Aug. 6-Dec. 4 Color can be a powerful device to convey messages without the use of words. The colors of traffic lights are instantly recognized as green for "go," yellow for "get ready" and red for "slow down"; meanwhile blue is the color of the ...

Aug. 6-Nov. 27 Tadanori Yokoo, the eponymous artist of this Kobe museum, is one of Japan's most internationally recognized artists. Born in Nishikawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Yokoo is best known for his vibrant poster and album-cover colored illustrations. This exhibition peeks into his personal world with ...

Aug. 2-Aug. 28 The game kimodameshi can be a scary way to chill your bones on a hot summer night. It involves daring a friend to venture into a supposedly haunted place and return with some kind of souvenir to prove their courage. The Ota Memorial ...

July 29-Sept. 11 The year of 1956 is often referred to as the end of the postwar era in Japan. It was also the year that Parisian art critic and collector Michel Tapie brought an influential collection of Western "art informel" abstract art to Japan. The ...

Ice cream and gelato has been the go-to for cooling refreshments for centuries, evolving from the Romans eating fruit-juice flavored snow to the vanilla, chocolate chip and other popular dairy-rich products we see today. But who says we have to stick to the regular ...

July 27-Aug. 23 This large-scale touring exhibition of renowned British fashion designer Paul Smith has just moved from its opening venue in Kyoto to The Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo. Following the career of Smith, the exhibits reveal aspects of the designer's life, including recreations of ...

July 30-Sept. 11 Perhaps best known for her manga "Helter Skelter," which became even more of a hit after it was adapted for film in 2012, illustrator Kyoko Okazaki focuses her work on the lives of contemporary young women living in major cities. Unlike typical shōjo ...

July 23-Oct. 10 Twins Steven and Timothy Quay, better known as the Quay Brothers or Brothers Quay, are two of the most influential stop-motion animators. Born in America but based in London, the Quay Brothers show strong European influences in their work, which has often ...

July 13-Oct. 10 Japan and Italy have enjoyed 150 years of diplomatic relations, and to celebrate, The National Art Center, Tokyo, is hosting Japan's first large-scale exhibition of Venetian Renaissance paintings from the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. The exhibition is separated into five different sections, with ...

July 2-Sept 19 In December, 1863, 48-year-old Julia Margaret Cameron was given her first camera, a gift from her daughter and son-in-law. Though it began as a hobby, photography soon became a form of artistic expression for the British woman. She quickly developed a distinctive ...