Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2026 beyond, the contemporary art festival on Mt. Rokko in Kobe, is adding new elements to three works in its Outdoor Art Zone and welcoming one brand-new installation ahead of the festival's opening on August 29. From August 7 (Friday) through August 28 (Friday), a last-minute discount viewing passport — priced below the in-season rate — goes on sale.
The Outdoor Art Zone
Since 2023, the festival has developed the Outdoor Art Zone within SIKI Garden – Sound Promenade, inside ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum, keeping select works on view even after each festival's run ends so visitors can experience art here year-round. Eight works are on display in this zone this year. Three of them have received additional elements, and one brand-new work joins the lineup. Whether it's your first visit or you've seen the zone before, the space now invites visitors to sink even deeper into each work's world.
Works With New Elements
Artists: Mayu Ueda, Hiraki Sawa, Ruri Takahashi (*1)
Exhibition Period:
- Hiraki Sawa and Ruri Takahashi (*1): August 24 (Saturday), 2024 – November 29 (Sunday), 2026
- Mayu Ueda: August 23 (Saturday), 2025 – through the end of the 2027 festival
Location: Outdoor Art Zone (inside SIKI Garden at ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum)
Mayu Ueda — Daikon
The work draws on how daikon radish seeds form, with green, cube-shaped protrusions representing the seeds. This year, the artist wrapped the seeds in pods. Enclosed within their pods, the seeds embody the work's core concept — taking root locally while spreading outward into society as a whole — and express hope for the life that will one day sprout forth.
Hiraki Sawa — shadow step
This year, the video projection inside the structure at the back of the exhibition area has been updated. A new, small monitor has been installed on a pillar salvaged from a house that collapsed in the Noto earthquake, showing footage of a row of houses that no longer exist. The surrounding scenery, projected through a lens, is presented in contrast with the house — a symbol of everyday life.
Ruri Takahashi (*1) — Spending Time Between Our Two Secrets
The artist created this work during a 2024 residency, building it as though tending a garden. Two especially large stone faces stand on either side of the exhibition area, positioned so their two gazes intersect. This year, a stone statue was added between them. The statue meets the eyes of both faces while also looking up toward a bird overhead — and because the sky enters the view as "borrowed scenery" along that sightline, the work now spans a much larger scale, taking in the sky, the plantings, and the ground together.
New Installation: On-Site Production Ahead of the Opening
Participating artist Mojahid Musa comes to Japan from Bangladesh in early August and will create the festival artwork on-site on Mt. Rokko through August 28 (Friday).
Mojahid Musa
Born in Narsingdi, Bangladesh, in 1990; based in Dhaka.
Completed a master's degree in sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Chittagong, in 2015.
Using techniques of decontextualization and transformation, Musa examines the sociopolitical positioning of human and animal bodies, questioning — through depictions of animals removed from their natural environments — how civilization, domestication, and economic systems turn life into an "industrial byproduct." By blending Bangladesh's traditional indigenous culture and artisanal memory with ready-made objects and personal archives, the work also brings into sharp relief the precarious boundaries between contemporary consumer society, power, and the intervention of nature and humans.
Outdoor Art Zone Artists
Since 2023, the Outdoor Art Zone has served as the festival's year-round base within SIKI Garden – Sound Promenade at ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum. Displaying works here on a long-term basis lets visitors enjoy how Mt. Rokko's changing seasons shift each work's character, deepening the collaboration between nature and art.
Exhibiting Artists: Mayu Ueda, Yayoi Kusama, Risa Sato, Hiraki Sawa, Ruri Takahashi (*1), Hideki Nishida, Misa Funai, and Mojahid Musa (newly added for 2026)
Related Event: Opening Concert
Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2026 beyond Opening Concert
Date: August 29 (Saturday)
Time: 12:30 PM / 1:30 PM / 2:30 PM, each session running 20 minutes
Venue: ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum Concert Room
Performer: toi to! toi
Profile: An ensemble from Kyoto City University of Arts.
- 2nd Place, Ensemble Division (General Category A), 26th "Great Wall Cup" International Music Competition
- Grand Prize, Ensemble/G1 Division Category E, Hama no Kaze Competition 2024
- Hyogo Prefecture Music Activity Promotion Council Award, Ensemble Festival Hyogo 2024
- Registered with the Kadoma Artist Bank
Kobe Rokko Meets Art 2026 beyond Overview
Period: August 29 (Saturday) – November 29 (Sunday), 2026
Open every day during the festival. Note: Rokko Mountain Silence Resort is closed every Monday (if Monday falls on a public holiday, closed the following weekday instead).
Venues: Museum Area (ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum, Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden, Shinike Pond), Rokko Cable (Lower Station and Mountaintop Station), Tenrandai Observatory, Hyogo Prefectural Rokko Mountain Visitor Center (Kinenhi-dai), Rokko Mountain Silence Resort (former Rokko Mountain Hotel), Banno Sanso, Kaihatsu-san no Koya (near the Athletic Park GREENIA uphill bus stop), Rokko Garden Terrace Area, Natural Experience Observatory Rokko Shidare, Wind Church Area
Special Exhibition: Michele De Lucchi
Specially Loaned Work: Yayoi Kusama
Organizers: Rokko Mountain Tourist Co., Ltd. / Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd.
Co-organizer: Rokko Maya Tourism Promotion Council
Special Grants & Sponsors: City of Kobe / Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.
Grant: Kobe Culture Support Fund (public interest incorporated foundation)
Grant & Cooperation: Kobe Citizens' Cultural Promotion Foundation (public interest incorporated foundation)
Hikari no Mori – Night Art Walk
Period: Evenings on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, September 19 (Saturday) – November 29 (Sunday), 2026
Venues: ROKKO Mori no Oto Museum, Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden
Artists: Kyota Takahashi (*1), Kazue Taguchi, Daisy Balloon, hohobun
Viewing Passport
Adult = junior high school age and above; Child = ages 4 through elementary school; free for age 3 and under.
Natural Experience Observatory Rokko Shidare is open 10:00 AM–9:00 PM. The 5:00 PM–9:00 PM slot is accessible with a Day Pass or Day & Night Pass. Night Pass does not include admission to this venue.
(*1) The first character of Takahashi is written with the ladder-style "hashigodaka" variant.
For more information, visit the official Mt. Rokko portal site: https://www.rokkosan.com/
