Best Exhibitions to See During Golden Week 2023 in Tokyo
Wolfgang Tillmans “Moments of life” Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo Exhibition view (2023)
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Golden Week is just around the corner! If you find yourself in the Tokyo area for the holidays this year, here are some recommended exhibitions to see in the city or as a short trip. Don’t forget to bookmark the exhibitions on the Tokyo Art Beat app to never miss them.
*Please note that exhibition dates and content are subject to change without notice. Be sure to check the official websites before your visit.
For the outside Kanto edition, see here:
- Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
- Painting Love in the Louvre Collections (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
- Tofuku-ji: Monumental Zen Temple of Kyoto (Tokyo National Museum)
- World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
- Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness (Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View)
- Waiting for the Wind Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2021-2023 Exhibition (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
- Wolfgang Tillmans “Moments of life” (Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo)
- Dumb Type, 2022: remap (Artizon Museum)
- Masahisa Fukase 1961-1991 Retrospective (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
- La Bretagne, Source d’inspiration: Regards de Peintres Français et Japonais (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
- The Original (21_21 Design Sight)
- Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
- Shuntaro Tanikawa Exhibition (Play!)
- The New Face of Leprosy Literature - The Poets and “Buds of Life”
- Accidentally Wes Anderson (Warehouse Terrada G1 Building)
- Rendez-vous dans le Midi (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
- The Spirit of “Avant-garde” Photography: The Transformation of Nothing - Shuzo Takiguchi, Nobuya Abe, Kiyoji Otsuji, and Shigeo Gocho (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- Chieko Suemori and the Funakoshi Family (Ichihara Lakeside Museum)
- Churyo Sato “Rereading Three Masterpieces” (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
- Hiroshi Yoshimura “Ambience of Sound, Sound of Ambience” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
- Shigeo Toya Exhibition (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
Henri Matisse: The Path to Color (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
French artist Henri Matisse is one of the great masters of the 20th century and a key figure in Fauvism. This exhibition is the first large-scale Matisse retrospective in Japan in twenty years. It is being organized with the full cooperation of the Centre Pompidou, which houses one of the world’s largest Matisse collections. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, cut-outs, and materials related to his last masterpiece, the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, are on display.
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Schedule: April 27 - August 20
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Painting Love in the Louvre Collections (The National Art Center, Tokyo)
Masterpieces from the Louvre Museum are coming to the National Art Center, Tokyo. The exhibition features 74 carefully selected paintings from the Louvre Museum’s vast collections, including pieces by Jean Honoré Fragonard and François Gérard. Don’t miss the opportunity to explore passionate expressions of love from the 16th century to the mid-19th century by Europe’s most preeminent painters.
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Schedule: March 1 - June 12
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Tofuku-ji: Monumental Zen Temple of Kyoto (Tokyo National Museum)
Tofuku-ji Temple is one of the most famous Zen temples in Kyoto. This exhibition marks the first time the temple’s treasures will be presented together in one place. The monumental Five Hundred Rakan, by the legendary painted Buddhist priest Myojo, will be exhibited for the first time since its restoration, along with Buddhist statues, paintings, and calligraphies. The exhibition is scheduled to travel to the Kyoto National Museum in October.
Venue: Tokyo National Museum
Schedule: March 7 - May 7
Closing days during Golden Week: None
World Classroom: Contemporary Art Through School Subjects (Mori Art Museum)
This exhibition at the Mori Art Museum explores the activities of contemporary artists who seek to go beyond our preconceptions creatively. It is an attempt to free contemporary art from school subjects such as “fine arts” and define it as a field commonly used to learn about the “world.” Participating artists include Ai Weiwei, Satoru Aoyama, Joseph Beuys, Hikaru Fujii, Naoya Hatakeyama, Susan Hiller, Yoshitomo Nara, Yang Haegue, and many others.
Venue: Mori Art Museum
Schedule: April 19 - September 24
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness (Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View)
Established in 1994 in London, Heatherwick Studio has undertaken innovative projects in many cities, including New York, Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, evolving to become one of the most closely-watched design teams in the world. This exhibition is the first in Japan to showcase twenty-eight significant studio projects. The exhibition will explore the world of architecture through six perspectives: “Coming Together;” “Connecting with Everyone;” “Experiencing Sculptural Space;” “Feeling Nature in Urban Space;” “Bringing Memories to the Future;” and “Playing and Using.”
Venue: Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View
Schedule: March 17 - June 4
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Waiting for the Wind Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2021-2023 Exhibition (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)
The Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (TCAA) is awarded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) to mid-career artists. This exhibition will feature the works of winners of the third TCAA, Shiga Lieko, and Takeuchi Kota. Shiga reinterprets a wave of restoration projects that began after the March 2011 earthquake through the primary human activity of walking. On the other hand, Takeuchi presents new work based on his historical research into balloon bombs.
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Schedule: March 18 - June 18
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Wolfgang Tillmans “Moments of life” (Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo)
Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo presents an exhibition by German artist Wolfgang Tillmans. Since the late 1980s, Tillmans has continuously created works that extend the creative boundaries of photography and imagery. As a part of the “Hors-les-mur” program, the exhibition will feature approximately 30 selected works from the Fondation’s collection.
Venue: Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo
Schedule: February 2 - June 11
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Dumb Type, 2022: remap (Artizon Museum)
Artizon Museum presents a recomposed version of Dumb Type’s 2022, originally shown at the Japan Pavilion at the 59th International Venice Biennale. This will be the first opportunity to see the new work 2022 in Japan, created with the newest member Ryuichi Sakamoto, who has been attracting public attention with the release of his new album.
Venue: Artizon Museum
Schedule: February 25 - May 14
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Masahisa Fukase 1961-1991 Retrospective (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
Masahisa Fukase is a contemporary of Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama and is known for pioneering new expressions from the 1960s to the 1970s - the golden age of Japanese photography. The retrospective exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum explores Fukase’s personality and unique expression, focusing on works from the museum’s collection, and includes works from his representative photo book, Ravens (1986).
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Schedule: March 3 - June 4
Closing days during Golden Week: None
La Bretagne, Source d’inspiration: Regards de Peintres Français et Japonais (National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo)
Brittany, a beautiful region in the northwest corner of France, was loved and visited by painters from many countries from the late 19th to the 20th century. The exhibition explores artists’ admiration for the region and simultaneously focuses on Japanese painters who visited Brittany. This exhibition features approximately 160 works from the Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art and approximately 30 museums and private collections in Japan.
Venue: National Museum Of Western Art, Tokyo
Schedule: March 18 - June 11
Closing days during Golden Week: None
The Original (21_21 Design Sight)
This exhibition defines and introduces “original” as a design that profoundly impacts the world. It is a design with a fundamental appeal and influence that inspires many designers, whose essence will be passed on to future generations. Over 100 pieces of furniture, tableware, textiles, and toys selected by Takahiro Tsuchida, Naoto Fukasawa, and Kaoru Tashiro are on display.
Venue: 21_21 Design Sight
Schedule: March 3 - June 25
Closing days during Golden Week: May 2 (Tuesday)
Shunsuke Imai: Skirt and Scene (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery)
Shunsuke Imai, best known for his series of paintings featuring stripes of vibrant color, has explored a wide range of artistic expression, deftly crossing the boundaries between figurative and abstract, two- and three-dimensional, and art and design. The Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery exhibition will provide an overview of the diverse world of Imai’s work.
Venue: Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery
Schedule: April 15 - June 18
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Shuntaro Tanikawa Exhibition (Play!)
Play! presents an exhibition of picture books by the poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. From the 1960s to the present, Tanikawa has collaborated with various painters and photographers to produce many picture books. The exhibition includes approximately 20 books, original drawings, videos, readings and sounds, large scrolls, and newly created installations.
Venue: Play!
Schedule: April 12 - July 9
Closing days during Golden Week: None
The New Face of Leprosy Literature - The Poets and “Buds of Life”
The National Hansen’s Disease Museum presents a special exhibition featuring poems created at the Hansen’s disease sanatoriums after World War II. The title of the exhibition, Inochi no Me (Buds of Life), refers to the first joint collection of poems by 73 people from eight sanatoriums across Japan. The postwar respect for fundamental human rights under the Constitution of Japan and the advent of Promin, the first chemotherapy treatment, brought significant changes to the residents, both mentally and physically. Instead of viewing their situation as “fate,” people began to see it as a future in which change was possible. Therefore, a new style of literature was born. This exhibition will feature “leprosy literature” materials, including autographs of contributors to Inochi no Me.
Venue: The National Hansen’s Disease Museum
Schedule: February 4 - May 7
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Accidentally Wes Anderson (Warehouse Terrada G1 Building)
Wes Anderson’s movies are known for their eccentricity, unique narrative style, and unforgettable color pallets and proportions. However, this is not an exhibition of stills from his films but photographs collected by the Accidentally Wes Anderson (AWA) community. Over 300 photographs are on display, allowing visitors to experience a journey to secret places around the world virtually. For more details, check out the news.
Venue: Warehouse Terrada G1 Building
Schedule: April 5 - May 26
Closing days during Golden Week: None
Rendez-vous dans le Midi (Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art)
“Le Midi” was once considered a transit point for artists traveling from Paris to Italy, searching for scenic locations and works by the old masters. However, from the end of the nineteenth century, many artists chose to work in Vence, Nice, Marseilles, and other areas in the south of France. This exhibition focuses on the south of France, where art flourished in the twentieth century. Approximately 150 works by 30 artists are on display, including works by Cézanne, Chagall, Matisse, and many others.
Venue: Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art
Schedule: March 11 - June 18
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
The Spirit of “Avant-garde” Photography: The Transformation of Nothing - Shuzo Takiguchi, Nobuya Abe, Kiyoji Otsuji, and Shigeo Gocho (Chiba City Museum of Art)
The Chiba City Museum of Art presents an exhibition exploring photography in Japan during the Showa period (1926-1989), focusing on four artists. Shuzo Takiguchi pioneered surrealism in photography; Nobuya Abe founded the Avant-garde Photographic Society with Takiguchi; Seiji Otsuji was fascinated by Takiguchi and created the Nandemo Nai Shashin series; and Shigeo Ushiutsu was a favorite student of Otsuji.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: April 8 - May 21
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Chieko Suemori and the Funakoshi Family (Ichihara Lakeside Museum)
The eldest daughter of Yasutake Funakoshi, one of Japan’s leading sculptors, Chieko Suemori, is known not only as a picture book artist but also as the editor of the lecture transcripts of the former Empress Michiko. This exhibition brings together the works of the Funakoshi family, along with original drawings and precious materials from picture books that Suemori created through her encounters and collaborations with various people.
Venue: Ichihara Lakeside Museum
Schedule: April 15 - June 25
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Churyo Sato “Rereading Three Masterpieces” (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
Sculptor Churyo Sato left a significant mark on the history of postwar Japanese sculpture. The exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, features his representative works, including Man of Gunma and Hat, Summer, as well as his long-selling picture book The Gigantic Turnip.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
Schedule: April 22 - July 2
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Hiroshi Yoshimura “Ambience of Sound, Sound of Ambience” (Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex)
The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex, presents a retrospective exhibition of musician Hiroshi Yoshimura, who has pioneered environmental music since the early 1970s. Fascinated by Erik Satie's scores, Yoshimura's musical path has led him into a wide range of activities, including music, drawings, performances, sound objects, and writing. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of his death, the exhibition features early poems, musical scores, photographs, video works, and sound objects, as well as performances and sound installations Yoshimura created with Takehisa Kosugi and Akio Suzuki.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex
Schedule: April 29 - September 3
Closing days during Golden Week: May 1 (Monday)
Shigeo Toya Exhibition (Museum of Modern Art, Saitama)
Shigeo Toya is one of Japan’s leading contemporary sculptors. Through his work, Toya has been confronting sculpture dismantled as an institution in postwar art in Japan and abroad and has attempted to reconstruct it from its essence. The exhibition features approximately 30 works displayed without being bound to a particular year of production but according to a concept.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Schedule: February 25 - May 14
Closing days during Golden Week: None
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