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Sensing the Aquarium vol.2 |
Art and the Aquarium

The Pioneers of the Art Aquarium

An art boom has swept through Japan's aquariums.
One of its earliest sparks was Sky Aquarium, staged in 2007 at Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills — a bold experiment by Mori Building that paired an aquarium with the sweeping views from Tokyo City View, the observation deck 250 metres above the city.

From its opening, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower had drawn corporate executives and celebrities to its premium offices and high-rise apartments, giving rise to a new social stratum dubbed the "Hills-zoku" — the Hills tribe. The decision to turn the tower's uppermost floors (its most expensive real estate) into a privately operated museum was virtually unheard of in the property industry, and reflected the president's strong conviction that culture must be cherished. It was only natural, then, that a company with this ethos would bring an art-inflected aquarium exhibition to its observation deck — and in doing so, point the entire aquarium industry towards a new horizon.

Sky Aquarium eventually evolved into Art Aquarium, famous for its goldfish displays, which now has a permanent venue at Ginza Mitsukoshi. Over time, its aesthetic became increasingly rooted in Japanese tradition — collaborations with crafts such as Edo kiriko cut glass and paper lanterns, alongside installation-style displays using acrylic tanks in a variety of sculptural forms, became the hallmarks of the Art Aquarium brand.

The Rise of Digital Art and Projection Mapping

The 2010s brought a wave of projection mapping, and with it the rise of companies specialising in digital art — WOW, teamLab, NAKED, 1→10 — each making their mark on Japan's cultural landscape.

Projection mapping found its way into aquariums beginning with Shonan's New Enoshima Aquarium in 2014, before spreading to Sumida Aquarium, Kyoto Aquarium, Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, and beyond. Aquariums had always maintained darkened interiors to maximise the visibility of their tanks — a quality that proved a perfect match for image-driven digital art.

Collaborations with Artists

Direct artist collaborations also began to emerge. In 2014, Sumida Aquarium joined forces with photographer and filmmaker Mika Ninagawa for Sumida Aquarium × Mika Ninagawa: Jellyfish Kaleidoscope Tunnel — an event in which Ninagawa drew on the aquarium's living creatures as inspiration, projecting imagery onto their tanks in an entirely new kind of exhibition format. I still remember the vivid impression of the entire aquarium transformed into a world of vivid, saturated colour. It may well have been the first collaboration of this scale between a contemporary artist of that calibre and an aquarium.

Then, in 2021, came an aquarium that placed "art" at the very heart of its founding concept: atoa, in Kobe. Each zone features works by illustrators alongside small interactive installations. The venue's character is defined by a lavishly decorative sensibility — as though jewels had been scattered across every surface — and its principal tank, a sphere roughly three metres in diameter, resembles nothing so much as a crystal ball.

What Did the "Art Aquarium" Actually Mean?

Within the aquarium world, the word "art" has carried a somewhat different meaning from the one it holds in a museum context. In most cases, the emphasis has been on visual beauty and photographic appeal — a sensibility quite removed from the social themes and discursive messages of fine art practice. Artful, perhaps, but not quite art in the traditional sense. (I say this not as a criticism, simply as an observation.)
That said, "art" became a catalyst for aquariums to experiment with new ways of presenting their world. And there is no doubt that the phrase "art × aquarium," combined with the dreamlike visuals on promotional posters, opened the doors to an entirely new audience. For visitors, whether it counted as fine art in the museum sense was largely beside the point: what they encountered was a fresh, exciting, and visually stunning way of experiencing the aquarium.

Why Did Aquariums Turn to Art?

Japan's art scene is said to have attracted its greatest international attention in the 1990s. So why, more than a decade later, did aquariums — a different world entirely — turn their eyes towards art?
I believe part of the answer lies in a shift that was happening at the very same time: the industry was moving away from animal performance shows.


In 2016, SeaWorld in Florida announced the end of its orca breeding programme and the phasing out of its orca shows. This proved to be a turning point — one that set aquariums and marine parks around the world on a path from "performance-based shows" towards "natural behaviour displays and educational programming."
In Japan, too, a movement was growing to retire trained-animal performances in favour of showing animals as they actually are. But the aquarium industry still needed new ways to draw visitors. Art was one of its answers. Projection mapping in particular offered a compelling solution: it made it possible to create a dramatic showtime experience without asking anything of the animals at all.

The 2010s also brought a significant technological leap — smartphones became capable of capturing sharp images even in low light. This, combined with the rise of Instagram, allowed aquariums to claim a new identity: the perfect backdrop for a shareable photograph. (to be continued)

Ayako Horikawa

Founder, DESIGN STUDIO KAISUI
An experience designer specializing in aquariums, working across exhibition design, spatial design, and program development.
After gaining experience in operations and exhibition design at Sumida Aquarium and spatial design at UDS Ltd., she established her own studio. She has been involved in exhibition direction and program development for the urban aquarium AOAO SAPPORO.
Her work focuses on designing environments that cultivate observation, curiosity, and wonder.
She holds a Master’s degree from Tokyo University of the Arts.
Author of “A Day in the Life of Aquariums: Creatures and People” (Fukuinkan Shoten).
Member of the Japan Society of Exhibition Studies and JAGDA.