Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats

Although he's been the biggest name on the Japanese contemporary art scene for years now, 'superflat' ambassador and otaku hero Takashi Murakami hasn't put on a large-scale exhibition in his native land since 2001. The long wait ends with this winter spectacle, held at Roppongi's Mori Art Museum and centred around Murakami's wildly ambitious 2012 piece 'The 500 Arhats', a 100m long and 3m high mega-painting depicting 500 Buddhist 'saints' or arhats. Originally created as a gift to Qatar, one of the first nations to lend a hand to Japan after 3.11, the work will be complemented by other recent Murakami pieces at a show that's bound to stir up feelings – be they positive, negative or both.