[2026–2027] Guide to Photography Exhibitions and Festivals: From the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum to KYOTOGRAPHIE

From autumn 2026 into 2027, exhibitions of photography and moving images and photo festivals continue around Japan. At the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Ebisu, Tokyo, “New Japanese Photography vol. 23” and “Duet: Asian Contemporary” run until Sunday, January 17, 2027, joined from Saturday, October 31 by the “Kimura Ihei Award 50th Anniversary Exhibition.” This article introduces 11 exhibitions and festivals in Tokyo and the Kanto region, Aomori, Okayama, Kumamoto and Kyoto.

The Kimura Ihei Award, founded in 1975 as an award for emerging photographers, reached a milestone with its 50th edition, announced in 2026. One of its past winners, Lieko Shiga, opens a solo exhibition at the Aomori Museum of Art on October 31, which the museum says will be the largest of her career. On Saturday, April 17, 2027, the Kyoto International Photography Festival, KYOTOGRAPHIE 2027, begins.

Photography exhibitions and a moving-image festival at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Ebisu)

Reassembling: New Japanese Photography vol. 23 (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 3F)

The 23rd edition of the “New Japanese Photography” series, running since 2002, in which five artists, Sayuri Ichida, Taro Karibe, Zai Nomura, Baku Hashimoto and Asako Fujikura, show 34 works. Their methods range widely, from Karibe, who deliberately misuses generative AI as a “metaphysical camera,” to Nomura, who records the light of burning portrait photographs with long exposures. Hashimoto creates work in public at the venue during the exhibition.

Dates: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 – Sunday, January 17, 2027
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 3F Gallery (Ebisu, Tokyo)
Details in our article on New Japanese Photography vol. 23

Duet: Asian Contemporary (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2F)

The second edition of a series introducing contemporary photography and video from China and Japan, co-curated by the museum and the director of the Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre in China. Six artists, including Toshiya Murakoshi and fumiko imano, take part, and according to the museum, the works by all four Chinese artists are being shown at a Japanese public museum for the first time.

Dates: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 – Sunday, January 17, 2027
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2F Gallery
Details in our article on the Duet exhibition

Kimura Ihei Award 50th Anniversary Exhibition (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, B1F)

Commemorating the 50th edition of the award for emerging photographers founded by The Asahi Shimbun in 1975, the exhibition presents award-winning works and more. There are 62 winners, from Kazuo Kitai at the first edition to Kanade Hamamoto at the 50th; works by some winners are not shown, and in some cases works other than the award-winning ones are shown. On Thursday, November 19, a talk show is scheduled with speakers including Lieko Shiga and Naoya Hatakeyama.

Dates: Saturday, October 31 – Monday, November 23 (national holiday), 2026
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, B1F Gallery

Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2027 (provisional) (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum)

An international festival of moving images and art combining exhibitions, screenings and live performances, held annually in Ebisu since its first edition in 2009. The four artists selected for the 3rd Commission Project, Umi Ishihara, Ai Iwane, Ryo Orikasa and Koichi Sato, are scheduled to present new video works. The overall theme, participating artists and prices had not been announced as of October 20.

Dates: Friday, February 5 – Sunday, February 21, 2027 (3F gallery only until March 22)
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, B1F, 2F and 3F Galleries
Details in our article on the Yebisu festival 2027

Naoki Ishikawa (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, fiscal 2027)

A solo exhibition by photographer Naoki Ishikawa, included in the first round of the fiscal 2027 lineup announced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture on October 9. It centers on recent works shot in polar regions, on high peaks, on islands and in cities. According to the foundation, in 2024 Ishikawa became the first photographer in the world to fully summit all 14 peaks over 8,000 m.

Dates: July 10 – September 20, 2027
Venue: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Details in our article on the fiscal 2027 lineup of Tokyo’s metropolitan museums

Photography and video exhibitions in Tokyo and the Kanto region: Artizon Museum and Maebashi

Jam Session: The Ishibashi Foundation Collection × Hikaru Fujii, WHOSE LIGHT? (Artizon Museum)

Hikaru Fujii, known for his video installations and a participant in the Rencontres d’Arles (2024), shows 22 works from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection alongside a dozen or so of his own works, including new ones. One new work is built mainly from documentary photographs he took at the US National Archives of archival materials on Japanese war record paintings compiled by a US military intelligence agency.

Dates: Saturday, October 24, 2026 – Sunday, January 31, 2027
Venue: Artizon Museum, 6F galleries (Kyobashi, Tokyo)
Details in our article on the Hikaru Fujii exhibition

The 1st Maebashi International Art Festival 2026 (Maebashi City, Gunma)

An art festival in which 70 artists and groups from Japan and abroad install works in central Maebashi, including photography. Naoki Ishikawa’s “Journey to Denjiro” is a photographic display tracing the friendship between Denjiro Hasegawa, said to be the first Japanese to photograph the Himalayas, and Kunio Igaya, who lived on Mt. Akagi. In a former shop on the 4th floor of the Hause Building, Mika Ninagawa with EiM presents a theatrical, space-filling work.

Dates: Saturday, September 19 – Sunday, December 20, 2026
Venues: Arts Maebashi and other locations in central Maebashi
Details in our article on the Maebashi International Art Festival

Photography exhibitions in Aomori, Okayama and Kumamoto: Lieko Shiga, hugely magnified insects and For Placards

Lieko Shiga: Nanumo Kanumo (Aomori Museum of Art)

A solo exhibition by Lieko Shiga, who works with photography and video from her base in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. It reconfigures her 2025 exhibition “Nanumo Kanumo” and adds new photographs and videos shot in Aomori and elsewhere in Tohoku, presenting works about the lands of Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Akita, Iwate and Aomori. Shiga received the 33rd Kimura Ihei Award in 2008.

Dates: Saturday, October 31, 2026 – Sunday, March 14, 2027
Venue: Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori City)
Details in our article on the Lieko Shiga exhibition

Takeshi Yoro and Kenji Kohiyama’s Insect Exhibition: Look, Feel and Then Think (Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art)

A two-person exhibition by anatomist Takeshi Yoro and information and communications researcher Kenji Kohiyama. Kohiyama’s “Micro Presence” photographs are made by focus stacking: an average of 30 to 50 shots are taken of each insect and the in-focus parts are combined. Insect photographs magnified hundreds of times and Yoro’s words are presented through panels, three-dimensional displays and video.

Dates: Friday, October 9 – Sunday, November 29, 2026
Venue: Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Basement Gallery (Kita-ku, Okayama)
Details in our article on the insect exhibition

For Placards (Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto)

Taking as its starting point “For Placards,” a text written in 1961 by artist Mitsuko Tabe, the exhibition consists of works by seven artists, including Tabe. Shingo Kanagawa, who has shown photographs of people close to him, presents two series, “Prayer / Nagasaki” and “A Bright, Nice Room,” and Lieko Shiga shows the video installation “When the Wind Blows” and two photographs.

Dates: Saturday, September 19 – Sunday, November 29, 2026
Venue: Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto (Chuo-ku, Kumamoto)
Details in our article on For Placards

A photo festival in Kyoto: KYOTOGRAPHIE 2027

KYOTOGRAPHIE Kyoto International Photography Festival 2027 (Kyoto)

An international photography festival co-founded in 2013 by Yusuke Nakanishi and Lucille Reyboz, held every spring at Kyoto’s cultural spaces, such as machiya townhouses, galleries, museums and temples. The 2027 theme, artists and venues will be announced later. According to the affiliated open-call program KG+, Sridhar Balasubramaniyam, winner of the 2026 KG+SELECT Award, will hold an exhibition as part of the main program.

Dates: Saturday, April 17 – Sunday, May 16, 2027
Venue: Kyoto (venues to be announced)
Details in our article on KYOTOGRAPHIE 2027

Frequently asked questions

Which photography exhibitions are free or discounted for students?

At the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the New Japanese Photography and Duet exhibitions are free for students and high school students from 17:00 to 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays from November 5 to 27, and free for everyone on January 2 and 3, 2027. The Artizon Museum is free for university, vocational school and high school students (online reservation required), and the Aomori Museum of Art’s Lieko Shiga exhibition is free for those 18 and under and high school students.

When can I see all three exhibitions at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum at once?

The New Japanese Photography exhibition on 3F, the Duet exhibition on 2F and the Kimura Ihei Award anniversary exhibition on B1F are all on from October 31 to November 23. Opening hours are 10:00 to 18:00 (until 20:00 on Thursdays and Fridays), and the B1F gallery is excluded from the museum’s discounts and free admission days.

Summary

From November, when three exhibitions overlap at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, through the winter of Lieko Shiga’s solo exhibition to KYOTOGRAPHIE in spring 2027, exhibitions of photography and moving images continue around Japan.

*Information as of October 20, 2026. Please check each article and the official websites for dates, prices and reservations.

*Top image: Aomori Museum of Art, September 2014 (Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on TOKYO ART SPHERE’s individual articles and official information from the organizers.

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team