Sapporo Art Park | Trying the Kanjiki Snowshoe Walk in Winter

Last Updated on June 12, 2026 by Charlotte

Snowshoer passing a mirrored panel sculpture reflecting the snowy landscape at Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido

In the coldest months of the year, there’s a magical version of Sapporo Art Park that almost nobody sees. In the peak of winter, between mid-January and mid-March, Sapporo Art Park hosts snowshoe walks through the sculpture gardens using kanjiki, traditional Japanese snowshoes. We visited the art park’s kanjiki special event and enjoyed wandering through the sculpture park’s forested trails, home to more than 70 snow-buried sculptures floating on top of the snow, in near-total silence. Here’s what the walk is really like, what it costs, how to get there in the snow, and whether it’s worth your time.

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Our Afternoon Traditional Snowshoeing at Sapporo Art Park

Just a short 10-minute bus ride from the Hill of the Buddha at the nearby Makomanai Takino Cemetery, the Sapporo Art Park is a big open-air complex that intertwines art and nature in southern Sapporo.

Three white sail-shaped sculptures rising from deep snow against a vivid blue sky at Sapporo Art Park

While the sculpture gardens are usually a spring and summer attraction, visiting in winter offers a truly special activity to try walking in traditional Japanese snowshoes, known as kanjiki. Made of bent bamboo ovals and ropes, these traditional snowshoes existed as far back as the Jōmon era, long before the clip-in aluminum snowshoes that we have today.

At the main office, a friendly employee took our rental fee and gave us a map of the sculpture gardens, and passed us our snowshoe rentals.

Visitor fastening rental wooden snowshoes in the lobby before a winter snowshoe walk at Sapporo Art Park

Thankfully, the Art Park had an instructional video to teach us how to lash the kanjiki to our feet, because getting them on is a bit of art in itself! In winter in Sapporo, the snow is so deep in the Art Park that you aren’t allowed onto the trails unless you’re wearing snowshoes.

Smiling snowshoer in a turquoise jacket kicking up a snowshoe in Sapporo Art Park's birch forest

We hiked up a short hill, following the well-worn tracks of other snowshoers, and passed some of the first sculptures.

Two bronze sculptures of seated girls emerging waist-deep from snow in the forest at Sapporo Art Park

If you’ve ever had the chance to visit the Hakone Open Air Museum, the Sapporo Art Park has a pretty similar vibe, except that I’d say that the art at Sapporo Art Park feels more spread out and set into the landscape.

Visitor standing beside a snow-draped tent-shaped sculpture on the snowshoe trail at Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido

This is because many of the artists visited the site that would become the Sapporo Art Park before the museum opened and crafted works for their exact spots, responding to the terrain, surroundings, and Sapporo’s climate.

Twisting green bronze sculpture suspended between snowy tree trunks in Sapporo Art Park's outdoor sculpture garden

As the afternoon light stretched between the naked boughs of the birch trees, we wound our way across the hillside and past some curious statues, partially buried in the snow.

Smooth snow-buried sculpture mounds lining the forest edge in Sapporo Art Park's winter sculpture garden

Here are some of my favorite statues and sculptures that we saw on our visit.

Metal figure sculpture with outstretched arms peeking over a snowdrift beneath snowy fir branches at Sapporo Art Park

Stacked concrete cube tower sculpture capped with snow against a bright blue winter sky at Sapporo Art Park

We spent close to an hour exploring the trails, and I was surprised by just how well the kanjiki traditional snowshoes worked, for some bamboo ovals and ropes! They didn’t feel quite as floaty as the snowshoes we used when we snowshoed to the Blue River in Biei, but they were still heaps of fun.

Snowshoer with backpack following a sun-dappled trail through the winter woods of Sapporo Art Park

Plan Your Visit to the Sapporo Art Park

The Sapporo Art Park is located in Sapporo’s southern hills, about 30 minutes from Sapporo Station.

How to Get to Sapporo Art Park

By Public Transit

We visited Sapporo Art Park by public transit, and it was a pretty straightforward journey. Take the Namboku subway line to Makomanai Station, then catch a Chuo Bus (Soranuma or Takino line) to the “Geijutsu no Mori Iriguchi” or “Geijutsu no Mori Center” stop, roughly a 15-minute ride from Makomanai. In the warmer months, the Art Park runs a shuttle from Makomanai Station, but in winter, you have to take the Chuo Bus.

My Apple Wallet Suica worked for both the subway line and the Chuo bus.

By Car

The Sapporo Art Park is about a 30-minute drive from Sapporo Station, or around 40 minutes from the Kitahiroshima IC on the Hokkaido Expressway. There is parking on-site at the Art Park for ¥500 for a regular car.

Hours and Admission

The Sapporo Art Park has different hours and admission costs depending on the season you go, so be sure to check the official website.

Winter Kanjiki Walk + Snowshoe Rental

The kanjiki walk runs for a short window each winter, roughly early-to-mid January through mid-March (in 2026 when we visited it ran from January 10th to March 15th). It’s open daily except Mondays (if a Monday is a public holiday, it closes the next weekday), 9:45 AM to 3:30 PM, with last check-in at 3:00 PM.

While admission to the art park is free, the adult snowshoe rental is ¥500, and it’s free for elementary-age children and younger, who get child-sized plastic kanjiki. Snow boots are loaned free, too, in limited sizes. My feet are kind of huge, and all the snow boots were too small, so just keep that in mind if you don’t have your own boots.

Spring, Summer, and Fall

From late April to early November, the open-air sculpture garden is open daily as a regular attraction, and you simply walk through it.

Hours are 9:45 AM to 5:00 PM (until 5:30 from June through August), with last admission 30 minutes before closing. Admission is ¥800 for adults, ¥400 for high-school and university students, ¥640 for seniors 65+, and free for junior-high students and younger.

Facilities and Accessibility

Places to Eat

In winter, the restaurant “Hata no Haru” at the Sapporo Art Park is takeout-only. But we still enjoyed a warm bowl of udon chanko soup to warm up before our walk.

Smiling visitor holding a steaming bowl of chanko nabe udon at the Sapporo Art Park restaurant, Hokkaido

Restrooms

There are no restrooms out on the trail itself, so for the open-air museum, you use the facilities at the Sato Churyo Children’s Atelier, which also doubles as a warm rest spot in winter. You’ll find vending machines, an indoor rest space where you can sit and eat

Accessibility

In winter, the kanjiki walk is a deep-snow trail you cross on snowshoes, so it is not wheelchair- or stroller-accessible. However, the check-in building and the restrooms/warming spot are.

In the warmer months, it’s much more manageable, and there are free wheelchair and stroller loans are available at the Geijutsu no Mori Center, the art museum, and the craft hall.

For families with kids, the park is well set up for little ones year-round: nursing rooms with diaper-changing tables at four locations (the museum, craft studio, center, and children’s atelier), and baby chairs in several restrooms.

What to Wear and Bring

Because this is quite the outdoor adventure, if you snowshoe, you’ll need:

Snow boots
Snow pants
Warm parka
Gloves or mittens
Hat

I personally packed my snow pants in my backpack and put them on once I got to the Art Park, so that I did not overheat on the subway.

How Much Time You Need for Sapporo Art Park

How much time to budget for Sapporo Art Park greatly depends on how you get there, because getting from the bus stop to the snowshoe rental is a walk in itself.

If your bus runs all the way to the “Geijutsu no Mori Center” stop, you’re golden, because this is the reception building open-air museum, and where you check in and rent snow shoes. But every bus from the Hill of the Buddha stops at “Geijutsu no Mori Iriguchi,” the park entrance (and only some carry on to the Center), so there’s a fair chance you’ll hop off at the entrance gate and walk in. The park lists that as an 8-minute walk, but in deep winter snow, it took us closer to 10–15 minutes.

Once you reach reception, budget another ten minutes or so to check in, get fitted, and lace up the kanjiki — they take a couple of tries to get right the first time. Then the open-air sculpture garden walk is exactly as long as you want it to be. There’s no fixed route or time limit; most people spend anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours wandering the 7.5-hectare garden, depending on how often you stop for photos and how far you let yourself drift into the quiet.

All in, plan on about half a day from central Sapporo: the better part of an hour each way on subway-and-bus, the walk in, and one to two hours on the snow. Short on time? An hour on the trail covers the highlights.

Was it Worth the Trip?

I had a lot of fun trying out the traditional kanjiki snowshoes, and I loved that it felt like a blend of a cultural experience and art. If you have some time to burn in Sapporo, I think you could totally spend an afternoon here. We certainly had a lot of fun making snow angels, too!

Ready to Plan Your Trip to Hokkaido?

If you’re headed to Sapporo this winter, you can’t miss the Sapporo Snow Festival, and be sure to check out my guide on the best places to stay in Sapporo before your trip!