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Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan.

Art in the City: Tokyo Gallery Guide

by John McGee

Tokyo isn't known as an international contemporary art mecca, as many frustrated young Japanese artists can attest. Often the most promising young artists leave Japan for New York or London hoping to gain the respect and recognition that eludes them in their own country. Artists like Mariko Mori, Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama have fled Japan for foreign shores, returning triumphant international art stars some years later (or, more accurately, their work returns for periodic visits while they continue to live abroad). Fortunately, an increasing number of young and established galleries show progressive new artwork, both international and domestic.

But with around 1,000 galleries hidden down so many small back streets, knowing where to start can be overwhelming.

As in music, wine and fashion, taste in art varies. The galleries selected here deal in contemporary art from the last five to 30 years and showcase a variety of artists—from emerging to mature, blue-chip to micro-chip, local to international—and a variety of media, from the traditional (drawing, painting and sculpture) to the hip (performance, photography, video and new media).

Body building

Tokyo galleries can be roughly divided into four types: commercial, rental, corporate identity and "other." As in most places, commercial galleries make money through the sale of artwork in their exhibitions. Generally, they maintain a "stable" of approximately 10-15 domestic and/or foreign artists whose shows rotate through about once every 18 months to two years. Exhibitions last about a month. The artists within this stable are chosen by the gallerists so commercial galleries often have a distinguishable character or aesthetic or they may show a certain type of work exclusively.

Rental galleries, on the other hand, charge artists or groups of artists a fee to use their space. Shows usually run for a week at a time. For the artists, this is an expensive (starting from JPY100,000 per week), but foolproof way to get their work shown. The challenge for rental gallery owners is to maintain a certain quality or character that commercial galleries acquire through longer shows by recurrent artists.

While commercial and rental galleries may sit side-by-side on a crowded street and appear indiscernible in form, corporate galleries are usually housed under a giant logo inside company headquarters. Corporate galleries may or may not sell the work. They may operate solely as product showrooms: Pentax, Nikon, Kodak and other camera and film makers have their respective salons. Epson's epSITE gallery promotes the printer companies' latest technology by reproducing large photographic works on their state-of-the-art machines.

But corporate galleries are not always so literal in their self-promotion. They may explore related issues and, in the process, show a wide range of contemporary art. TOTO Corporation, of heated toilet seat fame, hosts the architecturally oriented Gallery MA in Nogizaka. NTT's InterCommunication Center (ICC) gallery in Hatsudai focuses on technologically inquisitive artwork. INAX, a TOTO rival, houses their eponymous twin galleries in Kyobashi, one dedicated to young contemporary artists (Japanese and foreign) and the other to traditional and folk arts. There's also a small but excellent architectural bookstore.

The final, rather unfairly amorphous category, "other," includes galleries that are incorporated into bookstores—the Forum Art Shop in Yurakucho, On Sundays and Nadiff (both in Jingumae/Harajuku), restaurants or cafés (e.g. Ben's in Takadanobaba), and embassies (especially the Swedish embassy in Roppongi, the Austrian embassy in Moto-Azabu, and the Canadian embassy in Akasaka). Art shown in these places is usually a kind of bonus or incentive for visiting rather than the primary business. 

Straight to the art

Now, a little bad news: navigation. Tokyo galleries tend to cluster in small groups scattered throughout the city, often quite distant from each other.

When visiting such's far-flung galleries, surrender to the flaneuristic charm of constantly un-losing yourself. Take patience, some good Nihongo "where is...?" phrases and, by all means, a Tokyo Bilingual Atlas (a detailed map of the city), which provides clear guidance through the city's gnarled blocks and byways.

It's easier to venture via localized geographic nodes than to rely on nameless streets and crossroads. Tokyo's primary gallery clusters then are found in Aoyama, Ginza, Roppongi, Diakanyama/Naka-Meguro, Nishi-Shinjuku and shitamachi (the "old town" on the east side of the Sumida River, near the Museum of Contemporary Art). A host of interesting others lie nestled alone here and there around town.

The most highly recommended (mainly commercial) art galleries are listed in bold type. Also listed are other galleries that are in the vicinity of these main galleries and are generally worth a look. Some nearby museums or other fee-based spaces are also mentioned.

Finally, please remember art is a notoriously subjective experience entangled in webs of promotion, commerce and snobbery that all too often befuddle and exclude rather than inform and include. As in music, wine and fashion, go with what you like rather than what you think you should like.

Gallery Guide

Aoyama

Aoyama has lost most of its one-time prestige as a prime gallery location, replacesd by fashion. Nonethless, there are still places to see. Corporate-sponsored Saison Art Program (behind United Nations University) promotes young Japanese artists through their gallery and related services. Nadiff  is an art bookstore/café/gallery, a combination sure to make even the most finicky gallery trawler happy. Gallery 360° specializes in works on paper, posters, and editions.

Also in the area: Las Chicas/Vision Network, On Sundays art bookstore (inside Watari-um Museum) and Spiral Garden.

Ginza

Koyanagi Gallery is probably one of the best known of Tokyo's high-powered contemporary art galleries. They show mostly established artists like Hiroshi Sugimoto, Rei Naito, and Hamish Fulton. Gallery Yamaguchi, Base Gallery, and other small (primarily rental) spaces are nearby in Kyobashi.

Many rental spaces of variable quality dot the cramped blocks east of Chuo-dori (toward Higashi-Ginza/Tsukiji). There are also many spaces throughout Ginza which re-sell all manner of work, including porcelain, prints, paintings, screens, etc.

Roppongi & Akasaka

Complex is a building housing a number of important young-ish galleries in a back  area of this entertainment district not far from the Mori Art Museum. It's an easy place for one-stop gallery hopping. Ota Fine Arts represents Tsuyoshi Ozawa, one of Japan's most interesting young artists. Taro Nasu Gallery and Roentgenwerke are also on the premises, as is the not-to-be-missed art bar, Traumaris. Speaking of great art bars, check out Super Deluxe which is just a few blocks away. Gallery Side 2 is slightly farther away in Akasaka. But it's just across the street from the Japan Foundation, the cultural arm of the national government that often holds exhibitions in their Japan Foundation Forum space in Akasaka Twin Tower building. Architecturally themed Gallery MA is around here too (in Nogizaka). Also nearby, on the edge of Aoyama Cemetery, is the new museum National Art Center, due to open in January 2007 with the nation's largest exhibition space.

Daikanyama & Naka-Meguro

The architecturally distinguished Hillside Forum, a group of buildings designed by Fumihiko Maki (of Aoyama Spiral Garden fame), houses Hillside Forum and Hillside Gallery in two of its buildings. Between them is Gallery Speak For, which specializes primarily in graphic design and contemporary fashion (which often blurs with contemporary art in Japan). Their location in the Ebisu-Nishi,  Daikanyama, Naka-Meguro hipsters paradise of small shops, restaurants and hair salons makes for a nice walking tour.

Mizuma Art Gallery, one of the city's best, is just down the hill on the edge of Naka-Meguro. They show mostly young Japanese artists like Makoto Aida and Akira Yamaguchi.

Nishi-Shinjuku

Just out of Hatsudai Station on the Keio New Line are NTT's ICC gallery and the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Both of these charge admission and operate more like museums than galleries but are listed here because of their proximity to Wako Works of Art and Kenji Taki Gallery several blocks away. Wako shows mostly established European and American artists, especially photography (e.g. Larry Clark and James Welling). Taki shows mostly young to mid-career Japanese artists.

Kagurazaka

This former entertainment neighborhood (now mostly residential) hosts three contemporary galleries in one space: Kodama Gallery (a branch of the Osaka space), Yamamoto Gendai and the Takahashi Collection.

Shitamachi

One must-see compound is the warehouse space in Kiyosumi that houses Tomio Koyama Gallery (which represents Yoshitomo Nara, Shintaro Miyake and other hot artists), Taka Ishii Gallery (Araki and others), Hiromi Yoshii and Shugo Arts. It's not far from the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art (MoT), which makes a good combination.

SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, located in an old sento (bath house) near Ueno, holds a variety of exhibitions, mostly by Japanese artists.

More info

This list is by no means exhaustive (1,000, remember?) but is meant to point to the consistently interesting galleries—those that are plotting out a bright future for Tokyo's contemporary art scene.

For updated listings of what is on view at many of these galleries as well as Tokyo's numerous museums, refer to local resources such as Metropolis, Tokyo's free weekly magazine. Otherwise, information about what is happening at galleries is often available at other galleries—they always stock their colleagues' announcements in big piles near the door.

©2007 John McGee

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