Best Exhibitions Starting in June 2026
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Tokyo Art Beat presents a selection of the best exhibitions opening in June 2026. Save the exhibitions on the TAB website or TAB app and don't miss the openings and closings.
- ◎Tokyo
- 【Tokyo】 Picasso, through the Eyes of Paul Smith (The National Art Center)
- 【Tokyo】 Artists at the Café: From the Impressionists, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec to Picasso (Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum)
- 【Tokyo】 Hiroshi Sugimoto: Extinction (The National Museum of Modern Art)
- 【Tokyo】 Idemitsu Mako What a woman made (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
- 【Tokyo】 The Creative Origins of Mamoru Hosoda (Creative Museum Tokyo)
- 【Tokyo】 ICC Annual 2026: What Is Left, What Remains, and What We Take on (NTT ICC Inter Communication Center)
- 【Tokyo】 Ettore Sottsass: Design begins where magic begins (Artizon Museum)
- 【Tokyo】 Animals & Monsters: Cute, Scary, and a Little Weird (Ota Memorial Museum of Art)
- 【Tokyo】 Western-Style Architecture in Japan (Edo-Tokyo Museum)
- 【Tokyo】 Step Inside Moronobu’s Genre Scenes of the Twelve Months: Masterpieces of Early Ukiyo-e (Seikado Bunko Art Museum)
- 【Tokyo】 Listening to the Inner Voice: The Art of Living True (Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery)
- 【Tokyo】 Yanase Takashi: Life is about bringing joy to others (Setagaya Literary Museum)
- ◎Japan
- 【Aomori】 Kazama Sachiko: Clairvoyance in a 9㎡ room (Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art)
- 【Aomori】 Tsubaki Noboru: Freedom–Living with “the Elephant in the Room” (Towada Art Center)
- 【Chiba】 Fairy Tale Mode (Chiba City Museum of Art)
- 【Kanagawa】 Unprecedented: Women Photographers from the GDR (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
- 【Kanagawa】 The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze (Pola Museum of Art)
- 【Kanagawa】 Le faste du Paris de la fin du XIXe siècle - Mucha, Chéret et Toulouse-Lautrec dans la collection d’OGATA (Chigasaki City Museum of Art, Kanagawa)
- 【Kanagawa】 Picture Book Artist Yoshikazu Takai's Happy World (Hiratsuka Museum of Art)
- 【Niigata】 140 Years Since His Birth - Yumeji Takehisa (Niigata City Art Museum)
- 【Niigata】 400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art)
- 【Shizuoka】 Encounters with Contemporary Art— Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol, Banksy, and More (Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art)
- 【Shizuoka】 At Home with Gustavsberg (Shizuoka City Museum of Art)
- 【Aichi】 Continued Norman Rockwell Exhibition (Yokoyama Art Museum)
- 【Kyoto】 YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection (KYOCERA Museum of Art)
- 【Shimane】 Tapio Wirkkala: The Sculptor of UltimaThule (Shimane Art Museum)
- 【Shimane】 Kaj Franck Retrospective -Timeless Finland Design (Iwami Art Museum)
- 【Kagawa】 Kenjiro Okazaki Exhibition (Naoshima New Museum of Art)
- 【Oita】 Love! Vanguard!! Collector’s Eye: Yayoi Kusama, Hater & More (Oita Prefectural Art Museum)
◎Tokyo
【Tokyo】 Picasso, through the Eyes of Paul Smith (The National Art Center)
British designer Paul Smith, celebrated for his traditional tailoring and playful use of color, has drawn the inspiration from works by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). The space, designed with a free-spirited approach, is filled with the vivid colors and playful energy of Smith's creativity, eager to explore the world of Picasso art and design.
Venue: The National Art Center, Tokyo
Schedule: June 10 – September 21
【Tokyo】 Artists at the Café: From the Impressionists, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec to Picasso (Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum)
Have you ever thought of cafes as a source of inspiration for great art? This exhibition explores cafes and coffee shops as a vital site of artistic exchange in late 19th-century Paris. Featuring around 130 works by artists including Monet, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso, it looks at how cafés, cabarets, and dance halls helped shape modern art.
Venue: Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
Schedule: June 13 – September 23
【Tokyo】 Hiroshi Sugimoto: Extinction (The National Museum of Modern Art)
This major solo exhibition presents Hiroshi Sugimoto, one of the most famous contemporary artists in Japan today. It focuses on Sugimoto’s long engagement with silver gelatin photography, a medium now increasingly disappearing in the digital age. Sugimoto invites us to think about the future of art in the digital era, shaped by AI.
Venue: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Schedule: June 16 – September 13
【Tokyo】 Idemitsu Mako What a woman made (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)
A large-scale retrospective of Mako Idemitsu, a pioneer of Japanese video art and feminist art. The exhibition highlights her works on women’s lives, family, feminism, gender, media, and society, presenting an artistic perspective on gender issues in contemporary Japan.
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Schedule: June 18 – September 21
【Tokyo】 The Creative Origins of Mamoru Hosoda (Creative Museum Tokyo)
If you love Japanese anime, you have probably watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Marking the 20th anniversary of this work, this exhibition introduces the creative world of animation director Mamoru Hosoda through storyboards, layouts, and original drawings.
Venue: Creative Museum Tokyo
Schedule: June 20 – August 31
【Tokyo】 ICC Annual 2026: What Is Left, What Remains, and What We Take on (NTT ICC Inter Communication Center)
In the age of AI, the future of art remains uncertain. This annual exhibition at the renowned contemporary art museum reflects on memory, history, records, and information in an age shaped by generative AI and algorithmic media environment,
Venue: NTT ICC Inter Communication Center
Schedule: June 20 – November 8
【Tokyo】 Ettore Sottsass: Design begins where magic begins (Artizon Museum)
This is Japan’s first retrospective of Ettore Sottsass and the first-ever design exhibition at the Artizon Museum. Sottsass was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Italian design, questioning the pursuit of excessive rationalism and seeking to make design enjoyable and funny. The exhibition introduces his bold, humorous, and imaginative approach to design, as well as the aesthetics of everyday objects around us.
Venue: Artizon Museum
Schedule: June 23 – October 4
【Tokyo】 Animals & Monsters: Cute, Scary, and a Little Weird (Ota Memorial Museum of Art)
One of the biggest charms of ukiyo-e is its cute and scary animals. This ukiyo-e exhibition presents around 140 works featuring animals and supernatural creatures, from charming and humorous images to nightmare-like monsters and ghosts.
Venue: Ota Memorial Museum of Art
Schedule: June 23 – August 23
【Tokyo】 Western-Style Architecture in Japan (Edo-Tokyo Museum)
The new exhibition at the Edo-Tokyo Museum focuses on the development of modern Tokyo and brings attention to Western-style architecture in Meiji-era Japan. It introduces the dreams, ambitions, and transformations behind Japan’s early encounters with Western architectural culture.
Venue: Edo-Tokyo Museum
Schedule: June 23 – August 23
【Tokyo】 Step Inside Moronobu’s Genre Scenes of the Twelve Months: Masterpieces of Early Ukiyo-e (Seikado Bunko Art Museum)
A rare chance to see the famous Beauty Looking Back, as well as other masterpieces by Hishikawa Moronobu, known as the founder of ukiyo-e and bijinga.
Venue: Seikado Bunko Art Museum
Schedule: June 27 – August 23
【Tokyo】 Listening to the Inner Voice: The Art of Living True (Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery)
This exhibition focuses on self-care, drawing clues from works of Art Brut and contemporary art. Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery introduces artists whose creativity s derived from relationships with nature, empathy and everyday life.
Venue: Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery
Schedule: June 27 – August 30
【Tokyo】 Yanase Takashi: Life is about bringing joy to others (Setagaya Literary Museum)
This is the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to Takashi Yanase, creator of Anpanman - one of the most popular characters in Japanese history and beloved by children around the world. It traces Yanase's wide-ranging career as a manga artist, poet, picture-book author, illustrator, designer, and editor.
Venue: Setagaya Literary Museum
Schedule: June 30 – September 6
◎Japan
【Aomori】 Kazama Sachiko: Clairvoyance in a 9㎡ room (Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art)
Kazama Sachiko has spent her career depicting the contradictions and incongruities of Japanese society shaped by modernization. Known for her large-scale black-and-white woodblock prints, Kazama brings a humor and sharp criticism to social issues surrounding our lives.
Venue: Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art
Schedule: June 5 – November 15
【Aomori】 Tsubaki Noboru: Freedom–Living with “the Elephant in the Room” (Towada Art Center)
Centered on a newly created elephant motif, this exhibition by Noboru Tsubaki questions capitalism and everyday habits. Usually we learn about poverty, social inequality, and wars through the daily news and social media, accompanied by an endless stream of images. Yet how many opportunities do we actually have to think deeply about these issues?
Venue: Towada Art Center
Schedule: June 6 – November 8
【Chiba】 Fairy Tale Mode (Chiba City Museum of Art)
This exhibition examines how fairy tales have inspired visual culture across eras, with a focus on illustrated books, art, design, and fashion.
Venue: Chiba City Museum of Art
Schedule: June 27 – August 30
【Kanagawa】 Unprecedented: Women Photographers from the GDR (Museum of Modern Art, Hayama)
Introducing 15 women photographers from former East Germany, this exhibition revisits their contributions to German photography, which have often been overlooked and underresearched.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama
Schedule: June 13 – August 30
【Kanagawa】 The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze (Pola Museum of Art)
Marking the 100th anniversary of Claude Monet’s death and the museum’s 25th anniversary, this exhibition brings Monet into dialogue with 18 contemporary artists from Japan and abroad. A unique chance to reconsider Monet’s influence on the contemporary art world.
Venue: Pola Museum of Art
Schedule: June 17 – April 7, 2027
【Kanagawa】 Le faste du Paris de la fin du XIXe siècle - Mucha, Chéret et Toulouse-Lautrec dans la collection d’OGATA (Chigasaki City Museum of Art, Kanagawa)
This exhibition explores the golden age of poster art in late 19th-century Paris, featuring works by Alphonse Mucha, Jules Chéret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. A chance to rethink how commercial art became the part of the fine arts and influenced the creativity in later eras.
Venue: Chigasaki City Museum of Art
Schedule: June 17 – August 23
【Kanagawa】 Picture Book Artist Yoshikazu Takai's Happy World (Hiratsuka Museum of Art)
The first exhibition of Yoshikazu Takai at a public museum in the Kanto region, presenting original picture-book illustrations, three-dimensional works, and character designs.
Venue: Hiratsuka Museum of Art
Schedule: June 27 – September 6
【Niigata】 140 Years Since His Birth - Yumeji Takehisa (Niigata City Art Museum)
A rare insight into the legacy of Yumeji Takehisa, often seen as one of the fathers of kawaii culture. The exhibition explores the other side of Yumeji's creativity, including his poems, essays, and designs.
Venue: Niigata City Art Museum
Schedule: June 13 – August 30
【Niigata】 400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art)
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum’s collection is coming to Niigata! Featuring around 80 oil paintings, this exhibition traces 400 years of Western painting through works by artists including Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Chagall, Tintoretto, Van Dyck, and Claude Lorrain.
Venue: The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art
Schedule: June 27 – August 23
【Shizuoka】 Encounters with Contemporary Art— Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol, Banksy, and More (Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art)
Do these artist names say anything to you? If you want to dive deeper into the contemporary art world, this exhibition is made for you. With around 70 works by 39 artists from Japan and abroad, this show invites visitors to encounter contemporary art through emotional connection, memory, and personal experience.
Venue: Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art
Schedule: June 20 – August 30
【Shizuoka】 At Home with Gustavsberg (Shizuoka City Museum of Art)
Japan’s first exhibition dedicated to Gustavsberg, the Swedish ceramic manufacturer. Established in 1825 in southeastern Sweden, Gustavsberg remains one of the leading Scandinavian porcelain manufacturers. Around 300 works from the Nationalmuseum in Sweden were brought to Japan to introduce the history and appeal of Nordic ceramic design.
Venue: Shizuoka City Museum of Art
Schedule: June 27 – September 6
【Aichi】 Continued Norman Rockwell Exhibition (Yokoyama Art Museum)
A creative collaboration between Norman Rockwell, the beloved American illustrator, and Seto ceramics, which have been admired around the globe for decades.
Venue: Yokoyama Art Museum
Schedule: June 5 – September 27
【Kyoto】 YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection (KYOCERA Museum of Art)
Focusing on British art from the turbulent years of Thatcher’s era, this exhibition explores the world of Young British Artists from the 1990s and 2000s, who examined racism, gender inequality, poverty, and power through their art.
Venue: Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art
Schedule: June 3 – September 6
【Shimane】 Tapio Wirkkala: The Sculptor of UltimaThule (Shimane Art Museum)
The first major solo exhibition in Japan of Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985), a key figure in Finnish modern design. Wirkkala’s design includes porcelain, silverware, jewelry, lighting, furniture, and graphics. One of the highlights of Wirkkala’s work is the sophisticated forms he created through countless drawings and prototypes, working with a variety of materials and relying on his vision.
Venue: Shimane Art Museum
Schedule: June 26 – August 31
【Shimane】 Kaj Franck Retrospective -Timeless Finland Design (Iwami Art Museum)
This exhibition is dedicated to Kaj Franck (1911-1989), one of Finland’s leading designers. Franck, who aimed to create designs that supported people’s daily lives and addressed social issues, is known as the “conscience of Finnish design.” The exhibition also traces Franck’s connection with Japanese culture, including his three visits to Japan, and introduces works by later designers influenced by him.
Venue: Iwami Art Museum
Schedule: June 27 – September 6
【Kagawa】 Kenjiro Okazaki Exhibition (Naoshima New Museum of Art)
Focusing on Kenjiro Okazaki’s relationship with Naoshima, this exhibition introduces works from different periods, including pieces connected to the island.
Venue: Naoshima New Museum of Art
Schedule: June 13 – August 30
【Oita】 Love! Vanguard!! Collector’s Eye: Yayoi Kusama, Hater & More (Oita Prefectural Art Museum)
A rare chance to see the major contemporary artists all together. This exhibition presents a collection of 20th-century Japanese art, including works by Gutai, On Kawara, Yoshitomo Nara, and Yayoi Kusama.
Venue: Oita Prefectural Art Museum
Schedule: June 13 – August 16
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