Image: Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa
The Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in Kanazawa will present a special exhibition devoted to Hasuda Shugo, the Kanazawa-born artist who worked across metal craft, sculpture and architecture. Titled ‘Hasuda Shugo: A Window Opening onto the World,’ the exhibition is scheduled for September 20 to October 25, 2026, in the museum’s seventh, eighth and ninth exhibition rooms.
According to the museum’s exhibition page, Hasuda Shugo (1915-2010) developed a distinctive practice that crossed the fields of metalwork, sculpture and architecture. After graduating from the Ishikawa Prefectural Technical School, now Ishikawa Prefectural Technical High School, he studied cast metal at Tokyo Fine Arts School, now Tokyo University of the Arts, while also turning his attention to sculpture and design. The museum says he went on to present work in exhibitions including Nitten, the Japan Contemporary Craft Art Exhibition and group shows.
The exhibition frames Hasuda’s career through works that helped define his reputation, including reliefs, screen-like forms and the ‘Hōko’ series, in which he pursued three-dimensional composition. The museum also notes that a visit to Germany influenced him deeply after he saw sculptural works harmonizing with their surroundings, prompting him to take up the theme of ‘metal sculpture in contact with architecture.’ From that point, he made monuments and other public works that reflected his thinking about the role of art and craft in society.
The museum says the show will bring together representative works, rare early pieces, design projects and related materials to trace Hasuda’s path in depth. It describes the exhibition as an opportunity to consider the artist’s achievements through a broad selection of objects and documents, with an emphasis on the large-scale character of his metal sculpture.
The museum’s page also places Hasuda’s work in the context of his broader activities, including the Japan Metal Sculpture Research Institute, which he led, and efforts to promote Japanese-German exchange. The institution presents his approach as one that expanded the concept of metal craft beyond conventional boundaries, creating what it calls a singular world of ‘metal sculpture.’
Alongside the exhibition, the museum has listed a programme of related events. These include a bus tour on October 17 and 18 that will visit Hasuda works installed around the city, two Saturday lectures on October 3 and 10, gallery talks on September 21 and October 12, a dialogue-based viewing session on October 11, and family-oriented viewing events for children as young as infancy on September 26 and 27. Admission details listed on the museum page give a general ticket price of 1,000 yen, with reduced rates for students and visitors aged 65 and over, and free entry for high school students and younger. The exhibition will run daily during the period and the museum says the venue will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with last entry at 5:30 p.m.
