Takashimaya prices its 120th-anniversary art show like a museum ticket, not a free gallery stop

Takashimaya has set the first show in a two-year programme marking what it calls the 120th anniversary of its in-house Art Department, with contemporary artist Yasumasa Morimura as general supervisor, the company said.

The exhibition, titled "Mr Morimura Thought It Through at the Department Store: Art Suits Everyday Life," runs at the Nihombashi Takashimaya S.C. main building's 8th-floor hall from March 4 to 22, 2027, before moving to Osaka Takashimaya's 7th-floor Grand Hall from March 25 to April 12 (Osaka dates are provisional). Morimura directs the show, with curation by Ayano Hayashi and exhibition design by Hiroshi Yoshino. Alongside new work by Morimura -- known for self-portraits that recast himself inside famous paintings -- it will show pieces and archival material from Takashimaya's own collection, including works by Le Corbusier, the painter Tsuguharu Foujita and the poet Akiko Yosano, plus a diorama reconstructing past in-store exhibitions. Planned admission is ¥1,800 for adults, ¥1,000 for high-school and university students, and free for junior-high pupils and younger.

Takashimaya traces the Art Department's history to a 1909 show, "Gendai Meika Hyakufuku Gakai," staged across its Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo stores, and says it will mark the department's 120th anniversary in 2028 with the two-year exhibition programme that this show opens, under the banner "Beyond beauty: expansion and fusion."

The detail worth noting is the ¥1,800 door. Department-store art departments in Japan have usually sold the works on their walls, not tickets to see them; pricing a flagship Nihombashi-and-Osaka anniversary show like a museum exhibition treats the gallery as its own paid attraction rather than a free draw toward the shop floor around it.