The best works of art captivate people across borders throughout the ages.
    This article looks at two modern art venues that have drawn the attention of people in Japan and around the world, as well as Japan’s greatest museum that lets you go back through history to enjoy Japanese classical artwork.

teamLab Borderless: An Ever-Changing, Cutting-Edge Digital Art Gallery

    Situated in Tokyo’s Odaiba, teamLab Borderless is popular among people in Japan and around the world as a cutting-edge digital art gallery. Some 2.3 million people have visited in the first year since its opening in June 2018. About half of the visitors had come to Japan from over 160 countries.
    All artwork displayed at the gallery is made by the digital art group called “teamLab.” The location is very different from what you would expect from a regular art gallery. With 10 thousand square meters of floor space, the venue is like a labyrinth. There are dazzling CG videos projected onto the elaborately designed walls and floor, making you feel as if you are walking inside a kaleidoscope. The videos are projected onto your face and clothes as well, in an endless stream of flowers and water currents. You are sure to take photos that you will want to post on social media.

    Forest of Resonating Lamps is the most popular installation, featuring an enormous number of lamps hanging from the ceiling that shine in ever-changing colors. In Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather and Waterfall Droplets, Little Drops Cause Large Movement, digital water and flowers fall down like a waterfall and flow away. The stream of water and flowers move around the visitors walking through the venue. This creates a constantly changing pattern that makes for a novel sight.

    Wander through the Crystal World features LED lights that appear to fall down like rain, only to rise upward again. The lights reflect off a mirrored floor, giving the illusion that you are standing in outer space. Weightless Forest of Resonating Life is another wondrous installation, where you find yourself surrounded by giant balloons. The balloons change colors or make different noises when you touch them, and these colors spread to the other balloons.
    As you might expect from the name “Borderless,” the art gallery has no divisions or separators between each work of art. Each artwork mixes into the others, and the mysteriously shaped animals that you see in one installation may follow you as you walk out through the corridors, or you may meet them again in another room.

    Tokyo’s Toyosu has another art gallery from teamLab called “teamLab Planets” that is open for a limited period up to fall 2020. This venue displays other artwork by teamLab.
    In addition, an art gallery was opened in November 2019 in Shanghai as an expansion of the concept for teamLab Borderless. The group has many more permanent exhibits outside of Japan.

Visit Many Works of Art Scattered across Naoshima, an Island in the Seto Inland Sea

    This section describes one more place where you can look at famous modern artwork.
    This location is an island called Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture. A modern art festival called “Setouchi Triennale” is held once every three years, and Naoshima serves as one of the locations for this festival. Naoshima has many art galleries, and also features outdoor exhibits like Akakabocha (Red Pumpkin) by Yayoi Kusama, one of Japan’s leading modern artists. The island is also home to the Art House Project, where artists work in ongoing activities to renovate empty houses located around Naoshima's Honmura district and make them into works of art.

    The Chichu Art Museum is one of the galleries on the island. It is built underground in order to preserve the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea, and it displays artwork by Claude Monet, Walter De Maria, and James Turrell. The venue is well-lit despite being underground, letting you enjoy the artwork illuminated by natural sunlight.

    Another venue on the island is called Benesse House Museum, a mix between a hotel and an art gallery. The ANDO MUSEUM features a space enclosed by undecorated concrete walls inside a traditional Japanese wooden residence. This museum displays artwork by Tadao Ando, the architect who designed the Chichu Art Museum, the Benesse House Museum, and other art galleries.

    Naoshima features many areas with lush nature and it has a warm climate with little rain throughout the year. As such, you may like to rent a bicycle to travel around once you arrive at the island. It takes one and a half hours to take a tour of the whole island, and it is easy to find the artwork scattered around the Naoshima when riding on a bicycle.

Look Back to Art from the Past at The Tokyo National Museum

    Lastly, this section describes a place where you can look at Japanese classical artwork.
    Situated in Tokyo’s Ueno, the Tokyo National Museum collects, stores, and exhibits Japanese and Oriental artwork, archeological material, and other cultural treasures.
    The museum always has several planned and special exhibitions on show, and its regular exhibitions also display a selection of its vast collection with more than 110 thousand pieces.
    The Tokyo National Museum’s collection includes 89 National Treasures (objects designated as treasures of the people by the government according to Japanese legislation). You can gain a thorough enjoyment of historical Japanese beauty just by looking at these National Treasures alone, with a wide selection of artwork including Buddhist paintings, statues of Buddha, India ink drawings, ceramic ware, and swords.
    Kujaku Myo-o Zo is a painting of Kujaku Myo-o sitting on a peacock. Kujaku Myo-o, or Mahamayuri, is the deified form of a peacock, an animal known to eat venomous snakes and harmful insects. The calm expression on the face of Kujaku Myo-o is the highlight of this painting. The India ink drawing Tokei (Winter Landscape) in Shuto Sanzui Zu (Autumn and Winter Landscapes) depicts a person hobbling forward alone beneath towering cliffs that almost seem to envelop the small figure. This work is by Sesshu, a painter who traveled across many locations in Japan and China. You can feel the bitter cold of winter just by looking at the picture.

Go on a Journey to Experience Art in Japan

    Japan has many excellent works of art, ranging from beautiful creations from antiquity to modern art pieces. You can experience Japanese history and culture, and even the country’s cutting-edge technologies through this wide selection of artwork. Why not travel across the country with a theme to visit Japan’s art venues?