Art, sound and a very small house: Three Tokyo exhibitions to see in October
This month’s highlights include an installation by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani, a retrospective of Yoshihisa Tanaka’s works made on paper and reinterpretations of the 13th-century essay “Hojoki”.
Tokyo’s creative scene is in full swing this autumn. Monocle stops by three galleries to peruse a graphic design survey, sample an immersible audio visual installation and explore a fresh take on a literary classic from 13th-century Japan.
‘Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani: Ambient Kyoto’
Azabudai Hills Gallery
Azabudai Hills Gallery is the setting for the latest presentation of a site-specific work by the late musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and visual artist Shiro Takatani. Based on Sakamoto’s 2017 release Async, the “Async Immersion” installation builds on his concept of secchi-ongaku (installed music), the spatial experience of sound that he envisaged during the album’s production.
Sakamoto’s 14-track album is accompanied by a 26.4 metre-wide screen that shows Takatani’s visuals. The imagery includes pianos, equipment from Sakamoto’s studio and landscapes that unfurl across the screen while remaining out of sync with the soundtrack. The result is a spatial experience that feels a world away from life beyond the gallery’s walls.
“Experiencing the work within the flow of the ever-changing interplay of sound and image is like watching waves or ripples in the rain,” writes Takatani. It’s “an experience that, while repetitive, never happens in the same way twice.”
‘Ambient Kyoto’ is on view until 25 October 2026; ambientkyoto.com
‘Yoshihisa Tanaka: Archive / Achieve’
Ginza Graphic Gallery
The work of prolific 46-year-old art director Yoshihisa Tanaka takes centre stage at Ginza Graphic Gallery this month. Over the past two decades, Tanaka’s work across contemporary art, architecture, photography and fashion has expanded to include explorations in paper as material and medium. In recent years, he has experimented with creating paper trainers with New Balance and designed an installation using pleated and folded Japanese washi paper to create undulating forms for Issey Miyake’s spring/summer 2024 show in Paris.
Tanaka’s enquiries into the possibilities of paper as not only a medium for print but a material in its own right appear throughout this survey. The basement gallery is filled with publications, posters and invitations spanning the past two decades. Meanwhile the ground-floor space presents design materials from the archives of businesses and universities in containers, display fixtures and other storage designed by Tanaka and made with washi. By reimagining the archive, he considers the cultural value of preserving graphic design and passing it on to future generations.
‘Archive / Achieve’ is on view through 21 October 2026; dnpfcp.jp
‘Learning from “Hojoki”: Tiny Architecture Reweaves Life’
21_21 Design Sight
The celebrated 13th-century essay “Hojoki” (“The Ten Foot Square Hut”) has long inspired people from various walks of life. The nonfiction essay, written by Kamo no Chomei, details the political and environmental situations that moved him to live in a secluded hut in Hino in the Kyoto mountains. Eight centuries after Chomei left society behind, his musings on living in an impermanent world have informed the latest show at 21_21 Design Sight in Roppongi.
Directed by Atelier Bow Wow co-founder Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, the exhibition uses Chomei’s work as a lens for examining the essence of architecture. The exhibition asked designers, builders, artists and architects to create interpretations of Chomei’s 10-foot-square dwelling, drawing from their own tools, materials and perspectives on contemporary life. Yusuke Obuchi and Jun Nakamura refashioned an abandoned feed silo into “walking architecture”, while Yusuke Omuro and Kawacho-Gumi created a storage shed based on the writings of the late novelist Chotaro Kawasaki.
Each tiny dwelling explores ideas around society and architecture in light of the challenges of contemporary life. “In order to overcome such dilemmas and anxieties, we would do well to fundamentally rethink the lifestyles to which we have become so accustomed,” writes Tsukamoto.
‘Learning from “Hojoki”: Tiny Architecture Reweaves Life’ is open until 11 January 2027; 2121designsight.jp
