After establishing a rapport with stonecarver Masatoshi Izumi while working on his sculpture commission Black Sun in 1967, Noguchi returned at Izumi’s invitation to work regularly at the studio on Izumi’s family land at Mure, a village associated for centuries with stonecutting. By the early 1970s Izumi and mutual friends had purchased and reconstructed an eighteenth century merchant’s house for Noguchi’s use during his lengthy stays at Mure (it became known as the “Isamu-ya”). A circular stone wall was built to enclose the stone yard and workshop, while a hillside behind the residence was reconfigured as a terraced garden for Noguchi’s ongoing experimentation with site-specific works. The atelier opened to the public as the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in 1999.