Yayoi Kusama Museum
The museum dedicated to the hugely popular artist Yayoi Kusama opened on October 1, 2017. It is an extremely popular museum, and because admission is by timed reservation with a capacity limit, the scramble for tickets continues.
*This has now been resolved; if you allow some flexibility in your schedule, weekend reservations can also be made smoothly. *Updated January 19, 2019
The inaugural exhibition, the “Yayoi Kusama Museum Opening Commemorative Exhibition,” runs until February 2018.
Overview
Yayoi Kusama Museum Opening Commemorative Exhibition — Creation is a Solitary Pursuit, Love is What Brings You Closer to Art
Creation is a Solitary Pursuit, Love is What Brings You Closer to Art
The Yayoi Kusama Museum’s inaugural exhibition, centered on her latest painting series “My Eternal Soul.”
In addition to 16 works from “My Eternal Soul,” the exhibition presents the monochrome drawing series “Love Forever” that preceded it, along with the latest installation created for the museum’s opening and a new pumpkin sculpture displayed on the rooftop, introducing Yayoi Kusama’s recent work.
Exhibition period
October 1, 2017 (Sun) – February 25, 2018 (Sun)
Open days
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays
Closed days
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays
Hours
11:00–17:00
Admission
General 1,000 yen (tax incl.) / Elementary, junior high, and high school students 600 yen (tax incl.)
*Preschool children free. No group discounts are available.
Entry times
① 11:00–12:30 (enter by 11:30)
② 12:30–14:00 (enter by 13:00)
③ 14:00–15:30 (enter by 14:30)
④ 15:30–17:00 (enter by 16:00)
Reservations Open
Because tickets had been so hard to come by, I tried to connect to the site at 10:00 on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, the very moment reservations opened.
To let visitors enjoy the exhibition safely and comfortably, the Yayoi Kusama Museum operates on a date- and time-specified reservation and capacity system, with rotating 90-minute sessions of 70 visitors each.
Tickets for the month after next go on sale at 10:00 (Japan time) on the 1st of every month.
The museum is closed Monday through Wednesday, and since it was the start of the year it was only open from the 16th onward. With so few options, competition seemed even fiercer than usual.
Sold Out in 10 Minutes
To get straight to the point: the tickets sold out in 10 minutes. In other words, from the 10:00 start it took a mere 10 minutes for them to sell out completely.
Recommended Way to Get Tickets
I accessed the site right at 10:00. At first I tried several weekend time slots, but the answer that came back from the sluggish server was “Already sold out.” I changed tactics and set my sights on a weekday, Thursday or Friday. By doing so I just barely managed to grab two tickets.
Weekends are highly competitive, so setting your sights on a weekday will definitely improve your odds. The most competitive of all is probably the weekend session that includes a gallery talk by the director. The details are listed on the official site, so please use it as a reference.
I also went with a two-device setup, a PC and a smartphone, and the smartphone (iPhone 7) turned out to be easier to get through with. I wonder if there’s some reason for that?
Resale
When I checked the ticket resale sites, however, sure enough, there they were!
Astonishingly, tickets priced at 1,000 yen were being traded for as much as 12,000 yen…
It seems about 200 people have set up new-listing alerts as well. I truly hope the tickets reach the people who genuinely want to go.
