardens at Paris. The master later returned to the small town of Mure after being inspired by the beauties of Japan, its seasonal atmosphere, and the quality of stones in Kagawa prefecture. Both the main residence and the workshop were relocated to this location. The main residence once belonged to a rich merchant in Marugame featuring an Edo period architectural style, while the workshop remodified from a storehouse in the same time period displays the tools used by the master himself, with more than 150 stone sculptures in the “stone garden” outside, many of which were unfinished. This museum is the only studio in Japan, aside from the others in New York and Paris for Noguchi used today in hopes to inspire more young artists to pursue their artistic dreams.
