The ultimate Osaka art crawl

Kita, Osaka’s northern downtown, is going through a renaissance with new openings such as Grand Green providing the area with an architectural shot in the arm. We start our afternoon at the iconic Umeda Sky Building, but instead of joining the queue for the viewing deck, swerve left to the Koji Kinutani Tenku Art Museum.

Koji Kinutani has been an influential force in the Japanese art world for more than 40 years and this beautifully serene space on the 27th floor is dedicated entirely to the artist. Home to the largest collection of Kinutani’s pieces anywhere, including a show-stopping 3D video installation, it also boasts the colourful Tenku café, sprawling views of the city and a studio space where you might be lucky enough to spot the artist himself.

Dazzled, we head south, cutting through Umeda Station to streetside gallery YOD and its broad range of contemporary art, from graphic design to mixed media. With a particular focus on artists from the mono-ha movement, which emerged in Tokyo in the 1960s as a response to rapid development and industrialisation, it is a gloriously Japanese-centric affair, keen to prioritise homegrown talent.

With energy levels waning,we are beginning to doubt the wisdom of our ambitious art and design crawl, but luckily the emerging Kitakagaya art district has exactly what we need to put the pep back in our step. Kitakagaya was once the hub of Osaka’s shipbuilding industry, and many of its former factories and warehouses have been repurposed to house art spaces and artists’ studios.

The walls of this neighbourhood are covered in murals; we also see striking sculptures, hidden stencil graffiti and illustrated manhole covers. We notice how Kitakagaya, with its vacant buildings and lower rents, has become Osaka’s creative haven over the past few years – and why its strong sense of community spirit has been so inspiring to local artists and makers.

At its heart is Chidori Bunka. This renovated 60-year-old bunka jutaku, a type of two-storey housing complex built mainly in the Kansai region in the 1950s and 1960s, has become one of the most exciting spots in the city, with workshops and a barbershop flanking an exhibition space which hosts performances by Contact Gonzo, an acclaimed contemporary art collective which has performed in Europe and the US. Just as importantly for our flagging collective, Chidori Bunka is also home to a café specialising in Basque cheesecake and warming Dutch pancakes.

We end our day of art with Japan’s world- conquering digital art collective teamLab at its Botanical Garden in Nagai Park. Their ‘Digitised Nature’ project, open to visitors after dark, looks at the relationship between nature and art, with the goal of showcasing the park’s natural beauty in a different light. The pieces are both immersive and interactive, responding to changes in the weather and the movements of visitors as well as those of birds and insects in the garden. It is trippy stuff and the perfect end to a memorable day.