For nearly 40 years, Tokyu Bunkamura, located in the back alleys of Shibuya, has been a hub for a wide range of cultural activities, from modern Western art to photography, film, ballet, and Kabuki. The adjacent Tokyu Department Store main branch closed in 2023 and has already been demolished, but Bunkamura, a cultural center of Shibuya, still remains in its former location and occasionally hosts events. However, "The Museum," the art museum that was the central facility of Bunkamura, will be closed for a while and will be relocating to a 1000 square meter space on the 7th floor of the "Shibuya Upper West Project," a mixed-use complex currently under construction (scheduled for completion in 2029).

As the final exhibition of "The Museum" before its closure, Bunkamura is holding a special exhibition for those who have loved the museum: a solo exhibition by photographer Yuriko Takagi titled "Threads of Beauty 1995-2025 - Clothed in Time, Clothed in Wind," with free admission.

This special exhibition, coinciding with Shibuya Fashion Week 2026 Spring, will run for only 20 days, until March 29th (Sunday), and will be open every day during that period. The venue is Bunkamura The Museum (not Hikarie Hall).

Yuriko Takagi, known for her collaboration with Christian Dior, which also involved designing the venue for Kyoto's Nijo Castle at KYOTOGRAPHIE in 2023 and was re-exhibited at the "French Pavilion" at the Osaka-Kansai Expo, focuses on her representative series, "Threads of Beauty," in this exhibition.

What is coolness?

The series "Threads of Beauty," featured in the exhibition, is a series of photographs taken over 30 years (1995-2025) of the daily lives of people wearing traditional clothing around the world. It's not a record of folklore, but rather a series that the artist continued to photograph purely out of fascination with the "coolness" of the subjects.

"Why are these people so cool?"

This is the question that Takagi has been pursuing for 30 years since he began photographing "Threads of Beauty." The overwhelming "coolness" emanating from the demeanor, atmosphere, and way of life of the people captured in the approximately 120 photographs. Takagi has always held the question "What is fashion?" at its core, believing that it is not merely clothing, but an expression of identity inherited from the land, community, and ancestors and passed on to future generations. Today, traditional clothing from around the world, like the Japanese kimono, is disappearing from everyday life. The photo exhibition is also a quiet but powerful question posed to us who wear ready-made clothes and live in cities. While Takagi laments this situation, he accepts it as a natural process of transitioning to modern lifestyles.

Born in Tokyo, Takagi studied graphic design at Musashino Art University, then fashion design at Trent Polytechnic in the UK, and began her career as a fashion designer. Eventually, she transitioned to photography. Initially focusing on landscapes and nudes, she also began working with fashion brands. In particular, her unique perspective on Dior's archive pieces has breathed new life into the relationship between photography and clothing.

Takagi says, "For me, photography is a physical object. A material."

In an era where viewing things as data on textureless screens has become the "norm," most of the works exhibited this time are on bamboo washi paper.After printing, the images are torn by hand, sewn onto fabric with a sewing machine, and then varnished. The varnish deepens the blacks and recreates the original beauty of photographic paper, such as baryta paper. "You can't appreciate this texture just by looking at it on a screen. That's why I want people to come to the exhibition," says Takagi.

Near the exit, a video work created specifically for this exhibition is screened, adding a new dimension to the exhibition. The work simultaneously displays footage shot in Shibuya and footage shot in Colombia and India.

"Shibuya used to be much funkier. The Shibuya of the time when these photos were taken was stylish and had a presence that put it on par with ethnic minorities around the world," says Takagi. The footage of Shibuya from that era that Takagi unearthed and the daily lives of people on the other side of the world are shown on the same screen. The loose connections between these distant places make you feel that the world is one continuous entity.

Photographs as "objects," space as "memories."

The venue design was handled by architect Tsuyoshi Tane. He founded ATTA (Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects), based on the concept of "Archaeology of the Future," which means "creating architecture from the memory of place," and has worked on projects all over the world. He has worked on projects such as the Estonian National Museum and the Hirosaki Brick Warehouse Museum, and has attracted attention for being appointed as the design architect for the new Imperial Hotel Tokyo main building, scheduled for completion in 2036. Tane has also received the French Order of Arts and Letters Chevalier and the 67th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for New Artists.

Yuriko Takagi and she first met about 10 years ago when they gave a talk at an ISSEY MIYAKE exhibition. They promised to collaborate from that time onward. That promise was fulfilled at the 2023 international photography exhibition "KYOTOGRAPHIE." The exhibition, held at Nijo Castle, a World Heritage Site, became a big topic of conversation, and a representative from Bunkamura saw the exhibition and contacted the two of them.

When asked about the final exhibition at "The Museum," Tane said, "I wanted to make the most of the memories this place holds. The space of Bunkamura The Museum has a history of 37 years of exhibitions. I thought that by layering Takagi's photographic world on top of those memories, we could create an experience that could only be born here."

Unlike the exhibition at Nijo Castle, where visitors could enjoy the natural light filtering through the shoji screens, "The Museum" is an underground space where no natural light enters at all. Therefore, the lighting was carefully considered, recreating natural scenes such as lightning that the nomadic people featured in the photo exhibition likely experience on a daily basis (this was handled by Dotworks).

Tane says the exhibition was completed almost entirely through unspoken understanding, with hardly any meetings, but he says Takagi's words, "When roads are built, the minority groups disappear," left a lasting impression on him.

"The moment I heard those words, I felt like the design of the venue was decided," says Tane. "No set route. No predetermined flow of movement. The goal was to create a space where visitors could move around according to their own senses, as if wandering through a pathless village."

That's why there's no set route for this exhibition. There's no designated flow of movement. The photographs are sewn onto cloth and hung up. Visitors are free to wander around the venue, as if "meeting" the 120 people. Tane's spatial design, conceived as a "nomadic village," imposes inconvenience on the viewer. However, he argues that this inconvenience is a necessary part of experiencing their way of life.

At the center of the venue is a space called "Village Square." The view from there quietly overlaps the memories of Bunkamura with the world within the photographs.

40 years of history comes to a close.

Bunkamura The Museum, which opened in 1989, had "introducing female artists" as one of its core concepts. Camille Claudel, Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka—such distinguished names have graced the history of this place. This current exhibition room, which has witnessed the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, will close with an exhibition of the work of female photographer Yuriko Takagi. The cycle of history is quietly and beautifully coming to a close.

The last people Takagi mentioned as those he wanted to express his deepest gratitude to were those who had posed as subjects for his photographs. "I had been agonizing over how I could thank those who had posed as subjects for my photographs. I hope that by presenting their coolness to the world in this way, I was able to show my gratitude, even if only a little." For 30 years, he had missed many opportunities to exhibit his work. He had obstacles that prevented him from doing so. However, Takagi reflects, "Now, here, and at this time, it was perfect." The timing was perfect, as it was the last exhibition in the current exhibition hall. Everything was "perfectly timed."

Tane also spoke about his feelings towards this place. "As an architect, it's a special thing to be in charge of the final exhibition of a building. If my job is to connect the memory of a place to the future, then this time I'm also playing the role of passing on that memory to the next place. The depth of time that Takagi's photographs possess and the time that this space has accumulated overlap in this exhibition."

The new museum, which will be reborn in 2029, will be incomparably larger, taller, and newer. That in itself is something to look forward to. However, there are only a few days left to enjoy art in the space of "Bunkamura The Museum," which has been disseminating the charm of Western paintings and other art from Shibuya to Japan. I sincerely hope you will take the time to visit and accept Bunkamura's thoughtful gesture.

Yuriko Takagi Photo ExhibitionThreads of Beauty 1995-2025 —Wearing time, wearing the wind.

Session:2026Years3Month10Sun (Tue) ~3Month29Open every day during the exhibition period (Sundays)
Opening hours: 13:00-20:00
Venue:Bunkamura The Museum
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