Image: Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art
The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art will open the special exhibition 'Circus! Welcome to the World of Dreams' on 1 August, running through 23 September 2026 in its basement exhibition room. The museum says the show will trace the appeal of circus imagery in art through works from modern Europe and Japan, alongside related materials connected to the circus as a cultural phenomenon.
According to the museum’s exhibition page, the display is organized by Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Sanyo Shimbun and OHK Okayama Broadcasting, with cooperation from the National Museum of Ethnology and Kinoshita Circus Co., Ltd. The exhibition also includes support from the Okayama Prefectural Board of Education, Okayama City Board of Education, the Okayama Foundation for the Promotion of Local Culture, the Okayama Cultural Federation and the Okayama Association for International Exchange.
The museum frames the exhibition as an art-historical look at modern circus, which originated in 18th-century Europe and arrived in Japan in the late Edo period. Its introduction says circus performers’ brilliance, noise and spectacle, as well as the sadness and hardship that can accompany traveling entertainers, have long drawn artists’ attention. Among the Japanese artists mentioned are Yasuo Kuniyoshi, who worked in the United States in the 20th century, and Taikan-era figure Takehisa Yumeji, identified by the museum as a painter and poet associated with the Taisho Romantic movement.
A special feature of the show is 'Light Paper-Cut Art', an immersive work by paper-cut artist Atsumi Sakai, with music by Hajime Sakita. The museum describes it as an original piece for the exhibition, set within a space measuring 7 meters wide and 17 meters deep, where an audiovisual circus world unfolds. The exhibition will also present materials from Kinoshita Circus, which the museum says is based in Okayama and is known as one of the world’s three major circuses.
The exhibition runs from 1 August to 23 September 2026, with a first phase through 23 August and a second phase beginning 25 August, and selected works will be rotated during the run. Opening hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with late openings until 7 p.m. on 29 August and 19 September. The museum is closed on Mondays, except 10 August and 21 September.
Ticketing includes advance admission for general visitors at 1,200 yen, available from 13 May to 31 July through the museum ticket counter and selected sales outlets. Same-day prices are listed as 1,500 yen for adults, 1,300 yen for visitors aged 65 and over, 1,000 yen for university, high school and under-18 visitors, and 500 yen for elementary and junior high school students, with free entry for preschool children. The exhibition ticket also grants access, during the same period, to the museum’s concurrent 'Okayama Art Exhibition' collection display. Related programs include lectures on 2 and 8 August, a mini circus show on 29 August, a museum talk on 'Modern Japanese Painters and the Circus' the same day, and guided dialogue-based viewing tours on 15 and 22 August, 29 August and 5 September.
