*Tomokazu Matsuyama’s “Passage Imortalitas” on view in Azabudai Hills Gallery, Tokyo*

I’ve visited Tokyo four times, and one reason I love going there is because art is everywhere you look. Of course there are lots of great museums and galleries to visit, but it’s also in shopping malls, stores, cafés, street corners, and even gachapon (toy capsule) machines - everywhere! Here is a roundup of the interesting art and artists I encountered while I was recently in Tokyo. Some I had already known about, so I sought out their work intentionally, and some I learned about for the first time just by keeping my eyes open for the inspiration and creativity that is everywhere in Tokyo.

Quick jump:
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Hilma af Klint
Tomokazu Matsuyama
Kunio Kohzaki
Tomihiro Kono
Kenji Yanobe
Tadanori Yokoo
Tsutaya Books

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Composer, musician, super famous and cherished Japanese artist. We went to see the retrospective exhibit of his work, “seeing sound, hearing time” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. It was absolutely PACKED with people, silently piling into each room, intently admiring these beautifully mysterious and moving pieces - very mixed-media, and a lot of interesting collaborations with other artists. There was a piano floating on a pond being played by metal plungers mechanically driven by the recorded seismic activity of the planet, and a life-sized pepper’s ghost hologram of him playing the piano (which I couldn’t get a photo/video of because the room was so full of people)… AND SO MUCH MORE. All of these visual and experiential works were driven by his emotional musical compositions. Here is the official webpage for this completely mind blowing exhibit.

Hilma af Klint

Swedish artist & mystic 1862-1944, one of the first to make abstract paintings. She is SO INTERESTING, look her up, seriously! We already loved her work, and were so lucky that a big exhibit of her work was on display at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. We have a small print of one of her pieces in our house and were shocked to see how HUGE the actual paintings are. Amazing to see her sketches, her finished works, and learn about her life, her process, her artistic intentions. Still absorbing this amazing experience.

Tomokazu Matsuyama

Japanese-American contemporary artist making sculpture, painting, animation, wearable pieces, all kinds of visual art forms - and everything is so colorful, energetic, and packed with symbolism. Really sang to my design brain! We discovered this artist and his current exhibit FIRSTLAST by happy accident because it’s in the same building as Teamlab Borderless in Azabudai Hills. The exhibit was fantastic, the paintings and sculptures are huge and they were displayed so that you almost walk through them - the colors and textures of the artworks are all around you in the walls and environment. It was very surreal, like walking through the artists mind. Official website of the exhibit here.

Kunio Kohzaki

Headpiece Artist. This artist had a collection of pieces displayed in the flagship UNIQLO store in Shinjuku. Really playful and elaborate headpieces based on iconic brands and their products, everyday objects, and more. Check out more on Kunio Kohzaki’s Instagram feed.

Tomihiro Kono

I just happened to discover another fascinating headpiece/hair artist while thumbing through art books at Tsutaya bookstore. I love the dimensionality and geometry of the pieces, and the way the book is organized as “studies”, which is similar to how I like to work through prototyping and experimentation in my process. Felt so inspired, had to buy the book. See more info about this artist on his website.

Pages from Tomihiro Kono’s book: Head Prop - Studies 2013-1026

Kenji Yanobe

We saw this massive installation, Big Cat Bang by Kenji Yanobe, in the atrium of Ginza Six, an upscale shopping mall. A giant spaceship and two huge cats clad in spacesuits hovering in the atrium, surrounded by lots of tiny “spacecats” - there were more pieces to view up close and a video that told the story of the Spacecats, creating an entire world-building experience. I had read about this exhibit online before our trip, but I was not prepared for the true scale of it! The Tsutaya bookstore at the top of the mall had small gachapon spacecats for sale, and I brought two home with me.

Tadanori Yokoo

Graphic designer, illustrator, and more - I found his work in a gachapon toy machine and then saw books on his art at Tsutaya bookstore. I kept encountering his work throughout my trip and felt inspired by it, which is always a sign that I should look deeper. His work is bright, psychedelic, and spans visual art and performance too. Excited to learn more about this artist now that I’m home and can do a proper dive. More info on Tadanori Yokoo’s official website.

Tsutaya Books

The Tsutaya Bookstore at the top of Ginza Six was our last stop before heading to the airport to go home, and it turned out to be the perfect place to wind down our trip, because it was full of art books, and was showing several interesting artists on exhibit right there in the store. The previous week, we visited the Tsutaya T-Site store in Daikanyama, and it was also showing great art exhibits.

I’ll end this art/artist round-up with one huge tip: If you are going to Tokyo and want to make sure to get some art into your trip, check out the Tokyo Art Beat website. They document all the upcoming art exhibits, big and small. That site is how I knew about the Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hilma af Klint exhibits (and could buy tickets in advance!).

Tokyo Art Encounters