Tag - art

 
 

ART

Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2025
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Well known for its views of Mount Fuji, the mountainous community also holds a growing collection of world-class art.
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2025
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Dozens of biennials, triennials, art festivals and fairs are taking place between September and December.
Artist Nikita Kadan and dancer Min Tanaka modeled their art and choreography respectively on prosthetic limbs as commentary on the island’s history of being a center for isolating people with Hansen’s disease.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2025
Healing Oshima Island's history of disease with a touch of art
Min Tanaka opened the Setouchi Triennale’s summer session on Oshima, Kagawa Prefecture, with a site-specific dance at Nikita Kadan’s sculpture, an allegory for support.
The Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center has removed materials about Beijing's treatment of ethnic minorities and Hong Kong from an exhibit on authoritarian governments.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 9, 2025
Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after 'pressure' from Beijing  
In what artists called the latest attempt by Beijing to silence critics overseas, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center changed multiple works by artists in exile.
“Memory of Lines” is Chiharu Shiota’s second art installation on Teshima as part of the Setouchi Triennale.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2025
Artist Chiharu Shiota weaves a hidden marvel on Teshima
The artist cherished for her red-thread installations creates a new work in one of Japan’s famed art islands.
Crown Prince Akishino and his family visit a photo exhibition on the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in the capital's Meguro Ward on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2025
Japan's crown prince and his family visit Hiroshima atomic bombing exhibition
Two videos and about 160 pictures on display show the devastation from the nuclear attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.
The museum's curators selected a wide array of works from the archives for the milestone exhibitions. Among other photos, Nobuyoshi Araki's work from the series "Winter Journey" (1990) was included in the "Continuity and Change" exhibition that concluded in June.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2025
Rare vintage shots and first-time shows at TOP’s 30th anniversary
The 2025 schedule includes two exhibitions showcasing the museum’s permanent collection and three solo shows that focus on the work of Takano Ryudai, Luigi Ghirri and Pedro Costa.
The exhibition of Fujimoto’s architecture surveys his career to date, as well as looks ahead as shown in his proposal of a future floating city designed in collaboration with data scientist Hiroaki Miyata.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 4, 2025
The future is bright inside the visionary mind of architect Sou Fujimoto
From a model of the Grand Ring you can walk through to a futuristic city design, the architect’s exhibition at Mori Art Museum is an invitation to engage with architecture.
At Mount Zine’s gallery in Komazawa, Setagaya Ward, one wall is for exhibiting, while another is for zines for sale.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2025
A buzzing zine scene across Japan packs passion in multiple formats
In a world now dominated by digital media, small handmade books are a return to analog media and offline connection.
To ensure no damage occurs to the historic Nelson Stair, the delicate washi paper clouds are made to weigh only about half a kilogram each.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 15, 2025
A multisensory exhibition of washi paper unfolds at London Design Biennale
In the exhibition “Paper Clouds: Materiality in Empty Space,” washi paper clouds float on golden threads in the historic Somerset House.
Part of Osaka Art and Design 2025, Maki Takato’s “Yokai Unity” is a collaboration with a Zen-Buddhist monk from Nara, whose hands in prayer were 3D-scanned for an inflatable sculpture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025
Osaka wants to show off its artistic talents
With the expo underway, the city is buzzing with people. The art scene is trying to catch some of that attention with a variety of events and initiatives this summer.
"In My Closet" by the artist Noumra is on display at Tokyu Plaza Harajuku's Harakado space until June 18.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025
At Tokyo Pride’s first queer art exhibition, intimacy and resistance share the wall
A vibrant, community-sourced exhibition in Harajuku showcases queer art that spans the political, absurd and deeply personal.
Japan has a deep rogues' gallery of age-old "yōkai" (spirits), but a museum on the island of Shodoshima has released a new book collecting yōkai that reflect the uncertainties of the modern world.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 14, 2025
'Rice swindler,' 'Face thief': Worried citizens invent new monsters
A decade-old contest for original "yōkai" art reflects what keeps people up at night in Japan.
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2025
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
The spacesuited felines will be familiar to those who have visited the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka or Tokyo’s Ginza Six shopping complex last year.
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2025
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
The Naoshima New Museum of Art is Tadao Ando’s 10th contribution to the popular art islands.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025
Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’
The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.
A woman looks at a piece of calligraphy created by Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun in his jail cell weeks before his execution in 1910, at the Seoul Auction on April 22.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 18, 2025
Independence hero assassin's calligraphy breaking auction records in Seoul
Revered in South Korea for his efforts to defend the country against Japanese encroachment, Ahn Jung-geun is best known for assassinating Japan's first prime minister.
“Ambient, Environment, Circumstances — The Typography of Contemporary Art —” is Simose Art Museum’s first contemporary art exhibition.
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2025
Emerging Asian artists converge at the 'world’s most beautiful museum'
The Shigeru Ban-designed Simose Art Museum celebrates its Prix Versailles architectural award with its first contemporary art exhibition.
Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
May 5, 2025
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan
How one artist is using history, culture and community spirit to revive a fading samurai legacy — and possibly reshape rural Japan’s future.
Takuro Tamayama’s sculpture “Models (Pair, 6 sets, 12 rings)” comes with a mathematical formation that scales it for different spaces.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 20, 2025
The floor is art: Takuro Tamayama transforms mundanity
With “Takuro Tamayama: Floor,” the artist, at 34, has become the youngest person to ever hold a solo show at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’