Crystal Christmas Tree Abete

A Christmas tree made of crystal glass stands in the centre of the garden at the Hakone Venetian Glass Museum in Sengokuhara, Hakone. Called Abete (アベーテ), Italian for fir, it is shaped like a fir tree about 10 m tall and 6 m wide and is covered in about 150,000 crystal glass beads, each 1.4 cm across.

Highlights

In sunlight the beads break the light into rainbow colours. In the late afternoon the tree is lit, and after sunset it shines silver against the dark woods, mirrored in the water. Three water fireworks (水上花火), set with about 22,000 more crystals, add to the garden display.

Crystal in the Night

For the museum's 30th anniversary, it stays open into the evening on ten nights, the Saturdays of November and December and the last three days up to and including Christmas Day, under the name Crystal in the Night. On these evenings Venetian carnival masks and capes are lent free at the cafe restaurant, which serves a limited menu of light meals and hot soups, and the terrace looks onto the tree.

The anniversary exhibition Venetian Glass in Painting (描かれたヴェネチアン・グラス) runs alongside in the Venetian Glass Museum building. It traces the history of Venetian glass through Western paintings that show it, with about 100 glass works from the collection and 22 reproductions of paintings.