Yayoi Kusama Museum
The Polka Dot Artist’s Trademark Museum
Yayoi Kusama Museum is a private museum dedicated to Yayoi Kusama, located near Waseda in Shinjuku ward in Tokyo. The modern 5-stories building is home to themed exhibitions showcasing the contemporary Japanese artist’s artworks. It is only accessible upon online reservation.
Located in Bentencho, half-way through the students’ neighborhood Waseda and Kagurazaka’s French district, the Yayoi Kusama Museum has been housed in a small, all white building with a modernist look and glassed walls since its opening in 2017. It is entirely dedicated to Yayoi Kusama, a groundbreaking visual artist known worldwide for her dotted pumpkins.
An icon of Japanese contemporary art
Born in 1929 in a well-off family of Matsumoto in Nagano prefecture, Kusama realized her artistic vocation from a very young age. At the end of World War II, she starts classical arts studies in Kyoto, then goes to the United States in 1957 where she becomes a prominent figure of contemporary art in New-York along with famous artists like Andy Warhol. There, she developed her trademark gimmicks: accumulations, dots, mirror plays and she uses various mediums such as painting, sculpture, installations, as well as happenings and performances on the themes of sexuality, nudity and death.
She comes back in Japan in the 1970s and moves in a Tokyo psychic ward in 1977. Today, she is known for her contributions to the Setouchi Triennale and for her artworks displayed in Japan and worldwide. Yayoi Kusama is also a fashion brand, with past collaborations with Vuitton, Lancôme or Uniqlo, but also her own collections and her own stores featuring her inner world.
Pop colors and obsessions
The Yayoi Kusama Museum doesn’t display a permanent collection, but rather a selection of artworks in a succession of temporary exhibitions, that rotate on average twice a year: from April to September and October to March (the following year). Each exposition displays a variety of Kusama’s artworks, including some her most famous series.
In the exhibition called Visionary Colors, visitors are immersed in Yayoi Kusama’s colorful universe as soon as entering the ground floor: a minimalist layout highlights a monumental sculpture called Tower, which is an accumulation of phallic-shaped objects of a bright pink and black dots, then a large painting (Soul Burning Flashes (A.B.Q.)) showing the same themes and colors.
A stairway is hugging the walls and reaches to the upper floors of the building where the exhibition is divided into different periods of the artist’s works. Note that taking pictures is prohibited at floors 2 and 3.
However, it remains possible to take impressive photos and videos of 2 specific artworks to feed a social network:
- I’m Here, but Nothing, an installation to immerse oneself into Yayoi Kusama’s hallucinations, with the reproduction of an apartment lit with UV light and a projection of multi-color dots from the ground to the ceiling. Visitors are admitted in small 2 to 3 persons groups, and the museum’s staff is making sure no one overstays the couple of minutes allowed in the room.
- A monstrous flower sculpture of psychedelic colors and patterns of the Flowers That Bloom at Midnight series located outdoor on the museum’s roof-top, that visitors flock to for a picture.
An elevator, decorated with mirrors and red polka dots, can be used to go back downstairs and at the ground floor.
For die-hard Yayoi Kusama fans
The time-slot reservation system is necessary to enjoy the museum that is nonetheless quite small. Note that there is no place to wait before the time slot opening hour and admission is strictly monitored with a control of the ticket bought online.
The museum also has a reading room and a view on the roofs of the neighborhood at the 5th floor, a souvenir shop at the ground floor, and a few coin-lockers to safely store coats or bulky bags.
The 90 minutes allowed are more than enough to enjoy the whole exhibition. The Yayoi Kusama Museum can make for an interesting cultural outing for contemporary art lovers, or for die-hard fans of the Japanese artist, as a complement to a walk in Waseda or after visiting the Natsume Soseki Memorial Museum located a few streets away.