As Tokyo lights up with holiday illuminations this December, the city’s indoor art spaces are offering equally beautiful sights. Leading the cultural agenda are several returning events: Tokyo Art Book Fair, a global hub for art publishing and zines; Mori Art Museum’s triennial contemporary art show, Roppongi Crossing; and the Ueno Artists Project, this year celebrating the ritual of embroidery. If we had to pick, our favorite exhibitions from the month are photographer Kozo Miyoshi’s rarely-seen, heart-wrenchingly beautiful prints, and an incredible retrospective of Kobayashi Tokusaburo, a Western-style Japanese painter and prominent cultural figure.
Read on to learn more about our pick of art exhibitions in Tokyo this December.
Kobayashi Tokusaburo, “Flowers and Boy” (1931), Fukuyama Museum of Art
Kobayashi Tokusaburo: A Retrospective
The first major retrospective dedicated to the Taisho and early Showa-era painter Kobayashi Tokusaburo reveals the extent of his contribution to Japan’s art world. Initially gaining attention within Fyuzan-kai (Fusain Society) — the first group to break away from traditional academic art, influenced by European movements like Post-Impressionism and Fauvism — he earned the nickname “Sardine Tokusaburo” for his striking paintings of fish. Tokusaburo’s characteristic voice shines most in intimate, unassuming depictions of daily life, often using his own children as models.
The exhibition traces his artistic achievements through approximately 300 works and archival materials, and shows his contributions to popular culture at the time; he contributed designs and essays to the literary magazine Kiseki, managed stage art for the theatrical company “Geijutsuza” and much more, highly regarded by the creative community of his day.
When: November 22 – January 18
Where: Tokyo Station Gallery
Price: ¥1,100 – ¥1,300
Anti-Action: Artist-Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan
During the 1950s and 60s in Japan, female artists initially gained prominence in the avant-garde scene, supported by movements like art informel. However, the subsequent introduction of “action painting” — a style closely associated with masculine ideals of boldness and strength — led to the marginalization of women painters from critical discussion.
This exhibition seeks to reinterpret modern and contemporary Japanese art history by adopting the “anti-action” perspective, a framework drawn from Nakajima Izumi’s 2019 book, Anti-action: Post-war Japanese Art and Women Artists. Through this lens, the exhibition presents artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Atsuko Tanaka and Hideko Fukushima, and many others who have been traditionally overlooked in art history.
When: December 16 – February 8
Where: The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Price: ¥1,200 – ¥2,000
©2025 Kozo Miyoshi/Vacant
A Long Interview with Kozo Miyoshi
Photographer Kozo Miyoshi, known for his quiet, reverent inquiry into the world over a career spanning more than fifty years, is presenting his first solo exhibition in more than a decade. Miyoshi’s work is characterized by its subtle rendering of light, shadow and stillness, capturing landscape and people with a sense of purity and openness.
©2025 Kozo Miyoshi/Vacant
The show features prints selected from his new photobook, A Long Interview with Kozo Miyoshi. It’s a rare chance to see works printed by the artist’s own hand using ultra-large analog negatives, which achieve a stunning level of detail that can’t compare with digital screen viewing. “Knowing that such overwhelmingly beautiful landscapes are scattered across the world gave me both comfort and a quiet sense of loneliness,” says Yusuke Nagai, founder of Vacant/Centre.
When: November 28 – December 22 (Fri-Mon)
Where: Vacant/Centre
Price: Free
Roppongi Crossing 2025: What Passes Is Time. We Are Eternal.
The Roppongi Crossing series is a triennial, co-curated exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, launched in 2004 to capture the current state of Japan’s contemporary art scene. The eighth edition, featuring 21 artists and groups, explores how art can shift and diversify our sense of time — whether it be personal, geological and social.
The exhibition spans a diverse range of media, from painting and video to crafts, zines and community projects. Some highlights include A.A. Murakami’s immersive installation using fog and light, Takuro Kuwata’s bold, colorful interpretations of historic ceramic techniques and Kelly Akashi’s intricate glass sculpture.
When: December 3 – March 29
Where: Mori Art Museum
Price: ¥1,400 – ¥2,200
Tokyo Art Book Fair (TABF)
The 15th annual Tokyo Art Book Fair (TABF) is expanding its scope by being held over two separate weeks for the first time, featuring a different lineup of exhibitors each week. The event functions as a key platform for the global community of art publishing, focusing specifically on art books, photo books, zines and other forms of printed matter.
©︎ Takashi Homma
The fair’s “Guest Country” program this year spotlights Italy, exploring its history of independent publishing through exhibitions based on revolutionary press from 1966-1977 and Italian zines from 1978-2006, as well as a feature on the publisher Corraini. Additional highlights include an exhibition by renowned photographer Takashi Homma, focusing on refugee portraits, an archival presentation by Pace Gallery, and a special “Book Wrapping Corner” with original designs by artists like Bruno Munari.
When: December 11 – 14 (Week 1), December 19 – 21 (Week 2)
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Price: ¥1,200, Students Free
Annie Morris and Idris Khan: A Petal Silently Falls
This is the last month to catch Kotaro Nukaga’s two-person exhibition revolving around Annie Morris and Idris Khan. The show marks the first exhibition in Japan for both acclaimed British artists, who are partners in life and in their collaborative practice. Morris is known for her vividly colored, precariously balanced Stack sculptures, which originated as a means of processing the grief of stillbirth but have evolved into monuments of hope and remembrance.
Khan, born to a multicultural background, creates serene, contemplative works — photographs, paintings, sculptures — that use repetition and layering to visualize the accumulation of time and the complexity of memory. This is evident in his newest piece, After the Reflection, which meticulously deconstructs Monet’s Water Lilies.
When: October 29 – December 26 (Tue-Sat)
Where: Kotaro Nukaga Roppongi, Kotaro Nukaga Tennoz
Price: Free
Okumura Togyū, “Rabbit”, Yamatane Museum of Art
Love: Japanese Paintings of Adorable Things
This winter, Yamatane Museum of Art’s diverse collection of modern and contemporary nihonga warms visitors’ hearts. The exhibition, perfect for viewing with your beloved, showcases how artists have captured the many forms of love in our lives — romance, familial love, compassion toward animals and even oshikatsu fandom.
Aptly, the exhibition is titled “Itoshii” in Japanese, an adjective that encompasses various feelings of affection, tenderness and wistfulness. Among the displayed works are Kawasaki Kotora’s painting of a child dreaming of his hometown, Okumura Togyu’s portraits of rabbits and Kaburagi Kiyokata’s depictions of tragic romance.
When: December 6 – February 15
Where: Yamatane Museum of Art
Price: ¥500 – ¥1,400
Ueno Artists Project 2025: Embroidery – Expression of Life from the Rhythm of a Needle
The Ueno Artist Project is an annual event that spotlights focused themes in artistic expression. This year, the ninth edition steps away from traditional canvases to celebrate the art of the stitch — the profound beauty of embroidery and needlework. More than just a craft, working with needle and thread is a deeply meditative process, bringing peace, focus and inner liberation for artists for centuries across cultures.
The show traces this lineage by featuring five artists whose careers span the early 20th century to the present: Toshitaro Hirano, who innovated traditional techniques; Megumi Onoe, who created vibrant, painting-like works with yarn; Mika Okada, who freely embroiders memories of landscapes and films; Yohei Fusegi, who uses daily stitching to portray internal time; and Mari Mochizuki, who felt a deep bond with the Indian Kantha tradition.
When: November 18 – January 8
Where: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Price: ¥800, Students Free
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Updated On December 3, 2025
