Sébastien Raineri

The start of the year is always a time of intense anticipation for art fans in Tokyo, with the city’s numerous superb museums revealing their exhibition schedules for the coming 12 months. And with the full 2026 slate now out, we’re confident calling this year’s crop of shows one of the most plentiful in recent memory. First, you have your big international touring shows featuring artistic superstars from Picasso to Ron Mueck and the Young British Artists of the ’90s – an eclectic line-up spread out from February all the way to September. Then there’s a treasure trove of solo exhibitions highlighting domestic heavy hitters including Hajime Sorayama, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Minami Tada – the latter the focus of a long-awaited mega-retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in autumn. All that and so much more – these are the very best shows to see in Tokyo this year. RECOMMENDED: The 13 best free museums in Tokyo – from art and history to taxidermy parasites

At 23 years young, Art Osaka is going stronger than ever. That’s our main takeaway after the 2025 edition of the longest-running contemporary art fair in Japan ended its five-day programme across two complementary venues: the Osaka City Central Public Hall in Nakanoshima and Creative Center Osaka in Kitakagaya. From June 5 to 9, Osaka once again shone as a vital axis of the country’s contemporary art scene, as it hosted a celebration of cutting-edge work; one that continues to distinguish itself through a dual commitment to curatorial ambition and grassroots creativity. Here are some of the things that caught our eye at Art Osaka 2025. RECOMMENDED: How to see the highlights of Osaka’s arts and culture scene in one day

タイムアウト東京 > アート&カルチャー > 「KYOTOGRAPHIE 2025」に行くべき6のこと 春が広がる京都。写真という芸術メディアを通じた、文化交流のための国内随一の国際的なプラットフォーム「KYOTOGRAPHIE」が開催される時期だ。京都の伝統とイノベーションが融合したこの国際写真祭は、京都1000年の遺産と国際的な文化発信地としての役割が合わさっている。 KYOTOGRAPHIEは単なる国際写真祭ではない。京都への入り口である。京都の寺院、伝統的な町家、近代的なランドマークなど、詩的な背景の中、毎年恒例の本写真祭は、京都という文化都市をオープンエアのギャラリーへと変えていく。 明治時代の酒蔵から京都駅の洗練された鉄骨まで、京都の最も象徴的であり、かつ思いがけない場所に、考え抜かれ、埋め込まれた力強いビジュアルが期待できるのだ。2025年4月12日〜5月11日（日）の会期で開催される今年のテーマは「HUMANITY」。ここでは英語版編集部によるKYOTOGRAPHIEが、毎春アートファンにとって行くべきディスティネーションとなる理由を6つ紹介したい。

The Setouchi Triennale is one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary art festivals. Since its inception in 2010, the showcase has brought world-class art to the islands of the Seto Inland Sea in the form of site-specific installations, interactive projects, and performances that integrate seamlessly with the natural and cultural environment. Visitors can explore artworks scattered across Naoshima, Teshima, Shodoshima, and around 10 other islands, encountering everything from avant-garde sculptures to traditional crafts reinterpreted in contemporary forms. Returning in 2025 to once again transform the Inland Sea area into a massive open-air museum, the Triennale is held across three seasons: Spring (April 18 to May 25), Summer (August 1 to August 31) and Autumn (October 3 to November 9). The festival always brings together artists from around the world to engage with the region’s rich history, breathtaking landscapes and vibrant local communities, and the 2025 edition will continue this legacy with new commissions that reflect themes of ecology, sustainability and coexistence – urgent topics in an era of climate change and depopulation. Read on for our picks of things not to miss at the 2025 Setouchi Triennale. RECOMMENDED: Check out our ultimate guide to the Setouchi area

As spring unfolds in the ancient city of Kyoto, the spotlight once again turns to Kyotographie – Japan’s premier international platform for the exchange of culture through the artistic medium of photography. Celebrating its home city’s unique blend of tradition and innovation, this festival intertwines Kyoto’s thousand-year legacy with its role as a beacon of international culture. But Kyotographie isn’t just a photo festival: it’s a portal. Set against the poetic backdrop of Kyoto’s temples, teahouses, traditional machiya dwellings and modern landmarks, the annual springtime celebration transforms Japan’s cultural capital into an open-air gallery. Expect powerful visuals thoughtfully embedded in some of the city’s most iconic – and unexpected – venues, from a Meiji-era (1868–1912) sake brewery to the sleek steel face of Kyoto Station. Running from April 12 to May 11, this year’s edition of the festival highlights the unifying theme of ‘Humanity’. Here’s why Kyotographie makes for an essential addition to any art fan’s spring itinerary.

Their time in the subcultural shadows long gone, manga and anime are now common sights at prestigious art museums around the world, with large-scale exhibitions showcasing otaku culture and popular titles popping up from New York and London to Singapore in recent years. But Tokyo is still the world capital of anime and manga shows, and this year brings another packed slate of highlights to exhibition venues around the city. These are our picks of the best displays coming up in 2025 – from cyberpunk dreams and epic sagas to art inspired by the world’s most famous monster. RECOMMENDED: The best art exhibitions to see in Tokyo this year

The art year 2025 in Tokyo is looking packed, with a hefty slate of exhibitions and events highlighting everything from cutting-edge contemporary art to thousand-year old treasures. The visionary sound installations of Ryuichi Sakamoto can be appreciated at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo through the end of March, while spring sees the Mori Museum highlight the intersection of art and digital technology and the Azabudai Hills Gallery showcase the eclectic work of Tomokazu Matsuyama. Big draws in the latter half of the year include an in-depth look at the career of Expo 2025 site designer Sou Fujimoto and the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum’s celebration of 1920s fashion. Mark your calendars… RECOMMENDED: The best new attractions and facilities opening in Tokyo in 2025

Brace yourselves – things are about to get intensely kawaii. From April 9 to June 21, the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi hosts the final and most expansive edition of a pink-hued exhibition that has toured Japan since 2021. Marking more than 60 years since the founding of cute character empire Sanrio, the show returns to Tokyo in an enriched version that looks back not only at the company’s history, but also at the birth and global rise of kawaii as a cultural language. Before Hello Kitty’s debut in 1974 (!), Sanrio was already exploring new forms of visual softness, warmth and emotional connection. The exhibition traces this formative period, revealing how kawaii emerged as a distinct value through early designs, products and ideas. Subsequent sections delve into the creation of the company’s multifarious characters, the enduring appeal of Kitty-chan and Sanrio’s unique philosophy of growing characters together with their fans. Central to this story is Ichigo Shinbun, the fan mag that fostered a participatory culture long before the age of social media. The exhibition culminates in a spectacular gathering of characters: over 200 appear on display, the largest number in Sanrio exhibition history, alongside a vast array of nostalgic merchandise. More than a celebration of cuteness, ‘The Beginning of Kawaii’ offers a thoughtful portrait of how Sanrio shaped, and continues to shape, a global cultural phenomenon. When at the exhibition, be sure to also check out the collab

Held at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, this ambitious exhibition reconsiders surrealism as a far-reaching cultural force that has reshaped both art and everyday life. Defined by André Breton in 1924 as a practice grounded in the ‘omnipotence of dreams’ and the pursuit of a ‘superior reality’, surrealism drew deeply on Freudian psychoanalysis to unlock the subconscious. While its dreamlike imagery and unsettling juxtapositions are widely recognised in painting and photography, the exhibition reveals how surrealist thinking extended far beyond the gallery, infiltrating advertising, fashion and interior design. Organised into six thematic sections, the show traces the movement’s expansion across media, examining how techniques such as automatism, collage and dépaysement (‘disorientation’) transformed both visual culture and lived environments. Masterpieces by leading figures of the genre, including Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Man Ray and Giorgio de Chirico, are shown alongside rare objects, posters, photographs and design works. Highlights include Magritte’s ‘The Museum of the King’, Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconic fashion designs, and striking examples of surrealist advertising and interiors. Drawing on major collections throughout Japan, the exhibition offers a timely reappraisal of surrealism’s enduring power to unsettle reality – and reimagine it.

From April 7 to July 26, the National Film Archive of Japan explores the creative intersection between cinema and graphic design with ‘The Art of Film Posters in Japan: Revisited’. While film posters in Japan were traditionally produced anonymously under the control of studios and distributors, many stand out today as striking works of graphic art in their own right. Revisiting a landmark exhibition first held in 2012, the show incorporates newly acquired works and brings together more than 90 posters produced mainly between the 1960s and the 1980s, a period of profound innovation in Japanese visual culture. The exhibition traces the evolution of the medium across four thematic sections. Early post-war posters, often painted in a dramatic illustrative style, reveal how artists sought to capture the emotional essence of films. By the 1960s, a new generation of designers, including Kiyoshi Awazu, Tadanori Yokoo and Makoto Wada, began to challenge conventional promotional aesthetics with bold experimentation. A decisive turning point came with the emergence of the Art Theatre Guild in the 1960s, which encouraged collaborations between filmmakers and avant-garde designers. Through these vivid and sometimes surprising images, the exhibition reveals another face of Japanese cinema – one that flourished beyond the screen, transforming the humble ad poster into an expressive and enduring art form.

The National Museum of Western Art’s ‘Artists by Artists in Western Prints’ explores how artists have portrayed themselves (and one another) through the medium of printmaking from the Renaissance to the modern era. Featuring nearly 50 works drawn primarily from the museum’s collection, the exhibition traces the historical evolution of the artist’s image in Western art. During the Middle Ages, creators were largely regarded as anonymous craftsmen, and their likenesses rarely appeared in the works they produced. From the 16th century onward, however, artists began to assert a new identity, aligning artistic creation with intellectual inquiry and positioning themselves as practitioners of the liberal arts. As their social status rose, so too did interest in the individual artist, giving rise to the flourishing tradition of the self-portrait. The exhibition includes prints by major figures such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso. Alongside self-portraits, you’ll encounter images of artists at work and idealised representations of the creative figure. Together, these diverse images offer a compelling reflection on how the notion of the artist has evolved, from skilled artisan to solitary, introspective creator, while inviting viewers to reconsider the enduring relationship between identity, creativity and self-expression.

Born in Kolkata in 1963 and now based in New York, Rina Banerjee has established herself as a singular voice in the global contemporary art scene. Drawing from her experience of migration and diasporic identity, Banerjee creates intricate, richly layered sculptures and installations out of everyday materials like cotton threads, feathers, shells and glass chandeliers. Her practice, informed by both engineering training and fine art education at Yale, navigates the intersections of postcolonial history, feminism and global exchange, often infusing critical perspectives with a subtle, disarming sense of humour. ‘You made me leave home…’ at Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo is an exhibition of 19 works drawn from the collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Organised as part of the foundation’s ‘Hors-les-murs’ programme, which brings major artworks to venues around the world, the exhibition marks both the 20th anniversary of the Espace Louis Vuitton and a decade of the ‘Hors-les-murs’ initiative. Spanning installation, sculpture and painting, the exhibition foregrounds Banerjee’s ongoing exploration of migration, colonial legacies and the circulation of people and objects. At its core is the monumental installation In an unnatural storm… (2008), presented publicly for the first time by the Fondation. Suspended from the ceiling in a cascading constellation of forms, the work evokes both the wonder and instability of global journeys, drawing inspiration from Jules Verne’s Around the Wo

By the early 1800s, Edo (now Tokyo) had grown into a major city with a population of over one million. Its inhabitants proudly referred to their metropolis as ‘Hana no Oedo’ or ‘Great Edo’, reflecting the prosperity and vibrant culture that defined life under the long peace of the Tokugawa shogunate. This exhibition at the newly renovated Edo-Tokyo Museum invites visitors to discover what the people of Edo valued most about their city during its greatest period of flourishing. Celebrating the museum’s reopening after nearly four years of renovation, ‘In Praise of Great Edo’ draws entirely from the institution’s extensive collection. Through approximately 160 carefully selected works, many of them displayed for the first time, the show explores the social and cultural life of Edo from multiple perspectives. The exhibition reveals a city shaped by both samurai authority and the flourishing culture of townspeople. Armour, ceremonial objects and wedding furnishings evoke the refined world of the warrior class, while prints and artefacts capture the lively atmosphere of sumo arenas, kabuki theatres and the pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara. Visitors will also encounter the dramatic realities of urban life, from the ever-present threat of fires and the rivalries among firefighting brigades to the rich intellectual exchanges among writers, artists and scholars.

Tokyo-born artist Asuka Irie has emerged as one of Japan’s most compelling contemporary printmakers, celebrated for her distinctive technique of collaging copperplate etchings into richly layered, dreamlike compositions. A graduate of Tama Art University and a recipient of both domestic and overseas training grants from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Irie has spent several years working in France, an influence visible in the poetic French titles that increasingly accompany her works. Winner of major awards including the Kyoto Print Triennale Grand Prize, she has developed a singular visual language that blends delicate draftsmanship, surreal narratives and a meticulous command of printmaking craft. This exhibition at Nihombashi Takashimaya SC is a major showcase of the artist’s recent evolution. Unveiled here for the first time is Dreamlike Confrontation, a new six-panel folding screen work depicting a tiger, created as a companion to Irie’s acclaimed 2023 dragon screen Black Clouds and Demonic Flame Dragon. Approximately 60 works will be presented, spanning early copperplate abstractions, intricate mixed-media compositions and new lithographs. Highlights include androgynous warrior figures inspired by the Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhism, Paris-themed works shaped by the artist’s years in France, and fantastical animals that oscillate between charm and menace. The exhibition also explores Irie’s fascination with Japanese tradition, from festivals to esoteric cosmology, reve

Katsushika Hokusai is all the rage in Tokyo. Last year saw several acclaimed exhibitions dive into the ukiyo-e master’s ginormous oeuvre, and the Edo native’s iconic art has also been the subject of some pretty remarkable reinterpretations lately. Next up in highlighting the printmaking genius is the National Museum of Western Art, whose exhibition ‘Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji from the Iuchi Collection’ marks the first public unveiling of this remarkable group of works placed on deposit at the museum in 2024. The exhibition showcases all 46 prints from Hokusai’s iconic series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji (c. 1830–33), alongside two additional impressions of his most beloved masterpieces, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (commonly known as ‘The Great Wave’) and Clear Day with a Southern Breeze (known as ‘Red Fuji’). You can look forward to exceptionally well-preserved impressions, including a rare indigo-printed ‘Blue Fuji’ version of Clear Day with a Southern Breeze. Bringing together all 48 works, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience Hokusai’s enduring vision of Mt Fuji within Japan’s premier museum of Western art – a fitting setting for appreciating his art’s timeless dialogue between East and West.

Focusing on the astonishing survival abilities found across the natural world, the National Museum of Nature and Science’s matter-of-factly named ‘Super Dangerous Creatures’ exhibition dissects the ‘killer techniques’ that allow predators, venomous species and even seemingly harmless animals to dominate their respective ecosystems. Presented as an exploration of a secret research laboratory, the exhibition reveals the raw power, hidden mechanisms and evolutionary ingenuity behind nature’s most formidable creatures. Through rare specimens, high-precision computer graphics, large-scale models and immersive video displays, visitors can encounter the science behind traits such as crushing strength, razor-sharp fangs, lethal toxins, electric shocks and ‘mass-attack’ behaviour. The exhibition is divided into two major zones. ‘Area A: Physical Attack Specialists’ introduces giants like the African elephant and anaconda, apex biters such as tigers and great white sharks, and species equipped with horns, claws, stingers or even biological ‘hammers’ and ‘saws’. ‘Area B: Special Attack Specialists’ spotlights venomous animals, chemical-weapon users, electric predators like the electric eel, and blood-feeding species whose danger extends to the diseases they transmit. Designed to ignite scientific curiosity and reveal the astonishing depth of life on Earth, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to confront the true power of the natural world up close – safely and through the lens of s

March 25 sees the area surrounding Tokyo Tower transform into a hub of high-speed excitement with the arrival of the F1 Tokyo Fan Festival. The official promotional event for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit on March 29, the one-day festival invites fans to step directly into the world of F1 through a wide range of immersive experiences. The event comes at a pivotal moment for the sport. Formula 1 entered a new technological era in 2026, with sweeping regulatory changes introducing redesigned aerodynamics and next-generation power units. Against this backdrop, the festival offers visitors an opportunity to explore both the future and the heritage of motorsport. The venue will be divided into three themed areas (Front Zone, Park Zone and Museum Zone), each highlighting different aspects of the F1 universe. Among the standout attractions is a display of the 2026-season Aston Martin AMR26, giving fans a rare chance to see a current-spec machine at close range. Historic cars will also be showcased, including Honda’s first Grand Prix-winning car, the legendary Honda RA272, and the iconic McLaren MP4/5, famously associated with Ayrton Senna, in which visitors can sit for a photo op. Adding to the experience are interactive activities, notably a free driving simulator allowing participants to tackle the Suzuka Circuit as if they were professional drivers. Talks exploring the behind-the-scenes world of Formula 1 will also be held throughout the day. The entertainme

Kanzan Shimomura (1873–1930) was a pivotal figure in the development of modern Japanese painting. Born into a family of Noh performers who served the Kii Tokugawa samurai family for generations, he inherited a deep sensitivity to classical aesthetics from an early age. He entered the newly established Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko (now Tokyo University of the Arts) as part of its inaugural class. Later teaching there himself, Kanzan, as he was known, resigned alongside fellow luminary Tenshin Okakura and helped found the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute), positioning himself at the forefront of efforts to redefine Japanese painting in the modern era. ‘Life, Art and Society’ at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo brings together some 150 of Kanzan’s works, tracing his artistic evolution from his mastery of classical techniques and yamato-e traditions to the broadened perspective he gained during two formative years in Britain. Working closely with contemporaries such as Taikan Yokoyama and Shunso Hishida, Kanzan sought a pictorial language suited to a modernising Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912). The exhibition examines his research into classical Japanese and Chinese painting, his Noh-inspired works, and his connections with political and financial elites. Together, these facets reveal an artist striving to create paintings that would live in dialogue with individuals and society, going beyond mere self-expression.

The historic Shiseido Gallery presents a tribute to the visionary graphic designer Masayoshi Nakajo. Five years after his passing, the exhibition revisits Nakajo’s long and influential relationship with the cosmetics company through around 200 works spanning more than four decades. Nakajo played a pivotal role in shaping Shiseido’s visual culture, producing posters, packaging and advertising designs that blended playful experimentation with refined elegance. Visitors will encounter iconic graphics created for Shiseido Parlour, including biscuit packaging, wrapping papers and promotional posters, alongside original drawings shown publicly for the first time. A central focus of the exhibition is Nakajo’s work as art director of Hanatsubaki, Shiseido’s influential cultural magazine. A special reading corner allows visitors to browse some 350 issues published between 1982 and 2011, offering insight into his distinctive editorial approach, where typography, illustration and photography interact in dynamic visual rhythms. Known for his free-hand compositions and intuitive use of form, Nakajo once said he always chose ‘the design most likely to sing’. This exhibition captures that spirit, where letters become melody, images move like choreography, and graphic design reveals its expressive, almost musical potential.

Few artists can lay claim to an aesthetic as singular as Hajime Sorayama’s. The veteran illustrator and designer’s concoction of sensuous forms and gleaming metallic surfaces is immediately recognisable, whether in Sony’s original Aibo robot-dog, on the covers of Aerosmith albums or in the fashion collections of Thierry Mugler. Through ventures like these and, above all, his signature Sexy Robot (1983–) series, the Ehime native has left a lasting imprint on science fiction, design and pop culture. That still-evolving legacy can now be explored in stimulating detail at Creative Museum Tokyo, where an exhibition titled ‘Sorayama: Light, Reflection, Transparency –Tokyo–’ is on show until May 31. The most extensive Sorayama retrospective to date, the display is the Japan version of an exhibition first presented in Shanghai and traces nearly half a century of its protagonist’s artistic exploration through paintings, sculptures, design drawings and immersive installations. From robot dogs to rock ‘n’ roll Photo: Sébastien Raineri ‘Light, Reflection, Transparency’ begins by probing the origins of Sorayama’s imagery. Among the highlight exhibits is the first robot painting he produced in 1978 for a whisky advertisement, marking the birth of the aesthetic that would later define his career. From this starting point, visitors encounter an expanding universe of robotic figures: humanoids, animals, dinosaurs, and fantastical creatures that suggest a speculative future in which biologic

Thanks to the world-famous work of artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige, ukiyo-e woodblock prints are typically considered an art form distinctive to the Edo period (1603–1868) – the age of shoguns and samurai, the quintessential ‘old Japan’. But ukiyo-e did not end with the fall of warrior rule. Instead, the medium evolved in fascinating directions between the late 19th and early 20th century, when Japanese printmakers produced a remarkable oeuvre of works greatly influenced by their country’s sudden turn towards modernity. Some of the greatest masterpieces of this period can be viewed now at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Marunouchi, where an exhibition titled ‘From Kiyochika to Hasui: Ukiyo-e and Shin-Hanga Woodblock Prints from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art’ is showing until May 24. Built around some 130 prints, most of them borrowed from the renowned Robert O Muller Collection at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC, the display explores a pivotal moment in Japanese visual culture: the twilight of ukiyo-e and its reinvention as shin-hanga. At its heart lies a tale of transformation; a story of how traditional woodblock printing adapted to photography, modernisation and global exchange at a dramatic juncture in Japanese history. Kiyochika Kobayashi and the light of a vanishing Edo Photo: Sébastien Raineri The exhibition opens with the work of Kiyochika Kobayashi (1847–1915), who is often called ‘the last ukiyo-e artist’. A samurai who

In a near future where the boundary between human and machine has become blurred beyond recognition, Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg operative, leads an elite public security unit tasked with combating cybercrime and terrorism in the fictional Kansai metropolis of New Port City. That, in a nutshell, is the premise of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell, a franchise that since 1989 has gone from an obscure manga serialised in Young Magazine Pirate Edition to a global cultural reference point influencing cinema, contemporary art and digital culture as a whole. Revered for its dense visual detail, speculative technological realism and philosophical depth, Shirow’s creation hit the big time by way of multiple animated adaptations – from Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 original to Innocence and later series such as Stand Alone Complex – that would redefine the aesthetics and intellectual ambitions of anime worldwide. The entire anime history of one of Japan’s most influential sci-fi franchises can now be explored at Tokyo Node. Until April 5 2026, the Toranomon Hills venue hosts ‘Ghost in the Shell: The Exhibition’, the first major showcase to offer a comprehensive review of Ghost in the Shell as a cultural phenomenon. Reframing the question of humanity Conceived as a cross-sectional exploration, the exhibition brings together manga, animation, installation art, architecture and cutting-edge technology to reexamine a question that has defined Ghost in the Shell for more than three decades: w

Just across the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge from Kobe, Awaji Island is a place that invites you to slow down. The largest island in the Seto Inland Sea, it’s home to some 130,000 people, but offers a striking change of pace from the bustle on the mainland. I came to Awaji curious to learn about a long-running and celebrated project to enliven the charming island. Since 2008, the staffing company Pasona Group has been reshaping Awaji by drawing on local resources and the beauty of the natural environment. The revitalisation project has enabled the island to build on its latent strengths and shape them into places that reward the curious traveller. The results of this undertaking become clear once you’re on the ground, enjoying vegetables pulled from nearby fields, admiring a gorgeous sunset over the Inland Sea – or, on a less tranquil note, coming face to face with the King of the Monsters himself. From forest paths to pop-cultural realms   Photo: Pasona Group. Godzilla: TM & © TOHO CO., LTD.Ziplining into Godzilla’s maw at Nijigen no Mori   On Awaji, play becomes part of the landscape. The island’s offbeat properties are on full display at Nijigen no Mori, an immense open-air amusement park where narrative settles into nature. It was here that I found myself facing a colossal Godzilla, frozen mid-destruction, its scale both absurd and exhilarating. Visitors are drafted into a fictional intervention force, propelled through the monster’s gaping jaws or alongside its massive silhoue

『ストリートファイター』『バイオハザード』『ロックマン』『モンスターハンター』――世界のゲームカルチャーへの影響力という点で、カプコンに並び称されるスタジオはそう多くない。 1983年に大阪で創業したカプコンは、この40年以上にわたり、次々と時代を象徴するフランチャイズを生み出してきた。その作品群は、家庭用ゲーム機やパソコンの枠を超え、映画やファッション、さらにはポップカルチャーの言語表現にまで影響を及ぼしている。 最先端の技術、引き込まれるストーリーテリング、そして記憶に残る世界観とキャラクターデザインを一貫して融合させてきたカプコン。その創造のDNAをひもとく「大カプコン展」が、2026年2月22日（日）まで「CREATIVE MUSEUM TOKYO」で開催中だ。ビデオゲームに少しでも関心のある人なら、ぜひ足を運びたい。 © CAPCOM 革新と想像力の軌跡 本展はすでに大阪、名古屋、鳥取で大きな反響を呼び、東京開催後は新潟へ巡回予定。カプコンの歩みをたどると同時に、表現としてのビデオゲームの歴史にも光を当てる。ノスタルジックな回顧展でありながら、ゲーム文化の未来を見据えた祝祭でもあり、長年のファンから初めて触れる来場者まで、幅広い層に響く構成だ。 「世界を魅了するゲームクリエイション」をサブタイトルに掲げる本展。想像力の力やゲームテクノロジーの進化、そしてピクセル時代のヒーローから最先端のビジュアルストーリーテリングに至るまで、カプコン作品が持つ普遍的な魅力を没入型展示で体感できる。 ROUND 1：歴史、キャラクター、象徴的アート 「カプコン ゲームクロニクル」のセクションでは、リュウ、春麗、レオン・S・ケネディらお馴染みのキャラクターが新規アニメーションで登場する「キャラクターパレード」の映像からスタート。鮮烈な演出が、五感で体験する展示の幕開けを告げる。 Characters on Parade © CAPCOM 「ヒストリー」は、同社の成長とゲーム業界の進化を重ね合わせて紹介。初期ハードウエアやゲームカートリッジ、コンセプトスケッチなどを通して、地方スタジオから世界的クリエーティブ集団へと発展した軌跡をたどる。 Posters & key art © CAPCOM さらに、貴重なデザインシートや設定資料、制作メモにより、キャラクター誕生の裏側にも迫っていく。有名キャラクターの初期のビジュアル案が並び、その背後にある緻密な考え方を知ることができる。また、オリジナルのメインアートやポスターは、それぞれの時代の空気感や精神を鮮やかに映し出す。 ROUND 2：テクノロジーとアイディアの融合 「テクノロジーとアイデアの進化」では、限られた技術環境の中でいかに創意工夫がなされてきたかを紹介。また「ドット絵時代の創意工夫」では、1980年代の技術的制約を示すとともに、『ロックマン』など初期ゲームで発揮された驚くべき工夫と創意を体感できる。 来場者がタブレットを使って、アイコニックなドット絵を描く体験ができる「カプコンピクセルラボ」も登場。絵心がなくても短いミニゲーム形式で楽しめる仕組みで、これは初期ゲーム開発の手軽さと創造的チャレンジに対する遊び心あるオマージュでもある。 Capcom Pixel Art Lab © CAPCOM このほか、来場者の表情をリアルタイムでキャラクターに反映する「フェイシャルトラッキングミラー」や、野菜を折る音など意外な素材から効果音を生み出すサウンド制作展示「カプコン流 効果音メイキング」など、

Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Mega Man, Monster Hunter and more – when impact on global gaming culture is used as the yardstick, few studios bear mentioning in the same breath as Capcom. Founded in Osaka in 1983, the company has birthed one seminal franchise after the other over the past four decades. Its titles have extended their reach far beyond TV and computer screens, influencing film, fashion, and even the vocabulary of popular culture. Throughout its history, Capcom has demonstrated remarkable consistency in its ability to combine cutting-edge technology, captivating storytelling, and unforgettable worlds and character design. Showcasing all these aspects – and so much more – the ‘Capcom Creation’ exhibition, on at Creative Museum Tokyo until February 22 2026, explores the studio’s creative DNA through a display that makes essential viewing for anyone with even a passing interesting in video games. © CAPCOM A legacy of innovation and imagination Having already drawn huge crowds in Osaka, Nagoya and Tottori, and slated to continue on to Niigata following its Tokyo run, the exhibition traces the legacy of Capcom as well as the broader history of video games as an expressive art form. It’s both a nostalgic retrospective and a forward-looking celebration of gaming culture, designed to resonate with lifelong fans and curious newcomers alike. Subtitled ‘Moving Hearts Across the Globe’, the immersive exhibition is a tribute to the power of imagination, the evolution of gam

Set against the vibrant, dangerous backdrop of 1980s Shinjuku, Tsukasa Hojo’s manga City Hunter defined urban cool for an entire generation of readers. Seamlessly blending hard-boiled action, comedy and emotional depth, the series ran from 1985 to 1991, driven by the chaotic but intimate bond between ‘sweeper’ Ryo Saeba and his partner Kaori Makimura. City Hunter elevated Tsukasa Hojo as one of Japan’s most influential and stylistically distinctive manga artists. Now, 40 years after its serialisation, the franchise boasts more than 50 million copies in circulation, countless adaptations, and a legacy that continues to define the genre. Celebrating that four-decade history, the Ueno Royal Museum presents ‘Forever, City Hunter’ – the largest exhibition ever devoted to the franchise. Running from November 22 to December 28, the display is both a commemoration and a homecoming, an opportunity for long-time admirers and new fans alike to rediscover the pulse-pounding pace and iconic characters that made City Hunter a cultural milestone. A monumental showcase of original art Photo: Sébastien Raineri At the heart of the exhibition are more than 400 original drawings – the most extensive display of Hojo’s hand-drawn work ever assembled. These reveal the precision and expressive power of his linework: the sharp contrasts of night-time shootouts, the swirling motion of chases across neon-lit Tokyo, and the subtle softness in Kaori’s expressions as her relationship with Ryo evolves. S

Casual and die-hard Eva fans alike: set course for Tokyo City View now. The lofty exhibition space on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower is currently showing ‘All of Evangelion’, the most extensive showcase ever devoted to the franchise. Marking three decades since Neon Genesis Evangelion first appeared on television in 1995, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the evolution of one of the most influential works in contemporary Japanese animation through the production materials, design documents and visual experiments that shaped its striking world. Here’s what to expect at the show, which is set to run until January 12 2026. Entering the world of Evangelion Photo: Sébastien Raineri | © khara/Project Eva © khara ©1997 khara/Project EVA After stepping through the venue’s atmospheric entrance, the first thing you’ll see is a huge Evangelion Unit-01 figure standing against the panoramic backdrop of Tokyo. Illuminated with a special light arrangement exclusive to the Tokyo venue, this introductory space establishes the exhibition’s tone: a celebration of scale, craftsmanship and visual imagination. From here, the exhibition unfolds chronologically, tracing the development of the franchise from its earliest conceptual foundations to the expansive, technologically innovative productions of recent years. Photo: Sébastien Raineri | © khara/Project Eva © khara ©1997 khara/Project EVA Beyond the giant Eva, the prologue section introduces the earliest phase of creati

Roppongi has long balanced two identities: a hub of world-class museums and cultural spaces by day, and a vibrant party destination after dark. Every autumn, Roppongi Art Night fuses these two sides into a citywide festival of creativity. Held from September 26 to 28, the 14th edition of the event will see streets, plazas, museums and shopping complexes transformed into open-air galleries and performance venues. Themed ‘A Festival of City, Art, and Future’, the 2025 festival features more than 50 programmes by around 30 artists, ranging from installations and performances to video pieces, digital art and workshops. This year’s edition is especially notable for highlighting the latest in Korean art – a focus chosen to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. Contributing everything from extensive public installations to participatory performances, Korean artists will bring a fresh perspective on urban life, identity and tradition to the capital. Across Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown, the National Art Center, Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 Design Sight and beyond, you can expect an eclectic journey through art that reflects on the present while imagining possible futures. Here are five highlights not to miss. Digital visions of a dizzying future ‘Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0° Receiver’, 2024. Photo: Ayoung Kim At Roppongi Hills Arena, a 13-metre-wide LED screen will showcase Seoul-based artist Ayoung Kim’s dazzling video install

Few would argue against the late Leiji Matsumoto as one of Japan’s most visionary manga artists. Best known for sci-fi epics like Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Captain Harlock, the Fukuoka native conjured up incredibly intricate worlds to convey a deeply humanistic message. This summer, the master storyteller’s seven-decade career and the creative cosmos he envisioned can be explored in great detail at Tokyo City View, where ‘Leiji Matsumoto Exhibition: A Creative Journey’ is on show until September 7. ©Leiji Matsumoto/Leijisha | Photo: Sébastien Raineri The first large-scale retrospective dedicated to Matsumoto, who passed away in 2023, the exhibition traces the evolution of an artist whose pen moved across space and time with unshakable conviction and emotional resonance. Among the highlights on display is a trove of original drawings discovered in the artist’s studio after his death, each a testament to his precision, poetic imagination and narrative mastery. These hand-drawn works, some shown for the first time, allow you to rediscover Matsumoto as both a craftsman and a dreamer. Here’s what else to look forward to at the exhibition. The departure platform in the sky Before stepping into the world of Leiji Matsumoto’s imagination, you’re invited to begin your travels in the sky. High above the city, a familiar scene awaits: an evocative recreation of the departure platform from Galaxy Express 999. ©Leiji Matsumoto/Leijisha | Photo: Sébast

From the dreamlike forests of My Neighbor Totoro to the bustling bathhouse of Spirited Away, Studio Ghibli has enchanted audiences around the world with unforgettable visuals as much as with its acclaimed poetic storytelling. Over the four decades since Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki co-founded the studio back in 1985, Ghibli has cultivated an imagery so recognisable that it’s come to be considered a style all unto its own – as the recent brouhaha over AI-generated Ghibli art proved. This summer, Miyazaki and co’s magical universe takes physical form at Tennozu Isle, where Warehouse Terrada B&C Hall is hosting the Studio Ghibli 3D Sculpture Exhibition until September 23. Both a meticulous exploration of iconic Ghibli scenes and a celebration of the international bonds that have carried the studio’s stories far beyond Japan’s shores, the show offers an unmissable opportunity to see, feel and experience some of your favourite Ghibli moments in an all-new format. A new dimension of animation Photo: Sébastien RaineriThe bakery from ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ The centrepiece of the exhibition is an extraordinary collection of three-dimensional models and sculptures, each capturing a key scene from some of Ghibli’s most iconic films. Titles such as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, Pom Poko and My Neighbor Totoro come alive in everything from miniature landscapes to life-sized recreations, allowing you to step into spaces once confined to the tw

Seventy years after the King of the Monsters first emerged from the depths of the Pacific, Godzilla returns to Tokyo by way of a sweeping, boundary-defying art exhibition at the Mori Arts Center Gallery. Running until June 29, ‘Godzilla The Art Exhibition’ marks the fifth instalment of the celebrated Godzilla: The Art series and one of the most ambitious artistic reinterpretations of the cinematic icon to date. The exhibition employs contemporary art to showcase Godzilla as a mirror for modern anxieties, a symbol of cyclical destruction and rebirth, and an evolving artistic archetype capable of speaking across media, cultures and generations. It’s also an absolute blast, providing a monster-sized serving of material for die-hard Big G fans and lizard laypeople alike to geek out over. Art beyond the silver screen Ever since making its first cinematic appearance in 1954, Godzilla has loomed large as a vessel for cultural and historical tensions. Born from the trauma of nuclear warfare and inspired by the real-world fallout of hydrogen bomb testing, the irradiated lizard initially symbolised Japan’s post-war fears. But over time, this figure has taken on new shapes: protector, anti-hero, metaphor for environmental catastrophe. Photo: Maki Matsumoto | Haroshi "GODZILLA" TM ＆ © TOHO CO., LTD. © HAROSHI Courtesy of NANZUKA | Roby dwi Antono "Godzi-lab" TM ＆ © TOHO CO., LTD. © Roby Dwi Antono Courtesy of NANZUKA ‘Godzilla The Art Exhibition’ makes it clear that there’s no single a