December 2026 Exhibition and Art Event Calendar: The Louvre Exhibition Closes, YORUNOYO, Hakuin and More

In December 2026, exhibitions and art festivals that began in autumn come to the end of their runs one after another. “Louvre Museum Exhibition: Renaissance” at the National Art Center, Tokyo closes on the 13th, and the international art exhibition “TOKYO ATLAS” in the waterfront area closes on the 20th. The arts festival “ARTE TOKYO,” organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and others, also ends on the 31st. Meanwhile, “Stratified Languages” opens at the National Museum of Art, Osaka on the 1st, and “YORUNOYO 2026” begins in Yokohama on the 4th. This article gathers, in date order, events starting in December, exhibitions ending and light events at their best.

It is also the month in which the art festivals launched in 2026 all enter their final stretch. The urban culture and arts festival ARTE TOKYO, TOKYO ATLAS and the “1st Maebashi International Art Festival 2026” in Gunma are all first editions. At the end of the year, watch out for museum closures, too. The Orsay exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum closes for the holidays from December 22, and the Maruyama Okyo exhibition at the Edo-Tokyo Museum from the 25th. The Turner exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art and the Takehisa Yumeji exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo close for the year-end and New Year holidays from the 28th. November events are gathered in our November art event calendar.

Exhibitions and light events starting in December

Opens Tuesday, December 1: Special Exhibition “Stratified Languages” (National Museum of Art, Osaka)

The exhibition presents video, image and text works dealing with places where languages, ethnicities, cultures and ideologies intersect, such as border regions in Asia. The 16 participating artists and groups include Kenshichi Heshiki, Cao Fei, Chikako Yamashiro, Meiro Koizumi, Ilya Kabakov and Kei Imazu. Running times have been published for six video works; Cao Fei’s “MatryoshkaVerse” runs 37 minutes 38 seconds. It is introduced in detail in our article on “Stratified Languages”.

Dates: Tuesday, December 1, 2026 – Sunday, March 14, 2027
Hours: 10:00–17:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays)
Closed: Mondays (open on January 11), December 28 – January 4, January 12
Venue: B3F Galleries, National Museum of Art, Osaka
Admission: General 1,800 yen, university students 1,200 yen; high school students and younger and those under 18 free

Opens Friday, December 4: YORUNOYO 2026 (Yokohama)

“Highlight of Yokohama,” a five-minute show that links more than 3 km of the city, from Minato Mirai to Yamashita Park, with light and music, will be held nine times a day. A record 47 facilities will take part. At “Kujiland,” which uses the entire rooftop of Osanbashi Pier, a 25-meter whale of light appears in an interactive outdoor projection mapping that the organizer bills as one of the largest in Japan. It is also introduced in our article on YORUNOYO 2026.

Dates: Friday, December 4 – Wednesday, December 30, 2026
Hours: 17:00–21:05 (shows every 30 minutes from 17:00 to 21:00, 5 minutes each)
Venue: Yokohama’s central waterfront area (Osanbashi Pier, Yamashita Park and elsewhere)
Admission: Free

Opens Saturday, December 12: The Art of the Lotus Sutra: To Make Is to Pray (Suntory Museum of Art)

The exhibition presents faith in the Lotus Sutra through three themes, “Building Pagodas,” “Copying and Dedicating Sutras” and “Making Buddhist Images,” and also looks at the Lotus Sutra faith of early modern painters. The museum says it focused on the fact that acts of “making,” such as copying sutras and creating Buddhist statues, are cited in the sutra as good deeds. Works will be changed during the exhibition to protect them.

Dates: Saturday, December 12, 2026 – Sunday, February 7, 2027
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays)
Closed: Tuesdays; Tuesday, December 29 – Friday, January 1 (national holiday)
Venue: Suntory Museum of Art (Roppongi, Tokyo)
Admission: General 1,800 yen, university students 1,200 yen, high school students 1,000 yen (on the day); junior high school students and younger free

Opens Thursday, December 17: “Hakuin’s Zen, Planned and Produced by Studio Ghibli” Kyoto Exhibition (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art)

The exhibition displays fine works by Hakuin Ekaku, a Zen monk of the Rinzai school, and expresses the messages in his works through video. The museum positions it as the second part of “Zen and Ghibli,” which closes on December 6. Works listed include Hakuin Ekaku’s “Kannon by a Lotus Pond” (Edo period, 18th century, Seiso Memorial Museum).

Dates: Thursday, December 17, 2026 – Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday)
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30)
Closed: Mondays (open on national holidays), December 28 – January 2
Venue: Higashiyama Cube, New Wing, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
Admission: General and university students 1,700 yen, junior high and high school students 1,100 yen, elementary school students 700 yen (on the day)

Opens Saturday, December 26: Lucie Rie: Graceful Vessels Connecting East and West (Abeno Harukas Art Museum)

The exhibition introduces her forms, which combine suppleness and tension, her vividly colored glazes and her sgraffito and inlay techniques. Works by Bernard Leach, Hans Coper, Shoji Hamada and others with whom she had exchanges are also displayed, and the National Crafts Museum is cooperating on the project. It is introduced in our article on the Lucie Rie exhibition.

Dates: Saturday, December 26, 2026 – Sunday, March 7, 2027
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10:00–20:00; Mondays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays 10:00–18:00
Closed: Thursday, December 31; Friday, January 1, 2027 (national holiday)
Venue: Abeno Harukas Art Museum (Abeno Harukas 16F)
Admission: General 1,800 yen, university and high school students 1,400 yen, junior high and elementary school students 500 yen (on the day)

Other events starting in December

• Tuesday, December 1: Omotesando Illumination (until the 25th, from sunset to 22:00; both planned) and Enoshima’s “Shonan no Hoseki (Jewels of Shonan) 2026–2027” (until February 28, 2027; lighting hours not yet announced) begin. For details, see our feature on illuminations in Tokyo and the Kanto region.

• December: Works gather in ARTE TOKYO’s Yoyogi and Shibuya area. Shinji Ohmaki’s “Gravity and Grace” is shown at the United Nations University, and Takuro Tamayama’s work using 100 fluorescent lights at Yoyogi Park, among others. The nighttime program at Hama-rikyu Gardens has been decided as “teamLab Hamarikyu,” open from Wednesday, November 25 to Thursday, December 24, 18:00–21:15 (last entry 20:30) (paid; advance reservation for a specific date and time required).

• December 13: At the Naoshima New Museum of Art (Kagawa), an exhibition by Kei Imazu & Bagus Pandega is scheduled to begin as the display following the winter changeover. The museum will be temporarily closed from Tuesday, November 24 to Saturday, December 12 for the changeover.

• Late December: The large VR experience facility “Immersive Journey Osaka” is scheduled to open on the 8th floor of Hilton Plaza East in Umeda. Prices have not been announced.

At their best in December: limited showings, rotations and late openings

• Tuesday, December 1 – Sunday, December 13: The Bigelow exhibition at the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art displays Kano Hogai’s “Merciful Mother Kannon” (Important Cultural Property, Tokyo University of the Arts). It is shown only for these two weeks of the exhibition.

• Monday, December 7 – Sunday, December 13: For the final week of the Louvre exhibition, a timed-entry ticket, priced the same as a same-day ticket, is required. The museum is open until 20:00 from December 7 to 12.

• Weekdays from Tuesday, December 8 to Friday, December 18: University and vocational school students are admitted free to the Orsay exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum).

• From Wednesday, December 16: Shojo Manga Infinity (National Art Center, Tokyo) enters its second period, with the color works changed.

• Saturday, December 19: “Lieko Shiga: Nanumokanumo” at the Aomori Museum of Art is open until 20:00 for Night Museum.

• Until Sunday, December 20: The third period of Utagawa Hiroshige: Best Angles of Edo (Tokyo National Museum). Its signature work is “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival,” and all works are changed for each period.

• Until Thursday, December 24: The first period of Maruyama Okyo: Beyond the Real – A Spatial Revolution (Edo-Tokyo Museum). The second period starts on Saturday, January 2, 2027, and the Important Cultural Property “Peacocks on a Pine Tree” is on view throughout.

Exhibitions and festivals ending in December (in order of closing date)

Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6

• Saturday, December 5: NAKED meets Nijo-jo Castle 2026 (Former Imperial Villa Nijo-jo Castle, Kyoto)

• Sunday, December 6, Tokyo: Tada Minami—Still, shimmering light (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), Katsushika Oi’s “Night Scene in the Yoshiwara” and the Lineage of Night Scenes (Ota Memorial Museum of Art), Special Exhibition Commemorating the 700th Anniversary of Its Founding: “Daitokuji, the Unrivaled Zen Garden of Japan” (Tokyo National Museum)

• Sunday, December 6, Kansai: Zen and Ghibli (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art), Andrew Wyeth Exhibition (Abeno Harukas Art Museum), NAKED GARDEN NIGHTS Higashi Honganji Shoseien (Kyoto; introduced in our guide to night viewing in Kyoto)

• Sunday, December 6, elsewhere: VIE presents ZEN NIGHT Kamakura (Kenchoji), “Imagination of Travel: Contemporary Art in Inuyama,” a regional program of the international art festival “Aichi” (free; introduced in our guide to art and light events in the Tokai region), Ryuichi Sakamoto + YCAM Forest Symphony (Joeiji Temple, Yamaguchi)

Sunday, December 13

• Tokyo: Louvre Museum Exhibition: Renaissance (National Art Center, Tokyo), The 50th Year of the SOMPO Museum of Art – Albert Marquet: A Retrospective (SOMPO Museum of Art), Synchronic Constellations: Stars That Shared Time – The Gaze of Art Across Borders (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

• Tokai and Kyoto: Bigelow exhibition (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art), Kodaiji Temple Autumn Night Special Viewing (with a new projection mapping work)

Sunday, December 20

• Art festivals: the international art exhibition TOKYO ATLAS (Daiba, Aomi and Tennozu; free, with some paid programs), the 1st Maebashi International Art Festival 2026 (closed Wednesdays)

• Tokyo: Utagawa Hiroshige: Best Angles of Edo (Tokyo National Museum), Marimekko: The Power of Patterns (Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum; timed-entry reservations), The Design of Shoya Yoshida: The Future Envisioned by the New Mingei Movement (Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art; timed-entry reservations on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from November 28)

• Osaka and Fukuoka: NHK Sunday Museum 50th Anniversary Exhibition (Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka), The Karun Thakar Collection – Indian Chintz: A Story That Traveled the World (Fukuoka Art Museum)

Sunday, December 27 and Thursday, December 31

• Sunday, December 27: Collection Dialogue – Matsukata Kojiro × Yamamura Tokutaro, The Passion for Collecting (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art)

• Thursday, December 31: ARTE TOKYO (Tokyo International Culture and Arts Festival), Midosuji Illumination 2026 (Osaka)

Illuminations and projection mapping to enjoy in December

Many Christmas light events end around December 25, while large facilities in the suburbs and neighboring prefectures continue until spring 2027. They are listed in order of closing date.

Until December 25–27

• Keyakizaka Illumination “SNOW & BLUE” at Roppongi Hills: about 970,000 LEDs along a tree-lined avenue of about 400 meters. 17:00–22:00 until Friday, December 25 (66 Plaza until Sunday, December 27).

• MIDTOWN CHRISTMAS 2026 (Tokyo Midtown): 17:00–23:00 until Friday, December 25. The soap-bubble show “MIDWINTER LIGHTS” runs until Sunday, December 20, and the “Light Promenade” of about 340,000 bulbs until Tuesday, February 23, 2027 (national holiday). The illuminations are free.

• MARUNOUCHI BRIGHT HOLIDAY: a lighting show at the symbol tree “HOGWARTS SNOW TREE” in the Marunouchi Building, set to music from the “Harry Potter” film series, until Friday, December 25.

• Odori venue of the Sapporo White Illumination: 16:30–22:00 (until 24:00 from the 23rd to the 25th), until Friday, December 25.

• Huis Ten Bosch’s “European Holy Christmas”: the “Grand Chandelier Tree,” shining with about 9,000 crystals, stands until Friday, December 25.

• Nabana no Sato (Mie): from December 23 to 25, there is a special opening from 15:00 with no daytime opening, and a date-specified ticket, limited in number and sold on a first-come, first-served basis, is required.

Continuing from the year-end into 2027

• Until Wednesday, December 30: YORUNOYO 2026 (Yokohama). Until Thursday, December 31: Midosuji Illumination 2026 (Osaka, from about 17:00 to 25:00).

• Until Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday): teamLab Fukuoka Castle Ruins Light Festival. In December, doors open at 18:15, and advance reservations for a specific date and time are required from Tuesday, December 29 to Thursday, December 31.

• Until Sunday, February 14, 2027: Marunouchi Illumination 2026, Ashikaga Flower Park “Garden of Flowers of Light” (the theme until late December is “Christmas at the Flower Park”; closed Thursday, December 31).

• Until late February 2027: The Starlight Million (Huis Ten Bosch, until Thursday, February 25), Shonan no Hoseki (until Sunday, February 28).

• Until spring 2027: Yomiuriland Jewellumination and Tokyo German Village until Sunday, April 4, Sagamiko Illumillion until Sunday, May 9, and Nabana no Sato until May 31.

• Year-round: TOKYO Night & Light (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building). In December, it is screened eight times from 17:30 to 21:30. Free to watch.

Light events across Japan are also introduced in our feature on projection mapping and light events across Japan.

Frequently asked questions

Which museums and facilities are open over the year-end and New Year holidays?

The Mori Art Museum’s “Mariko Mori: All That Shines” is open every day during the exhibition, with Saturday, Sunday and holiday prices applying on Wednesday, December 30 and Thursday, December 31. teamLab Planets TOKYO is open until 20:00 on December 31. teamLab Fukuoka Castle Ruins Light Festival is also open from December 29 to 31, with doors opening at 18:30 from Friday, January 1, 2027. On the other hand, the National Museum of Art, Osaka is closed from December 28 to January 4, and the Hakuin exhibition at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art from December 28 to January 2.

Which exhibitions require reservations at the end of their runs?

From Monday, December 7, the Louvre exhibition cannot be entered with advance or same-day tickets; a timed-entry ticket is required. The Marimekko exhibition uses timed-entry reservations (no reservation needed for junior high school students and younger). The Tokyo National Museum states that no advance reservation is required for its Hiroshige and Daitokuji exhibitions.

Which events can be enjoyed for free in December?

YORUNOYO 2026 is free to enter, and TOKYO Night & Light at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is free to watch with no advance application. The Tokyo Midtown illuminations and Light Promenade, and TOKYO ATLAS (with some paid programs), can also be seen for free. “Imagination of Travel: Contemporary Art in Inuyama,” until December 6, is also free to view (some events are paid). The Osaka Festival of the Lights is free in principle.

*Information as of October 19, 2026. Please check the official websites for the latest information.

Projection mapping shows you can see over Christmas (December 24–25) are listed with dates, times and admission in our guide to projection mapping at Christmas 2026.

*Top image: Yamashita Park venue (image) (from a press release by THE YOKOHAMA ILLUMINATION / YORUNOYO Executive Committee)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on official announcements by each organizer and venue (as of October 19, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team

A note from the publisher

*Disclosure: Among the events introduced in this article, HITOHATA, INC., an affiliate of HITOHATA ASSOCIATION, the general incorporated association that operates TOKYO ART SPHERE, has been selected as the best proposer for the production work on the projection mapping at Osaka City Central Public Hall in OSAKA Hikari-Renaissance 2026. The company is also involved in the planning and production of “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU,” and it plans and produces “Hiroshima Castle Winter Wander 2026” (About us).

Opens Friday, December 11: OSAKA Hikari-Renaissance 2026 (Nakanoshima, Osaka)

One of the core programs of the “Osaka Festival of the Lights 2026,” it projects projection mapping onto the east front of Osaka City Central Public Hall. The theme is “Osaka, a Festive Night of Light.” It depicts windows of light, falling snow and stars, and Santa Claus racing across the night sky, and is scheduled to be screened every 12 minutes. It can be combined on the same night with the Midosuji Illumination, which runs until December 31. Highlights and access for the screenings are covered in our article on the Central Public Hall projection mapping.

Dates: Friday, December 11 – Friday, December 25, 2026
Hours: Screenings at the Central Public Hall 17:30–21:30 (last screening from 21:20)
Venue: From the Osaka City Hall area to Nakanoshima Park
Admission: Free in principle (some area programs are paid)

Opens Friday, December 18: Hiroshima Castle Winter Wander 2026 (Hiroshima)

A nighttime event in which projection mapping is shown on the keep, the Omote-gomon Gate and the stone walls of Hiroshima Castle, and the Gomon-bashi Bridge and the Honmaru are illuminated. According to Hiroshima City’s research (as of October 2026), it is the first projection mapping on the keep. It presents digital animations with motifs associated with “Carp Castle,” such as Hiroshima’s rivers, nishikigoi carp and koinobori carp streamers, and video of ukiyo-e prints depicting the World Heritage site Itsukushima Shrine. The keep ended public access to its interior on March 22, 2026, and its exterior becomes the stage at night. It is introduced in detail in our article on Hiroshima Castle Winter Wander 2026.

Dates: Friday, December 18, 2026 – Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday) (closed December 31 – January 3)
Hours: 17:30–21:00
Venue: Hiroshima Castle (Motomachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima)
Admission: Free (no advance application required)

Sunday, December 20: At the Gifu City Museum of History, “Ukiyo-e Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU” is free for junior high school students and younger on Family Day. The museum is closed from Monday, December 28 to Monday, January 4, 2027.