Featured Events in Kyoto in June, 2025 (June Updated)

This exhibition introduces the world of prints by world-renowned avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama (1929-). Yayoi Kusama made her international debut at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993 as a representative Japanese artist, but her active involvement in printmaking from an earlier stage of her career was a major driving force behind her current acclaim. In 1979, Yayoi Kusama exhibited her first prints. In contrast to her other works based on themes such as death and suffering after returning from the U.S., her prints are rich in color with vivid motifs. In addition to abstract expressions of her earlier works, motifs such as pumpkins, dresses, grapes, flowers, and butterflies covered in distinct colors and composed of mesh and polka dots are distinctive in her printworks. It is no exaggeration to say that Kusama, whose creative activities are rooted in the proliferation of dots and nets, inevitably encountered printmaking, an art of reproduction.

Legend has it that the Kannon of Kiyomizu-dera Temple transforms into a blue dragon and drinks from the waterfalls at night, so this event is held to honor the Yasha Goddess, and to pray for the people who come to worship. The dancing blue dragon parades from Okuno to the cobblestone streets around Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The blue dragon is believed to be one of the four great gods that protect the city of Kyoto. In addition to the blue dragon, there are men dressed in traditional samurai clothes, and the streets are filled with music and spectacular dancing. It's really magical! The Spring Festival is on March 14-15 and April 3. The Fall Festival is September 14-15, starting at 14:00 (2pm).

The November Uprising in Warsaw in 1830 and its failure the following year were the indirect reasons why Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin ended up spending the rest of his life in Paris after leaving his homeland. In 1795, Poland was divided and occupied by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and disappeared from the world map. After this, there were repeated uprisings and rebellions calling for the independence of the homeland, but they had to wait until the end of World War I in 1918 for this to be realized. For these 123 years, the people who had lost their country based their identity on the arts, including literature, music, and painting, as well as culture in a broad sense, including language and religion. And the ancient city of Krakow played an important role as the center of all this.

In 2013, "washoku" (traditional Japanese cuisine) was registered as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Ten years have passed since then. The special exhibition "Washoku - Japanese Nature, People's Wisdom" has been touring the country since its debut at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, and is now coming to Kyoto, the home of washoku. Washoku, which is gaining more and more attention around the world, will be introduced from multiple perspectives, including science and history, along with a wide variety of specimens and materials. The exhibition will explore the diverse ingredients nurtured by the diverse nature of the Japanese archipelago, the technologies born from people's wisdom and ingenuity, historical changes, and even the future. We will explore the charms of washoku, which may seem familiar but is surprisingly unknown.

The Izumi Museum has a collection of more than 3,500 pieces, with a core collection of about 500 Chinese bronzes and bronze mirrors. Both in terms of quantity and quality, it is the leader in overseas bronze collections. Therefore, the "Age of Chinese Bronze" held at the Izumi Museum this spring is also worth paying attention to. If you go to visit the Izumi Museum's reopening exhibition, we also recommend that you pay special attention to this bronze exhibition, including the museum's treasure Tiger You, the early Warring States period chime bells, the Qiang bell, the Kui God drum, the owl zun, the taotie pattern square lei, the taotie pattern square yi, the ge you and other important bronze objects in the collection are all on display.

To commemorate this, we will introduce the development of transportation, centered on railroads, in the Keihanshin area around 1970, along with scenes from the Expo held 55 years ago.

This exhibition will focus on the Hosomi Collection and will feature folding screens that can be enjoyed spread out in space, as well as picture scrolls that can be enjoyed by playing them out in front of your eyes. In addition to the "Toyotomi Hoko Yoshino Cherry Blossom Viewing Screen," which depicts Toyotomi Hideyoshi's cherry blossom viewing procession, and the "Suzuriwari Soushi Emaki," which was once a treasured possession of Ashikaga Yoshizumi, the 11th shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, visitors will be able to experience the unique qualities of these different painting styles and appreciate the appeal of each individual work.

Kuroda Jutaro, a prominent figure in the Kyoto Western-style painting scene, was not only a painter but also a prolific writer. His literary works conveyed the trends of European art, particularly those in France, and played a significant role in the acceptance of Western art in Japan. His 1947 publicationKyoto Yoga no Reimeiki(“The Dawn of Kyoto Western-style Painting”) provides a systematic account of the development of Western-style painting in Japan, focusing on Kyoto. With the publication of a revised and expanded edition in 2006, the book remains an essential work for understanding the Kyoto Western-style painting scene today. This Special Display traces the formation of Kyoto’s Western-style painting scene as told by Kuroda, introduced through the Museum Collection. From pioneers such as Tamura Soryu, the establishment of the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting, the formation of the Kansai Bijutsukai, and the arrival of Asai Chu in Kyoto, please enjoy exploring the foundations that shaped the development of Western-style painting in Kyoto.

Focusing on the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art, along with masterpieces from the National Museum of Western Art, we will offer tips on how to enjoy viewing Western paintings. All of the world-renowned masterpieces on display from the San Diego Museum of Art, including works by Giorgione and Sánchez Cotán, will be on display in Japan for the first time. As we trace the history of Western art spanning 600 years, from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century, we invite you to come and find your own "where to look" at the venue.

Ryukoku Museum (about a 12-minute walk from Kyoto Station, in front of Nishi Honganji Temple) will be holding a spring special exhibition, "Otani Expedition: Yoshikawa Koichiro - Search and Perseverance, Exploring the Man" from Saturday, April 19th to Sunday, June 22nd.

The Izutsu Hachibashi Family Festival is a family-friendly event held by Izutsu Hachibashi Honpo. Izutsu Hachibashi Honpo is a famous traditional wagashi (Japanese confectionery) manufacturer in Kyoto, Japan, famous for producing Hachibashi. The festival usually includes a variety of family-friendly activities such as wagashi making experience, traditional cultural demonstrations, game booths, and food tasting. The event aims to allow participants to have a deeper understanding and experience of Kyoto's traditional culture and food charm through interaction and experience. It is a joyful event suitable for the whole family to participate in.

Kyoto has long been home to numerous textile artists, whose exceptional designs are founded on dyeing and weaving techniques that have been cultivated over many years. Since the modern era, a more innovative approach to dyeing and weaving was sought, as seen in the handwoven brocades of Yamaga Seika and Nakamura Hosei, who express rich textures by weaving together various materials, as well as the fiber art movement that gained popularity from the late 1960s onwards. This exhibition introduces the textile art of Kyoto from the 1930s to the present, incorporating recent acquisitions while focusing on techniques, choices of materials, and distinctive forms of expression. For the first time since the Museum’s renewal, the Collection Room Spring will be held on the second floor of the North Wing. Please enjoy the impressive works in this spacious gallery.

This special exhibition aims to present the historical treasures of Japanese art in the cultural exploration and exchange between China and foreign countries on the occasion of the 2025 Osaka World Expo. Over the years, more than 200 rare regional artifacts, including paintings, sculptures, sketches and crafts, have been exhibited, spanning more than 1,000 years from pre-Japanese history to the Meiji era, and are a mockery of cross-cultural exchanges in Japanese art.

In the spring of 2025, 65 years after its opening in Shishigatani, Higashiyama, Kyoto, the museum will reopen with a new look after a year of renovation work. The first commemorative event will feature a carefully selected collection of masterpieces of art and crafts from Japan, China, and Korea from ancient times to the early modern period, focusing on the art pieces handed down by the Sumitomo family, which have always been the core of the museum's activities. These include masterpieces that have been famous since ancient times, excellent pieces that have been discovered to have new value over time, and rare pieces that have the potential to attract attention in the future. Each piece shows a different expression each time you encounter them, sometimes noble, sometimes gentle. This is a rare opportunity to rediscover the depth of the timeless Sumitomo Collection, which touches the hearts of all who see it.

During the beautiful green foliage season, the beautifully landscaped gardens will be open to the public free of charge, and various events will be held to celebrate the birthdays of the founders, Kobo Daishi and Kokyo Daishi. There will be ceremonies to celebrate the birthdays of the sect's founders, Kobo Daishi and Nakako Kobo Daishi, as well as the Saito Goma ceremony, and the landscape gardens from the Momoyama period and paintings on the lecture hall's sliding doors will be open to the public free of charge. There will also be tea ceremonies held in the Chishaku-in main hall, and visitors can collect seals as they tour the various halls.

Ying Ying takes as her subject matters events and systems in society that are invisible or ungraspable, such as slaughterhouses, oil extraction, the steam cycle, and the wool industry, and attempts to "approach" them through performances using life-size installations. The performances consist of installations made of everyday objects such as wood, cloth, and plastic, and the inadvertent actions of moving these installations, which are interpreted and reconstructed by the artist and presented in the form of a series of abstract mechanisms. The "Approach" series can be said to be a practice in which the artist herself turns her gaze and approaches the "unknowable". This is not only a repetitive act for understanding, but also a reflection of the way we look at the work. The exhibition will show works presented in various ways, including immediate or conceptual understanding, misreading, and misunderstanding.

Ishikawa Kyuyo’s calligraphy works, with their overwhelming momentum, delicate expression, and unique presence, have completely broken the long-standing discussion of “Is calligraphy painting or writing?” He reinterpreted the “writing” that was originally placed in painting and gradually blurred its essence. While drawing on the long historical background of East Asia, he captured the essence of the text and showed us what the art of calligraphy is like as a living expression.

This show is not for the easily offended! It’s comedy at its best, a comedian who is unapologetically honest, woke and hilarious! Wanna see a dirty immigrant tell dirty jokes? If you’re someone who thinks we should question everything about life, love, religion and politics then you’re going to love traveling Romanian comedian Victor Patrascan. Victor's curiosity surpasses his fear. He likes to poke the truth with a stick and see if there's any life left in it. He’s bringing his honest, thought provoking and unapologetic stand up comedy show to Tokyo. Expect a night of English comedy at its best on the most controversial topics of today from Victor Patrascan! You'll hear tasteful jokes about race, gender, the pandemic, religion, identity politics and all the other controversial topics of today. 🎭 STAND-UP COMEDY in ENGLISH 🎭 🔞Age Restriction: 16+ 🎟️ online tickets from ¥2250 / tickets on the door ¥4000 The show will be held entirely in English Victor Patrascan 🇷🇴 • VictorPatrascan.com • @VictorPatrascan Victor Pãtrãşcan is an eccentric stand up comedian and outrageous social commentator from Romania. He’s been on tour consistently for the last 5 years with his self-produced shows all over Europe and Asia. He is now on probably the longest and most extensive self-produced comedy show ever in the world. He honed his craft for joke writing in the London comedy circuit where he lived until 2020. Since then he has lived on the road and has been constantly on tour. In some places, such as Kazakhstan, Kosovo, or in remote fishing villages in Iceland, he was the first comedian to ever perform comedy in English. Victor has told his jokes in Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Singapore, Turkiye, Sweden, France, Serbia, Switzerland, Georgia, Finland, Belgium, Iceland, Ukraine, Albania, Malta, Serbia, Spain, Estonia, Italy, Cyprus (both sides), Ireland, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Portugal, Kosovo, Gibraltar, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway, Slovakia, very close to the Vatican, Thailand, Georgia, UK, Slovenia, Armenia, Croatia, Poland, Latvia, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, UAE, Denmark, Moldova, Vietnam, Hungary, and even Bulgaria. In 2024 alone, Victor self-produced 298 shows and performed to over 35,000 people on 2 continents, in 48 countries and 114 cities. He also raised over €33,000 for children and pets in Ukraine and for doctors working in Palestine and Lebanon. Victor’s style is distinctly shaped by his peculiar life as a vagabond. Victor weaves this unique experience into his stand up as he has become somewhat of a sponge absorbing the intricacies of European culture and politics. While he jokes about the stereotypes and misconceptions of every country, he also highlights the silliness of our presumed differences in an effort to assert our humanity. Victor is now on tour • for more information, visit VictorPatrascan.com Information Source: the Comedy Nomad | eventbrite

The Ta-Etsu Festival is a traditional festival held at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, which is aimed at praying for a good agricultural harvest and a good harvest of grains. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is located in Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the famous Inari shrines and is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates. The Ta-Etsu Festival is usually held at a specific time of the year. There will be a simulated rice planting ceremony during the event. Participants wear traditional costumes and symbolically plant rice in the rice fields within the shrine. This event is not only a prayer for agriculture, but also a heritage and display of traditional culture, which attracts a large number of tourists and believers to come and watch and participate.

The Arashiyama Wakaayu Festival is a traditional event in the Arashiyama area of ​​Kyoto, Japan, which celebrates and prays for a good harvest of catfish (also known as sweetfish). The event is usually held at a specific season each year, and participants can watch traditional fishing performances and various catfish-related celebrations. During the festival, visitors can not only experience the local traditional culture, but also taste catfish-featured food. This event attracts a large number of tourists to watch, and has become a major special festival in the Arashiyama area.

Japanese Instrument Koto class @ the heart of Kyoto Come join us for a unique experience in the beautiful city of Kyoto! Our koto class will take place at the charming Gojo Paradiso 五条パラディソ, where you'll learn how to play Japanese instrument koto from a skilled instructor. Immerse yourself in the rich culture of Kyoto while playing this traditional art form. Don’t worry if you’ve never played a musical instrument before, this workshop is beginner-friendly, and our instructor will provide guidance to help you master the song. Don’t miss out on the chance to create lasting memories and connect with Japan’s musical heritage in a fun, interactive setting! Please make a reservation by the day before. Information Source: Gojo Paradiso - Kyoto | eventbrite