35 Most Famous Japanese Artists You Should Know

by Jes Kalled | ART

© Peter Mallet, Chiharu Shiota Installation

In terms of world-renowned artists, very few countries can rival Japan! From Hokusai’s Great Wave, to Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots, Japanese artists have produced iconic works that can be seen across the world. So which artist have become recognised above any other? We take a look at the 35 most famous artists from Japan.

1. Yokoyama Taikan

© Yokoyama Taikan, Autumn Leaves, 1931, Adachi Museum of Art — © Yokoyama Taikan, Autumn Leaves, 1931, Adachi Mus eum of Art

Yokoyama Taikan is one of the original creators of the traditional painting practice we now know as nihonga. In pre World War II times, Taikan deviated from the then popular practice of line drawing and ventured into a new technique that blurred and softened images. Taikan’s teacher, Okura Tenshin, was a well known nationalist, and likely influenced Taikan’s political feelings. When representing Japan abroad in Italy as an artist, Taikan continuously painted images of Mt Fuji, a reflection of the patriotism of the time. During World War II, Taikan donated much of his artistic income to the Japanese military. Following Tenshin’s wishes, Taikan dedicated his life to creating innovative techniques for the nihonga practice.

To find out more about Japanese art, head over to Japanese Art: Everything You Might Not Know!

2. Yayoi Kusama

Perhaps the most famous contemporary Japanese artist, known for her polka dots, Yayoi Kusama, is a multidisciplinary person who has an expansive practice in installation, sculpture, film, fashion, and painting among other mediums. At 92 years old the artist continues her stylized artform of repetitive dot-making in an effort to coexist with a lifelong mental illness. “Just as concealment reveals everything, or as the little hole in the peach reveals the existence of the worm, so by a similar method I want to lay bare the mystery. I want to live hidden in the world that lies midway between mystery and symbol” she said in 1955. If you want to find out where to enjoy her work in your neck of the woods, check out the 14 Best Places in the World to See Yayoi Kusama's Art.

3. Hokusai

South Wind, Clear Sky, Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai, better known simply as Hokusai, is the artist one knows without knowing him. The artist was an ukiyo-e and printmaker during the Edo period, who depicted the now incredibly famous images of Mt Fuji (an obsession of his), and The Great Wave to name just a couple. Western Impressionist artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Renoir were greatly influenced by Hokusai’s works, particularly his composition and his use of color. In his lifetime, the artist produced roughly 34,000 works of art. Explore more iconic Hokusai prints in the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.

4. Utagawa Hiroshige

© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido

Utagawa Hiroshige is recognized as one of the great masters of the traditional Japanese art form ukiyo-e, literally translated as “pictures of the floating world.” The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido is perhaps the most popular of his works, through which he helped define an era of Japanese art centered around artistic impressions of famous views. As travel restrictions loosened in Japan, artists began observing the landscape in both urban and rural areas, using art as the vehicle by which they spread these observations. In Hiroshige’s work, the viewer is often overcome with a sense of poetic possibility when looking at his serialized paintings. His use of subtle colors and the many impressions he’d make on a single print set him apart from his contemporaries, and later greatly influenced European artists like Van Gogh, Manet and Monet.

5. Tsuguharu Foujita

After graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1910, Tsuguharu Foujita moved to Paris three years later, where his artistic talents flourished. Surrounded by avant-garde artists, like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Foujita masterfully blended Eastern and Western styles. His renowned works, Reclining Nude with Toile de Jouy (1922) and The Cat (1930), showcased the richness of Japanese art, fostering global appreciation for the style. As a pivotal trailblazer in Japanese art history, Foujita's fusion of aesthetics and a commitment to artistic expression left a lasting impact and have inspired many subsequent artists.

If feline art is your thing, check out these 20 Greatest Japanese Cat Paintings You Will Love!

6. Tawaraya Sotatsu

© National Museum of Asian Art, Waves of Matsushima by Tawarya Sotatsu

Tawaraya Sotatsu was co-founder of the famous Rinpa school of Japanese painting alongside his partner, Honami Koetsu. A designer and innovator at heart, Sotatsu inspired generations of artists with his subtle but enduring techniques. He was a master of waves; perhaps this is due to the fact that he lived during a time of great transition. Sotatsu portrayed waves in their varied states; predicting and releasing water as motion in his Waves of Matsushima painting. He also left visible traces of the material and pigments he used. Most notable was Sotatsu’s implementation of a painting technique called tarashikomi, the pulling or adding of new layers of paint before the first layer has dried, which invoked feelings of uncertainty.

7. Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota is the artist you’ve been seeing on Instagram, tangling the rooms of her exhibitions in webs of red and black. The artist sets up a scene of abstraction, then adorns it with everyday objects such as boats, shoes and keys to connect and hang with the threads. Shiota was born in Osaka, but has been living in Berlin since 1997, the city of which she says has given her much inspiration for her installations. Her temporal works have been exhibited around the world, transporting her aesthetics in emotion, body, and memory from room to high ceiling room.

Make sure you also check out these 25 Japanese Women Artists You Really Should Know!

8. Kawase Hasui

The Japanese landscape artist, Kawase Hasui, was active in the Taisho and Showa era of the early 20th century. Hasui was known for his woodblock ukiyo-e prints and participating in the shin hanga (new prints) movement. His artwork reflect his love for the breeze. The scenery of Japan’s distinct four seasons can be found in his work as well. Hasui, in his delight for soft breezes, evokes a poetic lightness in his pieces, which are often thought to be soothing and calming; a respite for those caught up in the busy day-to-day of city life.

9. Sesshu Toyo

© Tokyo Museum, Winter Landscape by Sesshu Toyo

Sesshu Toyo, also known simply as Sesshu, was a Zen Buddhist monk and prominent painter of the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Using ink, Sesshu depicted landscapes on paper, painted birds and flowers on folding screens, and developed a brushstroke that would define his style. This included a tendency to diverge into moments of freedom and spontaneity, such as a splash of ink that abstracted a particular landscape or subject. Sesshu’s paintings and teachings were also influenced by his visit to China, where he gained much inspiration from nature and the monasteries he attended. The success of his paintings, both in China and Japan, led Sesshu’s work to become the gold standard of Japanese ink painting, with many artists in the proceeding centuries embracing his school of thought.

10. Tetsuya Ishida

© Tetsuya Ishida, A Man Who Has Lost The Ability to Fly

Contemporary Japanese painter Tetsuya Ishida, who died of a suspected suicide in 2005, portrayed the marriage of industry and human life. He often painted bodies merging with machines and other inanimate objects, such as conveyor belts, household appliances, buildings, or bento boxes. The effect is surreal and anguished, and it was likely influenced by Japan’s economic recession in the 1990s which would have had negative impacts on Ishida’s life. The paintings also illustrate alienation, loneliness, and powerlessness, as technology and other items subsume the human subjects – no doubt a commentary on Japan forgoing the emotional and physical wellbeing of its citizens at that time.

11. Kazuo Shiraga

© Levy Grovy Hong Kong, Furuyuki (Falling Snow)

Kazuo Shiraga was a prominent member of the Gutai Art Association, a collective of avant-garde artists determined to move forward after the Second World War and reinvent the rules of art. Abstractions had no limit for Shiraga, who began painting on canvases with his feet while hanging from ropes tied to the ceiling; a marriage of painting and acrobatic dance. A Shiraga piece is so thickly doused in paint that it almost becomes a sculpture, and it typically defies simple categorization. The strokes were emotive and often painted in moody reds and blacks.

12. Chiho Aoshima

Chiho Aoshima is a master of Adobe Illustrator, sharing her unique taste and exploration through digital images and prints, as well as diving into sculpture, and hand-painted pieces. There is no limit to the yokai spirits for Aoshima, and she continues to delve deep into their worlds by providing alternative landscapes for them to thrive in and explore. Playing with contrasts such as nature vs. technology, and utopia vs. dystopia, the artist expresses her views of a modern day society and its future. Her practice is a deeply charged place of shifts and changes.

13. Hasegawa Tohaku

Screen Depicting Musashiro Plains, Hasegawa Tohaku, 16th-17th Century

Hasegawa Tohaku was one of the most prolific artists of the pre-Edo period, with many of his pieces revered now as National Treasures. Tohaku painted a wide range of works, from folding screens to paintings that adorned the walls of homes. Two distinct styles can be found in his practice, that of a bold, expressive brush, and that of a more simplistic one. Hasegawa left behind a legacy of important themes for artists that would be inspired by his approach, not least of which was the use of monochrome and negative space; the absence of something beside a single pine tree. Enjoy more of his works in Hasegawa Tohaku: The Timeless Giant of Japanese Art.

14. Hiroshi Senju

© Hiroshi Senju, Waterfall, 2014 — © Hirosh i Senj u, Waterfall, 2014

The modern nihonga painter, Hiroshi Senju, exclusively depicts waterfalls in his work. “When I am in the middle of painting a piece, that art belongs to me...” he said in an interview for his Beginnings exhibition in 2020. “...but once I feel they are complete, they leave my hand.” Senju’s work is usually large in scale, appealing to our visual sense and yet notably invigorating the memory of other senses such as sound, smell and the experience of visiting a waterfall. Senju expresses that it’s the role of the artist to fill in the blanks of those human senses, especially when technology fails to replicate them, art steps in. Find out more in Hiroshi Senju: The Art of Waterfall Interiors.

15. Takashi Murakami

Some say the famous contemporary artist Takashi Murakami blurs the line between high brow, and lowbrow. His work can be found in commercial products, in fashion, and gracing the stages of fine art, experimenting with and perhaps even at times exploiting his identity as a creator. Each “art world,” whether it is corporate or critical, is popular in its own right. Murakami’s art movement, Superflat, consists of Japanese pop culture aesthetics. It is thought that the term, superflat, refers not only to a piece’s dimension, but also to its level of superficiality and how it conducts itself and it’s quality to be understood.

16. Tadanori Yokoo

© Tadanori Yokoo, Hino Moto no Keko, 1997

Tadanori Yokoo’s designs played a huge role in defining the aesthetic of the 1960’s, with bright and clashing colors; collages and chaos; and, of course, social critiques. The artist’s first foray into fame and controversy came from a poster exhibited in Matsuya Ginza department store in 1965, in which a dead man hung from a noose. The caption read: “Having reached a climax at the age of 29, I was dead.” His use of the imperial rising sun in the poster solidified Yokoo as a subversive character who was unafraid of creative expression. Yokoo was also involved in several projects with fashion designer Issey Miyake, including apparel lines and on card invitations. Now in his 80s, Yokoo’s presence is still felt on social media and on his personal website, where you can find dairy-style entries of his musings.

17. Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma is an architect known around the world, perhaps in part due to the incredible amount of projects he has commissioned. Known to work with wood and natural materials, Kuma’s recent work represents a more modest approach to design. His interest in nature extends to his interest in craftsmanship, particularly in how and where the materials are made. Buildings designed by Kuma are carefully planned to work in harmony to the environment, and the materials used are usually sourced locally. Large projects, such as the Japan National Stadium, and smaller projects, like Sunny Hills in Omotesando, show the diversity of Kuma’s creative oeuvre.

18. Taro Okamoto

© Yamashita Yohei / Creative Commons, Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum

Before making it in Japan, Taro Okamoto worked hard to excel in the mid-20th-century Parisian art world for ten years. While there, he moved from abstract art to a more surrealistic focus. He studied ethnology and philosophy at the University of Paris, and became so enthralled that these disciplines likely influenced much of his work. Okamoto believed that art was meant to be separate from capitalism, once stating, “Art means to live everything in a human fashion.” The Tower of the Sun is one of Okamoto’s most famous works. Created for the Expo ’70 world fair in Osaka, it has more than one face: the Golden Mask which represents the future, the Face of the Sun representing the present and the Black Sun which holds vigil for the past. For Okamoto, there was great symbolism in the unity of these three components of time and space, in which he sought to bring about the center of things.

19. Kishio Suga

Kishio Suga was an important member of the Mono-ha movement, meaning “School of Things.” The movement was an initiation towards art as a state of mind. Artists used materials such as wood, stone, steel, and cotton in their unadulterated states in an attempt to represent impermanence. With Mono-ha, Suga created many installations in which he studied the uses and meanings of things, beginning as a point of interest before diving into a period investigation and experimentation. In addition to his Mono-ha installations, he has also published three novels and a screenplay.

20. Makoto Aida

© Mizuma Art Gallery, Picture of a Waterfall

Often considered a provocateur, Makoto Aida is a prominent contemporary artist in Japan. A multidisciplinary creator, he works through several mediums: painting, video, manga, photography, and sculpture. Aida is known for depicting naked or scantily clad young girls in his art, some of which are grotesque and have led to controversy. In one of his paintings, the subject is a highly sexualized female being molested by a dragon set against the backdrop of a city, suggesting that her body and her pain belongs to the public. When holding exhibitions, Aida works closely with the museum coordinators to manage the ways in which people view his art, such as having a designated room for adults over the age of 18. In an interview with the Tokyo-based Mori Art Museum, Aida acknowledged that “sexual works are a delicate issue.”

21. Utamaro Kitagawa

Known for his work in ukiyo-e and bijinga okubi-e (paintings of beautiful women with large heads), Utamaro Kitagawa is credited with some of Japan’s most famous and well known pieces of art. Although his personal life and history is somewhat shrouded in mystery, what is left behind is a substantial 2,000 paintings, each displaying his unique approach of painting subjects with exaggerated features. There are no records of him, be it letters, diaries, or legal documentation, but there are many theories and speculations bequeathing him titles like “a mastery of femininity,” and an “expert on women.” To learn more, Discover Japanese Beauty Through Utamaro’s Masterpieces.

22. Mariko Mori

Multidisciplinary artist, Mariko Mori, explores the hybridity and cross sections of future, technology, life and death. Using mediums such as photography, video, interactive installation, and sculpture, the artist plunges an audience into alternative realms of discourse. Her practice, though futuristic and embodying elements of technology, often refers to the oneness of nature, and one’s natural surroundings, particularly the expanse and scale of it.

23. Nahoko Kojima

© Nahoko Kojima, Shiro Paper Cut Sculpture, 2018 — © Nahoko Kojima, Shiro Paper Cut Sculpture, 2018

Nahoko Kojima began kirie (the art of paper cutting) when she was just five years old. “When I was a child I would lie down on my back on the grass and draw the underside of flowers. I think when we discover a hidden beauty, we leave our bodies and look [at] ourselves, the object and environment, all as one lovely epiphany.” The internationally known artist makes all her pieces by hand, and has shown her giant paper sculptures in galleries around the world. One of her most famous works is a whale that is 32 meters long. The artist’s careful attention to refined detail is reflected in each one of her pieces, regardless of its monumental size. Take a look at the Greatest Kirie Japanese Paper-Cutting Artists You Should Know.

24. Mika Ninagawa

© Mika Ninagawa, Liquid Dreams — © Mika Ninag awa, Liquid Dreams

Famous Japanese photographer, and now filmmaker, Mika Ninagawa is known for her love of intensely bright colors. The artist encompasses several subjects and genres into her work. Close ups of saturated goldfish and flowers are just part of her repertoire. Ninagawa also delves into fashion and portraiture, dipping her toes into the commercial and advertorial end of the pool. One of her most recent projects was a Netflix series called “Followers,” in which the audience follows the kaleidoscopic lives of women at various stages of their careers in Tokyo. Highly saturated filters switched on.

25. Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, Woodblock Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Known as one of the principal masters of ukiyo-e in the late Edo period, Utagawa Kiniyoshi, prevails in keeping things dark and interesting unlike many of his fellow painters of that time. Bloody executions, lingering demons and ghosts, and gore-ish brightly colored depictions of violence make up the body of his imaginative work. Some have said Kuniyoshi’s saturated, colorful and fantastical content is likely to have inspired the works in manga and animation we see today. If you like this sort of thing, find out Why Utagawa Kuniyoshi was the Most Thrilling Ukiyo-e Master!

26. Tadao Ando

© 663highland / Creative Commons, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art

Self-taught and world renowned architect, Tadao Ando, maintains the belief that "to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society." Through designing buildings and structures, he is in effect creating both physical and metaphysical rooms for thought. What makes Ando an international icon may be his tendency to design with a sense of geometry and complexity in order to create works that exude atmospheres of emptiness; where effort and power exist behind the simplistic and austere. Though Ando can be categorized as a modernist with a minimalistic aesthetic, particularly due to his penchant for concrete, it’s important to mention his reverence for maintaining a balance with nature; how he finds inspiration in an environment and accentuates its natural quality. If you’d like to see some of his work in person, check out our list of 10 Iconic Tadao Ando Buildings.

27. Matsuo Basho

Portrait of Basho by Hokusai, late-18th century

The 15th-century poet and Zen Buddhist, Matsuo Basho, is widely known as the greatest of Japan’s haiku masters. Throughout his life, Basho wrote 1,000 poems, inviting readers to enter a frame of mind that harmonizes with nature, if only for a moment. Basho’s poetry evolved throughout his lifetime, beginning with his life in Edo (now Tokyo) in literary circles, and expanded as he set off on a life of wandering across the country. This resulted in his travelogue, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a work for which Basho is still globally renowned.

28. Yasumasa Morimura

Yasumasa Morimura is a contemporary conceptual artist who works extensively with photography and film. His oeuvre is composed of heavily edited works in which he has meticulously transformed himself into famous works of art, such as the The Mona Lisa or the Sunflowers of Vincent Van Gogh. Working across various mediums, from costume design and makeup to digital editing, Morimura casts himself into another universe of being. Through replication, alteration and subversion, he questions identity and gaze, and reinvents the prism through which we view iconic content.

29. Gutai Group

© 2023 Whitestone Gallery, Untitled SHIM-P-3

The Gutai Group – from gu (具), meaning “tool” or “concrete”; and tai (体) meaning “body” – takes its name from its initiative to use the body as a form of art; a means of physically expressing while in the process of creation. In the post-war era, this pushed their work beyond normal artistic expectations and limitations, propelling the movement forward into the future. Artists like the aforementioned Kazuo Shiraga, who painted with his feet, and Shozo Shimamoto, who threw bottles of paint onto the canvas, experimented with the ways in which their bodies could be used to generate emotion in their art. The Gutai Group was influential in both the East and the West, embodying a session of passion and creative freedom that inspired artists across the globe.

30. Nobuyoshi Araki

© Nobuyoshi Araki, Sacchin, 1962-63 — © Nobuyoshi A raki, Sacchin, 1962-63

Arguably one of the most well known photographers in Japan is none other than Nobuyoshi Araki, or just Araki, to those who follow his work. At 81, the artist has produced over 500 photobooks in his lifetime. One of his earliest photo series, titled Sacchin, documents children in the Shitamachi neighborhood in 1964, just before the Tokyo Olympics. The landscape and neighborhood is noticeably underdeveloped despite the nation’s rush to change and modernize amid the historical international event. Araki later became well known for his erotic photos of women. In 2018, empowered by the #metoo movement, a Japanese model known as Kaori, came forward in a blog post about Araki’s emotional bullying during their photoshoots. “He treated me like an object,” she wrote. Many have debated whether Araki’s work is the essence of genius or pornography.

31. Osamu Tezuka

© Kobunsha, Astro Boy, by Osamu Tesuka — © Kob uns ha, Astro Boy, by Osamu Tesuka

The manga artist, animator, and cartoonist gained international acclaim for his series Astro Boy, but created about 700 other manga comics, drawing over 150,000 pages in his lifetime. Tezuka is fondly called The Father of Manga, The God of Manga, and The Walt Disney of Japan, for his imaginative and prolific creations. Tezuka had an industrious and passionate work-ethic. His biography, The Osamu Tezuka Story, reveals he felt conflicted about this practice that often kept him awake for several hours. After World War II, Japan dove into social and economic change, and the manga industry began to thrive. Tezuka was part of this wave, but didn’t hesitate to do things his own way, all the while wearing his signature glasses and black beret.

Make sure to check out the 20 Best Female Manga Artists You Need to Know.

32. Hiroshi Sugimoto

© Sugimoto Hiroshi, TriCity Drive-In, 1993 — © Sugi moto Hi roshi, TriCity Drive-In, 1993

Japanese photographer and architect, Hiroshi Sugimoto, explores memory and time with a spatial practice. The contemporary artist seeks to capture what is invisible by experimenting with long exposure and light. In his search he plays with the concept of what is reality and what is construction. “A photographer never makes an actual subject; they just steal the image from the world,” he says. His work is currently being shown in galleries around the US, and in Japan.

33. Yoshitomo Nara

© Yoshitomo Nara, Missing in Action, 1999

The wide-eyed (and sometimes closed eyes) children-like figures found in Yoshitomo Nara’s paintings are emotive, complex, and even beloved. Nara’s art celebrates the inner self, the unknown, and freedom of the individual. Though a famous painter, his work covers several other mediums such as sculpture, installation, and photography. And yet in each piece, an audience can grasp a similar sense of rebelliousness, mood, or memory that is both auto-biographical and universal. The artist has had about 40 exhibitions around the world in his career so far, but calls the small prefecture of Tochigi his home.

34. Yoko Ono

Multimedia artist and activist, Yoko Ono, at 88 years old is impossible to miss. The conceptual artist is everything counterculture, from her beginnings with Grapefruit to her more recent work with navigating social media and communicating directly to an audience. The artist’s lifelong work that engages with gender roles and power systems evokes many emotions for an international audience who is at times (even still) reductive in their understanding of her and her work. The 1964 Cut Piece, in which she asked an audience to cut off pieces of her clothing while she sat stoically in place, serves as proof of her deep understanding of her art, it’s interactive place and purpose, and the reactions to it.

35. Hayao Miyazaki

© Studio Ghibli, Princess Mononoke, 1997 — © Stu dio Ghibli, Princess Mononoke, 1997

Co-founder of the world renowned Studio Ghibli is the famous animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, Hayao Miyazaki. Just a few of the many notable Ghibli movie titles include, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. Miyazaki’s artistic style, although often debated amongst theorists and fans, spans themes of nature, power systems, diversity, and what it means to be human. Although in many ways mysterious and enigmatic, Miyazaki has shared several thoughts throughout the years about his work, creative process, and the many worlds he has created in his films. “The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos” he says.