The Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) has outlined the best places to visit in Japan to discover the life and legacy of the late Yayoi Kusama, who passed away in Tokyo in August leaving behind an extraordinary seven-decade career.
Kusama passed away in Tokyo on 14 August 2026 at the age of 97.
Travellers can explore the places that shaped Kusama’s life and encounter her iconic works from Matsumoto to Tokyo.
Travellers can find Kusama’s works in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, The Kurkku Fields in Kisarazu, Chiba, the Kirishima Open Air Museum, Towada Art Center and the Hara Museum ARC in Gunma.
The journey
The journey begins where Kusama was born, in her hometown of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture in 1929. She grew up here and began painting as a child, developing her early artistic abilities that would be the foundation of her career. The Matsumoto City Museum of Art has an extensive collection of her work and visitors are greeted by The Visionary Flowers, a towering installation of brightly coloured tulips. There is a dedicated, year-round Kusama exhibition, currently covering her artistic journey from her early Matsumoto works through to pieces from her vibrant, large-scale My Eternal Soul paintings, filled with recurring faces, eyes, and colourful abstract forms.
While in Matsumoto, travellers can explore the historic Matsumoto Castle, Nakamachi and Nawate shopping streets.
From Matsumoto, Kusama moved to Kyoto in 1948, where she studied Japanese-style painting at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts before developing the distinctive visual language that would eventually take her to New York. Today, visitors can see her work in the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, including the 1964 mixed-media sculpture Travelling Life. Kyoto inspires today, a city that celebrates creative beauty, from shining gold pavilions to quiet bamboo groves and the bright Fushimi Inari Shrine.
From Kyoto, Kusama moved to the US in 1957 to establish herself in New York’s avant-garde art scene, returning to Tokyo in 1973 where she continued to write fiction, poetry, created outdoor sculptures, large-scale installations and the Infinity Mirror Room series. She established her studio in Shinjuku, Tokyo until her death.
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