Sébastien Raineri

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

In an announcement gamers around the world had been awaiting eagerly, Nintendo in January unveiled its long-awaited next console, the Nintendo Switch 2, by video presentation. In addition to disclosing the official name of its new hardware, the Kyoto firm has revealed a handful of new features to make its fans’ mouths water. More details are set to be announced on a Nintendo Direct livestream scheduled for April 2 2025, after which events will be organised in several cities around the world to let fans try out the Nintendo Switch 2 in person. Joining New York, Paris, London and Berlin, Tokyo (more precisely, MakuhariMesse in Chiba) will be hosting a test event of Nintendo’s new console on April 26 and 27. For the chance to participate, register for the draw via the official Nintendo website by February 20.

The Ota Memorial Museum of Art offers a tasty dive into the past with an exhibition that explores the evolution of Japanese culinary culture during the Edo period (1603–1868), a pivotal time when many now-iconic dishes emerged and were democratised. ‘Edo Gourmet Dishes’ highlights the richness of the period’s gastronomy through 90 ukiyo-e prints signed by masters such as Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi. These artists, famous for their landscapes, caricatures and depictions of warriors, also immortalised the daily life of the people of Edo (now Tokyo) – including their eating habits. The exhibition focuses on familiar dishes such as sushi, soba and tempura, exploring their ingredients and the seasonings used at the time, including miso, vinegar and soy sauce, which became widely distributed during this period. Among the works on display are prints such as Women in Benkei Stripes: Matsuno-zushi by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a playful depiction of sushi culture, and Hiroshige’s Famous Places in Edo: Amusements While Waiting for the Moon on the Twenty-sixth Night in Takanawa, which beautifully illustrates the role of dining in social gatherings. Works by Hokusai and Hiroshige depicting scenes of meals along the Tokaido route can be contemplated as well.

The Mori Arts Center Gallery takes you on a journey into the heart of one of the most enigmatic civilisations in history through a selection of masterpieces from the prestigious Egyptian collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Around 150 artefacts will be on display, ranging from monumental sculptures to delicate jewellery, ornate sarcophagi, pottery, human and animal mummies, and precious papyri. Guided by renowned Egyptologist Yukinori Kawae, visitors are invited to explore three millennia of history through three thematic sections. The first focuses on the daily lives of the people of ancient Egypt, while the second section is devoted to the figure of the pharaoh, holder of absolute power. Works related to twelve iconic kings are presented, tracing the evolution of the dynasty and the representation of the rulers. The final section explores ancient Egyptians’ beliefs about life after death. Grave goods, ritual instruments and reliefs depicting deities are on display, providing insight into the reasons for and techniques of mummification.

Finnish designer and sculptor Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985) was a major figure in post-war design. Influenced by his stays in Lapland, the northern part of Finland, his work encompasses a wide range of fields, including product design, sculpture, graphic design and architecture. The breadth of his talent is reflected in the diversity of materials he used, especially glass, which made him known internationally. Wirkkala’s most famous creations include the design for Finlandia vodka and the Ultima Thule kitchen glass collection for Iittala. Both glass creations required thousands of hours of work to develop a glassblowing technique capable of producing the appearance of dripping ice cubes. The artistry involved in these masterpieces can be studied at the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Japan, being held at the Tokyo Station Gallery from April 5 to June 15. The retrospective celebrates the 110th anniversary of Wirkkala’s birth and focuses on his creative process and the environments that inspired him. The exhibition brings together approximately 300 works, including rarely exhibited plywood sculptures, design objects, and prototypes.

Women’s emancipation was in full swing at the beginning of the twentieth century and had a considerable influence on fashion. The interwar period saw the emergence of the liberated woman, in search of a modern and daring style reflecting her new spirit. At the same time, the Art Deco movement was born, blooming during the 1920s first in relation to interior architecture and furniture. It was in this context that the first icon of Art Deco fashion was born: the garçonne, an emblematic figure of the Roaring Twenties. Art Deco fashion came to be characterised by geometric and clean shapes, bold colours and high-quality materials. Beaded dresses, furs, feathers and sequins make up the Art Deco wardrobe, where graphic patterns and bold prints bring a touch of sophistication and theatricality to outfits. Looking back at this era of luxurious and opulent wear – and celebrating the centenary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris – the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum is organising the ‘Art Deco and Fashion’ exhibition from October 11 2025 to January 25 2026. The museum will display about sixty iconic Art Deco outfits – including evening dresses from the great Parisian houses such as Poiret, Chanel and Lanvin – as well as paintings, prints, handicrafts, and other artwork from Japanese and foreign museums.

Japanese-American contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama’s practice encompasses painting, sculpture and installation. Born in 1976 in Gifu, he currently lives and works in Brooklyn. His work organically merges and reimagines diverse elements, such as Asian and European cultures, ancient and modern eras, and figurative and abstract styles. His art both reflects his intercultural experiences and tirelessly questions the complex and polarised issues of our time: political cleavages, economic inequality, social conflict, the paradox of gender equality, media manipulation and the proliferation of disinformation. Drawing on a wide range of cultural and historical influences, from Japanese art of the Edo and Meiji periods to classical Greek and Roman statuary, French Renaissance painting and contemporary post-war art, Matsuyama has over the past twenty-five years established himself as a key artist in the New York scene. This show at the Azabudai Hills Gallery is the artist’s first major exhibition in Tokyo. Running from March 8 to May 11, ‘First Last’ presents some 40 works (15 of which have never been seen before in Japan). It showcases Matsuyama's reflections on the paradoxes of contemporary society, which seems to maintain a fragile balance through perpetual struggles, illustrating the biblical adage ‘the last will be first, and the first last’.

Kanagawa-born, NYC-based Aki Sasamoto’s decompartmentalised artistic practice explores performance, sculpture, dance, and any other medium conducive to the expression of her ideas. At the intersection of visual and performing arts, her work involves collaborating with musicians, choreographers, scientists and academics, and she often takes on multiple roles: performer and sculptor, but also professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Sculpture at Yale University. In her work, Sasamoto constantly reflects on the design and configuration of sculptures and devices that she uses as scores during improvised performances within immersive installations. As she describes it, her creative process is akin to fishing: she ‘casts a net and waits for a perfect alignment of events’, letting several elements float before grasping the connections by relating them to seemingly foreign references. On from August 23 to November 24, ‘Aki Sasamoto’s Life Laboratory’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo explores the interplay between sculptural creation and performance that has characterised the artist’s work for two decades. From landmark early works to more recent creations that emphasise kinetic elements, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Sasamoto’s journey and unique approach, where the boundaries between artistic disciplines blur in favour of captivating hybrid expression.

In the news for his role as the designer of the Expo 2025 site, Sou Fujimoto is an architect whose work explores the relationship between nature and architecture. Born in Hokkaido, he is inspired by the natural landscapes of his childhood and seeks to integrate organic forms into the built environment through an approach he calls ‘primitive future’. This philosophy translates into an exploration of the limits between indoors and outdoors and the natural and the artificial, creating spaces that invite a new experience of inhabiting it. Fujimoto’s residential projects in Japan, such as House N, House O and House T, as well as international projects such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, illustrate this desire to blur spatial boundaries. His work is characterised by the use of simple materials, often only one per project, implemented in innovative ways to create complex and intriguing shapes. The balance between a defined program and the freedom of appropriation by the occupants is at the heart of his approach. Fujimoto’s first major Tokyo retrospective takes over the Mori Art Museum from July 2 to November 9. The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the architect’s journey over the past quarter century, showcasing his achievements. Models, plans and documentary photographs sit alongside life-size models and installations, providing an immersive visual and spatial experience of the essence of his work. The exhibition highlights projects such as the Musashino

Over the centuries, Zen Buddhism and its institutions have served as a catalyst for the creation and transmission of Japanese art. Many Zen monasteries have built up extraordinary collections of art, passed down from generation to generation. This is particularly the case for Shokoku-ji in Kyoto, whose collection is at the centre of this exhibition. Held from March 29 to May 25 at the University Art Museum, ‘Legacy of Zen Temples: Shokoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto’ highlights the exceptional artistic heritage of Shokoku-ji and its affiliated temples, the famous Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) and Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion). Organised for the 40th anniversary of the Shokoku-ji Jotenkaku Museum, the exhibition brings together more than 45 National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. ‘Legacy of Zen Temples’ focuses on the role of important historical figures while detailing how the works on display became part of the monastic collection. It traces the temples’ history, marked by losses, transfers, and destruction due to fires and wars, and highlights how despite these hazards, Shokoku-ji has kept the core of its collection for more than six centuries.