Mika Ninagawa, Hiroaki Miyata and Dazzle’s Koichiro Iizuka on Kyoto Nippon Festival 2026

Spring is a glorious time to be in Kyoto, and not just because of the cherry blossoms. As the weather warms up and the flowers come out, a packed programme of enriching art and cultural events unfolds across the city. Among these, few are as eagerly anticipated as the Kyoto Nippon Festival, an annual showcase of cutting-edge visual and performing arts. Here, in the words of the artists themselves, is what to expect at the festival.

Meditations on the circle of life

Held on the grounds of the 1,000-year-old Kitano Tenmangu Shrine, the Kyoto Nippon Festival returns for its 10th edition in 2026 and has pulled out all the stops for the anniversary year.

Photographer, film director and artist Mika Ninagawa and the creative team EiM (Eternity in a Moment), in which Ninagawa is joined by scientist and executive director Hiroaki Miyata, have transformed the shrine’s famed plum tree garden into a dreamlike world where some 1,200 crystal garlands fracture light into a kaleidoscope of colour. ‘What you see changes with the weather,’ says Ninagawa. ‘Rather than alter nature, our work seeks to intensify the viewer’s experience of it.’

This ‘Three Gardens of Snow, Moon, and Flowers’ installation is complemented by ‘Afterglow of Lives’, a site-specific work of floral art that’s as haunting as it is beautiful. The historic Baikoken teahouse in a corner of the garden is drenched in artificial flowers – some bursting with colour and vitality, others in faded hues and wrinkled shapes that evoke the impermanence of life.

Tea with a side of drama

A similarly dramatic duality informs the conceptual world of ‘The Six Shadows’, an immersive theatre experience taking place at the shrine’s Fugetsuden Hall from March 20 to May 24. A collaboration between Ninagawa, EiM and the dance company Dazzle, pioneers of immersive performance in Japan, the show builds on a legendary episode from local history. In 1587, thousands of Kyotoites from all walks of life, regardless of wealth or status, converged on Kitano Tenmangu to attend a grand tea gathering in honour of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the first warlord to unify Japan.

There, Hideyoshi’s love for the lavish and spectacular collided with the austere wabi-sabi aesthetics expounded by the venerated tea master Sen no Rikyu, sparking a paradigm shift in Japan’s visual culture. ‘Now, 400 years later, we sought to bring these two sides together to showcase something unprecedented,’ says Hiroaki Miyata, ‘and to highlight both the light and shadows of history.’

For Dazzle’s Koichiro Iizuka, Kitano Tenmangu makes the perfect venue for presenting the ambitious 60-minute work. ‘This shrine welcomes new artistic endeavours,’ he says. ‘Besides its association with tea, it’s considered the birthplace of kabuki, and has served as an artistic incubator of sorts for centuries.’

A licence to feel

Hideyoshi’s ostentatious celebration ended after only one day, but ‘The Six Shadows’ invites audiences to experience how the ceremonies might have unfolded had they been allowed to go on for another. Drawn into a surreal non-verbal narrative told by Dazzle in a space where Ninagawa and EiM’s resplendent imagery contrasts sharply with the restrained architecture, attendees become participants in an extravagant, hourlong tea ceremony that tingles all five senses.

That, for Miyata, is what makes immersive theatre so enriching right now. In our time of AI and algorithms, ‘really opening our senses to stimuli, feeling with intention, is immensely important because it’s something only humans are capable of,’ he says. ‘Immersive theatre is an opportunity to do just that – to have an experience that’s physical, intellectual and visual at the same time.’

For Ninagawa, the immersive form also helps make theatre accessible to a broader audience. ‘It isn’t just about eschewing dialogue,’ she says. ‘Having the actors right there in front of you, sharing the same space, really helps you appreciate their craft.’

As for the performers themselves, getting to break the fourth wall certainly adds to the anticipation. ‘Immersive theatre doesn’t work without audience participation,’ says Iizuka, ‘and that’s what’s so fun about it. Our show is exciting to perform, so I can promise it’ll also be thrilling to watch.’