Sébastien Raineri

Twenty-four years in, Art Osaka shows no signs of slowing down. Japan’s oldest contemporary art fair reinvented itself in 2026 with a move to Grand Green Osaka, the gleaming development that has rapidly become one of the city’s most talked-about cultural destinations. The relocation to the Umekita district, a neighbourhood still finding its identity amid cranes and ambition, feels less like a statement of intent, and more like Art Osaka staking its claim on the future. As has been the case for several years now, the fair ran across two venues and two distinct personalities. The Galleries Section occupied the fourth and fifth floors of Grand Green’s Congress Square from May 29 to 31, and brought together 60 galleries from six countries and 15 cities – the most international line-up in the fair’s history. Meanwhile, the Expanded Section, which opened a day earlier on May 28 and ran through June 1, returned to its spiritual home at Creative Center Osaka, the atmospheric former shipyard in Kitakagaya whose cavernous industrial spaces have long proved irresistible to artists working at scale. Together, the two venues held the commercial and the experimental in productive tension, giving equal weight to the gallery booth and the site-specific installation, as well as to the established collector and the first-time visitor still working out their thoughts. RECOMMENDED: 12 best things to do in Nakanoshima: museums, restaurants, coffee and more

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

Dafi Kühne works at the intersection of graphic design, craftsmanship and mechanical performance. At a moment when digital production and AI-generated imagery increasingly dominate visual culture, the Swiss designer has devoted himself to the tactile rigor of letterpress printing, transforming a centuries-old technique into a radically contemporary form of expression. This summer, Ginza Graphic Gallery showcases his distinctive process with ‘Dafi Kühne: Constructing Posters’, on view from July 14 to August 26. Far from nostalgic revivalism, Kühne’s practice pushes analogue printing into unexpected territory. Working from his studio in the Swiss Alps, he operates nearly forty tons of presses, metal type, woodblocks and custom-built tools to produce monumental posters by hand. His works often reach the scale of Swiss street posters, demanding an intense physical engagement with the machinery itself. Combining traditional techniques with self-engineered modifications and digital experimentation, Kühne treats printing not simply as reproduction, but as a performative and sculptural act. The exhibition traces this intricate process from conception to finished object. Alongside completed posters, visitors encounter printing blocks, typographic elements, handmade linocuts and material fragments that reveal the labour embedded within each image. The result is a meditation on the enduring expressive power of the human hand in an increasingly immaterial age, and an immersive exploratio

Summer is here, and so is the National Museum of Nature and Science’s ‘Special Exhibition: Super Amazing World of Life’, a big-time showcase created in collaboration with NHK’s long-running wildlife documentary series Darwin ga kita! (‘Darwin Has Come!’). Combining scientific research with spectacular natural-history filmmaking, the exhibition explores the extraordinary ways in which animals have adapted to an ever-changing planet. Since the birth of the Earth, life has evolved in response to dramatic environmental shifts, developing remarkable physical traits and survival strategies that have enabled species to thrive across diverse ecosystems. Centring on the animal kingdom, the exhibition examines these evolutionary adaptations through the museum’s extensive collection of specimens, the latest scientific findings and immersive audiovisual presentations. A particular highlight is the partnership with NHK’s acclaimed nature programme, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026. Having documented wildlife in more than 70 countries and captured over 160 world-first observations, the series contributes a wealth of breathtaking footage that vividly illustrates animal behavior in the wild. These films complement the museum’s scientific displays, bringing evolutionary processes and survival strategies to life with exceptional immediacy. Blending research, museum collections and cutting-edge wildlife cinematography, ‘Special Exhibition: Super Amazing World of Life’ offers visito

Alongside the rise of humanism, classical mythology regained prominence in 15th- and 16th-century Italy. Stories of ancient gods and heroes were no longer viewed as relics of the past, but were reinterpreted as allegories conveying moral, philosophical and political meanings. As copperplate printing spread across the country, sophisticated images illustrating these tales circulated widely among educated audiences, helping to shape the visual language of court culture. The National Museum of Western Art’s ‘Myth, Allegory, and Celebration: Print Works and the Courts of Italy from the Renaissance to the Baroque’ explores the rich visual culture that flourished in the courts of Renaissance and Baroque Italy. Showcasing approximately 50 prints from the museum’s collection, the exhibition examines how mythology, allegory and public spectacle became intertwined within the intellectual and political life of the period. ‘Myth, Allegory, and Celebration’ also highlights decorative prints used as models for artists and craftsmen, revealing the role of printmaking in disseminating artistic ideas across regions. Particular attention is given to prints documenting court festivities, especially those of Medici Florence, where mythological imagery, heraldic symbols and elaborate celebrations projected political authority and cultural prestige.  Through these remarkable works, visitors are invited to discover how printmaking served as a powerful instrument for shaping identity, memory and spe

Revered for his ability to capture the human condition in all its complexity, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), the Dutch master whose genius extended across painting, drawing and printmaking, revolutionised the medium of etching, transforming it into a vehicle of artistic expression equal to painting. The Leiden native’s mastery of light, shadow and texture, combined with a deep empathy for his subjects, continues to define the essence of the Baroque spirit. The National Museum of Western Art’s ‘Rembrandt the Etcher: His Challenges and His Impact’ – a special exhibition co-organised with the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam – brings together two notable collections. It traces Rembrandt’s relentless experimentation with etching techniques, revealing how he expanded the expressive potential of printmaking. The exhibition’s second half explores Rembrandt’s enduring influence on later generations of artists, from Goya and Whistler to Matisse, who rediscovered his innovations centuries later. Featuring artworks as well as rare books and drawings, the display celebrates the timeless impact of Rembrandt’s art and his transformative vision as a printmaker.

Emerging in the wake of the Margaret Thatcher era, the Young British Artists (YBAs) and their contemporaries embraced shock, irreverence and entrepreneurial flair. While the YBA label (applied after the landmark 1988 ‘Freeze’ exhibition organised by Damien Hirst) was often contested, it came to define a generation that reimagined what art could be. Painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation all became tools for probing themes of identity, consumer culture and shifting social structures.  ‘YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection’ is the first exhibition in Japan devoted exclusively to British art of the 1990s. It debuted in Tokyo earlier this year before arriving at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art. Featuring around 90 works by some 50 artists, the show captures a turbulent and transformative period in British culture, when politics, society and art collided to spark a wave of radical experimentation. Highlights include works by Hirst, Tracey Emin, Lubaina Himid, Wolfgang Tillmans and Julian Opie, alongside others who reshaped contemporary art on a global stage. More than a retrospective, ‘YBA & Beyond’ offers a vivid portrait of 1990s Britain, an era when art intersected with music, fashion and subculture, leaving a legacy that continues to resonate today.

A master of immersive installations that merge video, sculpture, sound, light and language, Tony Oursler is one of the most influential multimedia artists of his generation. He’s been a pioneering figure in video projection and media-based art since the 1980s, probing the uneasy intersections between technology, psychology, belief systems and contemporary society. Drawing equally from pop culture, science, conspiracy theories, religion and the paranormal, Oursler’s work gives form to the invisible forces shaping modern life, be they data streams, surveillance or spirits, through a poetic blend of humour and unease. ‘Tony Oursler: Tech/Gnosis – Magic, Media, Art’ at Tokyo Node is the artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Japan, offering a comprehensive survey of Oursler’s practice from the early 1990s to the present. Key works such as Private (1994–1997), Specular (2021) and the psychologically charged installation Lock 2, 4, 6 (2010) are shown alongside previously unpublished projects and extensive archival materials drawn from Oursler’s personal collection of more than 3,000 items related to science, magic and unidentified phenomena. A highlight is the world premiere of Empty (2000), a long-gestating collaboration with David Bowie and composer Glenn Branca, realised here for the first time. The exhibition also debuts Chimera (2026), a monumental, site-specific work conceived for Tokyo Node’s soaring 15-metre-high space, where mythical hybrid creatures appear to float

Harajuku’s Ota Memorial Museum of Art dives into the playful, uncanny and fantastical side of ukiyo-e with ‘Animals & Monsters: Cute, Scary, and a Little Weird’. Bringing together 140 works shown across two exhibition periods, the show explores the extraordinary menagerie that populated the imagination of Edo-period (1603–1868) artists, from beloved household pets to bizarre supernatural creatures and delightfully absurd hybrids. Cats and dogs appear throughout the exhibition as affectionate companions, while foxes, elephants and octopuses take on strangely human gestures and occupations. One highlight is the museum’s rich collection of works featuring anthropomorphic animals, including famously humorous scenes of cats relaxing in soba restaurants, bathhouses and eel shops. Elsewhere, visitors encounter charming yokai such as dancing bakeneko, alongside more unsettling figures including demons and giant spiders. The exhibition also ventures into the delightfully irrational territory of Edo fantasy. Mythical beasts assembled from multiple zodiac animals, fish with human faces, animated medicines and coins, and tiger-stone hybrids reveal the boundless inventiveness of ukiyo-e artists and their fascination with the strange and surreal. Around one fifth of the works on display are newly acquired pieces being shown publicly for the first time, making the exhibition appealing even to longtime followers of the museum’s celebrated yokai- and animal-themed shows. Balancing humour, hor

The Setagaya Art Museum’s ‘Shintaro Tanaka: Far Removed from Meaning’ is a rare retrospective dedicated to one of the most distinctive figures of postwar Japanese avant-garde art. Spanning nearly six decades of creative activity, the exhibition revisits the career of Shintaro Tanaka (1940–2019), tracing his relentless pursuit of new artistic possibilities beyond personal expression and conventional meaning. Tanaka arrived in Tokyo from Hitachi shortly before turning nineteen and soon joined the radical Neo-Dada movement alongside Ushio Shinohara. After this brief but influential period, he dramatically transformed his practice, attracting attention with works based on simple forms, including heart motifs and neon installations. During these years he also developed a close friendship with designer Shiro Kuramata, whose influence remained significant throughout Tanaka’s life. While Tanaka went on to represent Japan at major international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, he eventually withdrew from Tokyo’s art world, relocating his studio to Hitachi in search of a more introspective environment. Drawing primarily from works preserved in the artist’s studio, the exhibition features nearly 40 pieces, ranging from rarely seen paintings from 1970 to late abstract works and the metal drawings he continued producing until his death. Archival materials and studio documents further illuminate his evolving practice. Rather than adhering to a single style, Tanaka repeatedly rei

What might the present look like when viewed from fifty years in the future? This provocative question lies at the heart of ‘Spectrum 2076 AD – Conscious Entities of the Coming World’, an ambitious group exhibition at Gyre Gallery in Omotesando. Curated by Takayo Iida, director of the Sgùrr Dearg Institute for Sociology of the Arts, the show brings together works by seven contemporary artists to create a speculative vision of the year 2076. Imagining a post-human future shaped by climate catastrophe, technological singularity and environmental transformation, the exhibition functions as an ‘ideological laboratory’ that examines contemporary existence through a retrospective lens. Drawing on concepts ranging from Jacques Derrida’s hauntology to William James’s stream of consciousness, the project explores both the visible spectrum of light and the metaphorical spectres that linger between memory, technology and perception. Visitors are immersed in a sensory environment anchored by Ken Ikeda’s atmospheric soundscape, while each artist contributes a distinct vision of future consciousness. Mariko Mori proposes cosmic transcendence, Kohei Nawa transforms matter into fluid waves of perception, and Emi Kusano employs artificial intelligence to generate memories of histories that never occurred. Together, the works blur boundaries between reality and fiction, materiality and data, and presence and absence. At once philosophical and deeply immersive, ‘Spectrum 2076 AD’ offers a compe

The Pola Museum of Art celebrates two milestones with ‘The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze’, a large-scale exhibition marking both the museum’s 25th anniversary and the centenary of the death of Claude Monet (1840–1926). Running from June 17 2026 to April 7 2027, the exhibition brings together all nineteen Monet paintings from the museum’s renowned collection, the largest trove of the Impressionist master’s works in Asia, alongside works by 18 contemporary artists from Japan and abroad. Spanning Monet’s career from his early landscapes to his celebrated Water Lilies, ‘The New Vision’ places the artist’s works in dialogue with contemporary artistic practices. Featuring artists including Lucas Arruda, Pierre Huyghe, Roni Horn, Wolfgang Tillmans, Fujiko Nakaya, Kapwani Kiwanga and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, the exhibition explores the theme of vision through a wide range of media, from photography, installation and sound to performance and environmental works. Many artists are being introduced to Japanese museum audiences for the first time, while several new commissions created specifically around Monet’s legacy also make their debut. Extending beyond the galleries into the museum’s lobby and the surrounding forests of Hakone, the exhibition transforms the entire site into a landscape of visual discovery. By bringing together Monet’s enduring vision and the perspectives of contemporary artists, ‘The New Vision’ offers a compelling reflection on how we see, experienc

The Tokyo National Museum’s ‘Before the Jomon Era’ marks the 80th anniversary of one of the most significant discoveries in Japanese archaeology: the identification of the Japanese Paleolithic period. Held from June 16 to August 23, the exhibition revisits the groundbreaking moment when independent archaeologist Tadahiro Aizawa uncovered stone tools at the Iwajuku site in Gunma prefecture, fundamentally transforming understanding of Japan’s earliest human history. Before the discovery at Iwajuku in 1946, it was widely believed that Japanese history began with the Jomon period (11,000–500 BCE). Excavations conducted in 1949 and 1950, however, revealed stone tools embedded within Pleistocene volcanic ash layers, proving that human communities had inhabited the archipelago tens of thousands of years before the appearance of pottery. This discovery established the existence of a Japanese Paleolithic culture and opened a new chapter in archaeological research. The exhibition centres on Aizawa’s original finds, including the celebrated obsidian spear point that first led him to suspect the presence of Paleolithic settlements. Visitors will also encounter important artifacts excavated from Iwajuku, many designated as significant cultural properties, alongside photographs and documents tracing the site’s historic investigation. Broadening its scope beyond Japan, the exhibition presents remarkable Paleolithic tools from Europe and Asia, placing Japanese discoveries within a global con

The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum’s ‘Lucie Rie: Elegant Vessels Fusing East and West’ is a major retrospective dedicated to one of the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in Vienna in 1902, Rie developed her artistic vision at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts or School of Applied Arts) before establishing herself as a ceramic artist. Forced to flee Austria in 1938, she rebuilt her life and career in London, where she created a distinctive body of work characterized by elegant wheel-thrown forms, delicate incised and inlaid decorations, and luminous glazes. Combining precision, experimentation and extraordinary sensitivity to form, Rie’s vessels embody a rare balance of strength and grace. This exhibition marks the first large-scale survey of her work in Japan in nearly a decade and brings together outstanding examples from Japanese collections, including works from the renowned Iuchi Collection. The exhibition traces Rie’s artistic evolution from her early years in Vienna to the height of her career in Britain. It also explores her connections with key figures such as Josef Hoffmann, Bernard Leach, Hans Coper and Shoji Hamada, revealing how dialogues between European modernism and East Asian ceramic traditions shaped her creative practice. Presented throughout the museum’s celebrated Art Deco Main Building and Annex, the exhibition engenders a compelling conversation between Rie’s elegant vessels and the refined architecture of th

With the doom, gloom and dampness of rainy season fast approaching, June is the ideal month to explore Tokyo’s many great (and reliably air-conditioned) art museums and galleries. There’s a packed slate of big-name exhibitions going on in the city right now, from Ron Mueck’s showcase of disturbingly lifelike sculptures and giant skulls at the Mori Museum to a love letter to a certain 50-year-old caterpillar, but also an exciting array of smaller blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shows worth seeking out. Here are our five top picks for the month: an eclectic mix bringing together cutting-edge motion graphics, high fashion, photography as craft and creepy creatures from Japanese folklore. Photo: Hitohata Inc.Yokai Immersive Experience Exhibition Yokai Immersive Experience Exhibition Warehouse Terrada, showing until June 28 Enter the imaginative realm of Japanese mythology at Warehouse Terrada’s digital art exhibit, where humorous demons, spirits and supernatural monsters from ancient folklore are brought to life using cutting-edge 3D graphics and projection mapping technology. Realistically recreated oni ogres, tengu goblins and duck-like kappa river sprites seemingly appear right in front of you, while another section invites you to admire traditional ukiyo-e prints of yokai by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the greatest masters of the form. F1 Las Vegas GP LEGO Sphere takeover / Motion Graphics / 2025Kota Iguchi: Motion Graphics Kota Iguchi: Motion Graphics Ginza Graphic Gallery, showi

Studio Ghibli is a cultural phenomenon, with its heartfelt, beautifully crafted anime amassing legions of fans around the world. In recent years, the Ghibli Universe has leapt off the screen into tangible experiences, much to the delight of fans. There’s the sprawling Ghibli Park in Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park. At the same time, Japan has seen several travelling exhibitions offering deep dives into the studio's creative process and notable themes in the Ghibli Universe, as well as interactive ways for fans to engage with their favourite anime. The good news is, there are two brand new Ghibli exhibitions coming to Osaka and Kyoto in the second half of the year. The Ghibli Park Exhibition in Osaka will bring some of the Aichi park’s most iconic attractions to the city. The Kyoto show, on the other hand, will be more contemplative in nature, as it explores the connection between Hayao Miyazaki’s 'The Boy and the Heron' and the philosophy of Zen. Tickets for Osaka are now available online. Photo: Ghibli ParkA 'Porco Rosso' set piece from a previous Ghibli exhibition Ghibli Park Exhibition, Osaka July 18–September 26 A continuation of the hit ‘Ghibli Park and Ghibli Exhibition’ which toured ten venues across Japan, the new ‘Ghibli Park Exhibition’ will highlight the iconic park’s current state. This, too, will be a travelling show, kicking off in Osaka before moving to other cities in the country. Ghibli Park Exhibition will be, for most parts, interactive and experientia

桜、古寺のシルエット、柔らかな黄金色の光――春の京都はいつも映画のワンシーンのようである。そしてそこに加わるのが「KYOTOGRAPHIE」だ。これまで14回の開催を経て、この古都を世界の写真シーンにおける最も魅力的な目的地の一つへと押し上げてきた。 会期は2026年5月17日（日）まで。これまでで最も刺激的なテーマ「EDGE」に挑み、緊張・移行・崩壊・発見その全てが、寺院やギャラリー、迷路のような路地に渡って展開されている。本記事では、「KYOTOGRAPHIE 2026」の8つの魅力を紹介したい。 1.テーマそのものが強烈なエネルギーを放つ Photo: Sébastien Raineri 境界的で、不安定で、電気のように張り詰めた「EDGE」というテーマは、写真が抱える真実と虚構の曖昧さから、社会の周縁に生きる人々、さらには環境危機の限界にまで射程を広げる。 AI生成画像や地政学的な不安定さが広がる現代において、「EDGE」とは崩壊の場なのか、それとも可能性の場なのか。その揺らぎと緊張が、プログラム全体に脈動を与えている。 2. 森山大道の大規模回顧展が日本に帰還 © Daido Moriyama 訪れるならまず軸に据えたいのが、「京都市京セラ美術館」で行われている森山大道の回顧展だ。ブラジル、ベルリン、ヘルシンキ、ロンドンを巡回してきた展覧会を、日本向けに再構成し、約60年に及ぶキャリアを総覧できる。 「PROVOKE」誌への寄稿や代表作『写真よさようなら』（1972年）をはじめ、彼のラディカルな視点を形作った雑誌や写真集に焦点を当て、表現の物質性を前面に押し出す構成。その充実した内容は、まさに「帰還」と呼ぶにふさわしい。 3. 「美しい崩壊」という芸術に立ち合う Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre, ’Ruines de Paris’, 2024 フランス人デュオ、イヴ・マルシャン＆ロマン・メフレ（Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre）は、デトロイトの朽ちゆく劇場や長崎沖の軍艦島など、近代化の残骸を20年以上にわたり撮影してきた。今回はその視線とAI技術を用い、京都そのものを対象とする。 大判の廃虚写真に加え、彼らは古都が荒廃し、緑に飲み込まれた姿を想像した新シリーズを発表。崩れゆく町家、ツタに覆われた寺院、儀式の消えた静寂――それは悲しみに満ちつつも奇妙な美しさをたたえ、まだ現実ではないからこそ切実に迫る、失われるものへの思索だ。 また、音楽家のヤニック・パジェ（Yannick Paget）がアーティストとの新たな協働の下、サウンドデザインを手がけている。没入感のある音響レイヤーが加わることで、想像上の崩壊のイメージはより生々しく立ち上がる。 4. タンディウェ・ムリウがアイデンティティーを再構築 Thandiwe Muriu, ‘Camo’, installation view. Photo: Sébastien Raineri アフリカン・レジデンシーの一環として、ケニア出身のアーティスト、タンディウェ・ムリウ（Thandiwe Muriu）が、代表作「Camo」シリーズと、京都で制作した新作を発表。鮮やかなテキスタイルを用いたポートレートで知られる彼女は、アイデンティティーを多層的で流動的なものとして捉えている。 京都での制作では日本の布地を取り入れ、アフリカと日本の文化の間に思いがけない共鳴を生み出す。そこに立ち上がるイメージは、アフロ・アジア的な視点を通じて「帰属

The cherry blossoms, the ancient temple silhouettes, the low golden light. Spring in Kyoto always feels cinematic. And then there’s Kyotographie, the festival that over 14 editions has made the ancient capital one of the most compelling destinations on the global photography calendar. This year, the annual celebration is running from April 18 to May 17 and tackling its most electrifying theme yet: ‘Edge’. Tension, transition, collapse, discovery – it’s all here, staged across Kyoto’s temples, galleries and labyrinthine alleyways. Here are eight reasons to check out Kyotographie 2026. 1. The theme is a live wire Photo: Sébastien Raineri Liminal, unstable, electric – the festival’s ‘Edge’ concept touches everything from photography’s own uneasy relationship with truth and fiction, to lives lived on the margins of society, to the literal edge of environmental catastrophe. In an era of AI-generated imagery and geopolitical instability, the festival asks whether the edge is a place of collapse or of possibility, and that tension gives the programme its pulse. 2. A towering Daido Moriyama retrospective lands in his home country © Daido Moriyama If there’s one show to anchor your visit around, it’s this one. A comprehensive survey of Daido Moriyama’s near-sixty-year career arrives at the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art, adapted from a retrospective that has toured Brazil, Berlin, Helsinki and London.  With a special focus on the magazines and photobooks that shaped Moriyama’s r

「六本木ヒルズ」森タワーの52階にある「東京シティビュー」は、この1年ほど、松本零士や手塚治虫、『エヴァンゲリオン』といった作品を取り上げ、野心的な漫画・アニメ展の発信地としてじわじわと存在感を高めてきた。2026年の春、地上250メートルに位置する展望台が次に掲げるのは、覆面作家・魚豊による哲学的な作品『チ。 ―地球の運動について―』（以下、『チ。』）である。 『チ。』は2020年から2022年にかけて連載された漫画で、舞台は15世紀のヨーロッパ。当時、天動説は絶対的な教義として支配的であった。その常識に疑問を投げかけ、地動説という異端の思想を追い求めた人々の姿が描かれている。知への強い信念ゆえに、彼らは迫害や死の危険と向き合うことになる。 『チ。』は批評家から高く評価され、2022年には手塚治虫文化賞の最高賞である「マンガ大賞」を受賞。24歳という史上最年少の受賞を、魚豊は果たした。さらにマッドハウス制作によるアニメ版が、2024年10月から2025年3月にかけて放送された。 そして今回、『チ。』の世界が東京シティビューという場で新たに立ち上がる。来場者は東京都心を見下ろしながら、その先に広がる宇宙へと想像力を広げていく。 上空からの眺め――そして広大な宇宙へ 同展は、じっくりと展示に向き合うことが求められる。展望台という空間そのものを知的探究の場へと変えているのだ。『チ。』の物語と、東京シティビューの開放的な眺望、そして夜景の光が重なり合うことで、中世の天文学者と現代の観客とのあいだに通底する視点が浮かび上がる。 Photo: Sébastien Raineri 展示は緻密に構成されており、天文学、宇宙の構造、知の継承といったテーマが全体に織り込まれている。来場者は印象的なシーンやせりふの断片に導かれながら、初期天文学に宿る知的な熱量に触れ、「自分たちは何者なのか」という「存在」を揺るがすような緊張感を呼び起こされる。 都市の光とはるかな星々 Photo: Sébastien Raineri 同展の大きな見どころの一つが、虚構と現実を重ね合わせた視覚的な演出。大規模なインスタレーションでは、「東京タワー」を含む都市のスカイラインと、夜空を見上げる登場人物たちの姿が重ね合わされる。その表現は映画のようでありながら、同時に静かな思索を促し、中世と現代の時間の隔たりをあいまいにする。 Photo: Sébastien Raineri 来場者が作品世界に入り込めるインタラクティブな写真も展示。モノクロの線描で構成された空間は漫画のコマの美学をそのまま立ち上げたようなもので、観客は物語の内部へと足を踏み入れるようだ。こうした演出は、「知覚とは構築され、媒介され、変化しうるものである」という同展の核心的なテーマを強く印象づける。 Starry Sky Theatre. Photo courtesy of Ohira Tech Ltd. これらの展示にさらに奥行きを与えるのが、「星空シアター」だ。プラネタリウムクリエーターの大平貴之率いるチームとの協働によって開発された。最先端の「MEGASTAR」システムにより、数百万の星々をスクリーンに360度映し出し、観客は中世の天文学者が思い描いた空から、科学的に描き出された広大な宇宙へといざなわれる。 この演出自体は漫画を直接再現したものではないが、『チ。』の物語を宇宙論的発見の歴史という、より大きな文脈の中に位置づける役割を果たしているといえるだろう。 知と信念のはざまで 本展は、単なる視覚的

Having highlighted the likes of Leiji Matsumoto, Osamu Tezuka and the Evangelion universe over the last year alone, Tokyo City View has quietly transformed into one of the city’s premier venues for ambitious manga and anime exhibitions. This spring, the observation deck 250 metres above Roppongi continues its hot streak with a showcase featuring mononymous creator Uoto’s philosophical masterpiece Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. Serialised between 2020 and 2022, the manga unfolds in 15th-century Europe, where the geocentric worldview reigns as absolute doctrine. Against this orthodoxy, a constellation of individuals driven by an uncompromising devotion to knowledge risk persecution and death to pursue the heretical idea of heliocentrism. Orb was a hit especially among critics, earning the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2022 and inspiring a subsequent anime adaptation produced by Madhouse that was broadcast between October 2024 and March 2025. Now the work’s universe finds an unexpected yet compelling extension at Tokyo City View, with an immersive exhibition that invites visitors to reconsider both the city below and the cosmos beyond. A view from above – and into the vastness of space Come ready to concentrate, as the exhibition transforms the observation deck into a site of intellectual inquiry. By aligning the narrative of Orb with the vertiginous openness of Tokyo City View and the luminous nightscape of the city below, the show suggests a continuity betwee

Spring has certainly sprung in Tokyo, with daytime temperatures in the 20s and the cherry blossoms already fluttering to the ground in many parts of the city. Another sure sign of the season is the unveiling of new exhibitions at museums and galleries across the capital, and with this year’s slate of spring shows looking loaded, we’ve put together a list of the 10 most noteworthy displays to check out in April and May. Whether you’re into traditional Japanese art, high-tech sculpture, multidisciplinary installations or meditations on the meaning of cuteness, there’s sure to be something to pique your interest at Tokyo’s museums this spring. Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849): ‘Clear Day with a Southern Breeze (‘Blue Fuji’)’, from the series ‘Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji’, ca. 1830–1833. Color woodblock. Iuchi Collection, on deposit at The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. ‘Hokusai: “Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji” from the Iuchi Collection’The National Museum of Western Art, until June 14 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 marks the first public unveiling of a remarkable group of works placed on deposit at the museum in 2024. The exhibition showcases all 46 prints

What constitutes good art, and which artworks deserve mainstream recognition? Over the past 50 years, few institutions in Japan have been more influential in answering those questions than NHK Sunday Museum (Nichiyo Bijutsukan). Since its debut in 1976, the weekly TV programme has occupied a singular place in the country’s cultural landscape, airing more than 2,500 episodes featuring artists, writers and thinkers reflecting on works that shaped their sensibilities. As such, the show has introduced a broad audience to countless masterpieces while cultivating a shared language through which anyone can discuss and reinterpret art. This half-century legacy of curating art for the general public is turned into a spatial experience at the University Art Museum’s ‘NHK Sunday Museum 50th Anniversary Exhibition’. On show at the Ueno museum until June 21, the exhibition brings together more than 120 works highlighted throughout the programme’s history. Paintings, sculptures, craft objects and archival footage converge into a popular history of art and evolving sensibilities in a rapidly transforming society. Words that endure, images that speak Auguste Rodin, ‘The Thinker’, 1880. Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. Photo: Sébastien Raineri The exhibition unfolds across five thematic chapters, with the opening section foregrounding one of Sunday Museum’s defining features: its dialogue between artworks and the individuals who interpret them. Early broadcasts invited prominent cultural

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