In Tokyo, an immersive review of arts and music, with a stop in Milan in November
Public success for the exhibition “Arte Japan ž Italia Exhibition in Spring”, organized to celebrate the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan, and organized with the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Tokyo. The event, hosted in the Flusso space in the Omotesando district, in the center of the Japanese capital, proposed a dialogue between different artistic languages, combining visual arts, music and dance in a single immersive experience. The protagonists of the exhibition were several Italian artists, supported by Japanese authors. Completing the journey were the performances of the nihon buyō dancer Ayano Shirota, the soprano Airi Nakano and the pianist Tsumugi Koshika, who enriched the immersive character of the initiative.
The exhibition is part of a traveling project that includes a second stop in Milan in November 2026, with the organization entrusted to the artist Katia Papaleo, already among the participants of the Japanese edition. “I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to all those who came to visit us and to all the people who contributed to the realization of this project”, the organizer Ryona Sakuraghi told ANSA, underlining the value of the meeting between cultures. “Through my experience in Italy, I perceived that, even between different cultures, there is a common sensitivity towards beauty, and at the same time I understood how cultural differences represent a great wealth.” At the basis of the project, added Sakuraghi, is the idea of a “resonance in differences”, capable of transforming cultural comparison into a shared space of artistic dialogue. “During the event I felt an authentic dialogue emerge between artists and the public, something that goes beyond words”, he observed, hoping that the event could become a starting point for new connections between Italy and Japan. Along the same lines, Katia Papaleo, who highlighted the international dimension of the project: “It happens that artistic bridges are created all over the world. Meetings that determine ideas and international exchanges. This is what happened when the project was born with Ryona”. The artist – who exhibited the painting ‘The last autumn of a maiko’ – then underlined the value of the Japanese experience, defining it as “a true meeting between cultures, people and traditions”. The initiative confirms the role of art as a privileged tool of cultural diplomacy, capable of strengthening historical ties and opening new prospects for collaboration between the two countries.
