Japanese swords and mingei folk craft. Mochi. Anime and video games. Rakugo storytelling and contemporary art. At first glance, they may seem to belong to entirely different worlds. Yet each can be understood through a single word: Japan.

From September 23 to October 6, 2026, Isetan Shinjuku will present JAPAN SENSES, a storewide program focusing on creative expressions from Japan with global resonance. More than 70 projects will unfold across the Main Building, spanning traditional craftsmanship and pop culture, as well as art, fashion, beauty, and food. Together, they reveal techniques and aesthetic sensibilities passed down through generations alongside new forms of creativity emerging in Japan today.

Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
What comes to mind when we think of Japanese culture? It can be found in the skills artisans have refined over centuries, but also in video games and anime that captivate audiences around the world. It lives in foods woven into everyday life, as well as in new forms of expression created by contemporary artists.

JAPAN SENSES presents a picture of Japan too multifaceted to be defined by any single style.

From Sword to Vessel: The Many Faces of Japanese Craftsmanship

One program that captures this depth is JAPAN ART×ISETAN, held at the Main Building’s 6th-floor Event Hall from September 24 to 28.

Bringing together Japanese swords, mingei—the Japanese folk craft movement—and notable works of Japanese craft, the exhibition includes works by master swordsmith Kunihira Kawachi and his school, alongside pieces by Kanjiro Kawai and Shoji Hamada, leading figures in the mingei movement, and wood and lacquer artist Tatsuaki Kuroda.

Among them, two works offer a particularly striking contrast: a tachi by Kunihira Kawachi and Kanjiro Kawai’s ceramic vessel Hana-te Henko

Left) Kunihira Kawachi, Tachi / Right) Kanjiro Kawai, Hana-te Henko
Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Kawachi’s tachi—a traditional form of Japanese sword distinguished by its graceful curvature—was forged in pursuit of the beauty of koto, swords made according to traditions dating to Japan’s pre-modern era. Its elegant silhouette combines the strength of the jigane, or forged steel surface, with the delicacy of the hamon, the visible temper pattern along the blade.

A Japanese sword is not the work of the swordsmith alone. Its completion draws on expertise across multiple disciplines, from polishing to lacquerwork, metalwork, and kumihimo braiding. The sword thus embodies a convergence of specialized skills that have developed across generations.

Kawai’s Hana-te Henko, by contrast, emerges from clay. Kawai played an important role in the mingei movement alongside figures including Soetsu Yanagi and Shoji Hamada. The movement turned attention toward the beauty found in functional objects and everyday utensils made by often-anonymous craftspeople.

A sword and a vessel differ in purpose, material, and history. Placed side by side, however, they reveal different expressions of Japanese making: an engagement with material, the work of the hand, and techniques refined over time to give an object its form.

The depth of Japanese culture cannot be contained within a single emblematic image.

Mochi: An Everyday Food That Carries Culture Forward

Works of art and craft are not the only vessels through which Japanese culture has been passed down.

From September 23 to 29, the Food Collection on the basement level of the Main Building presents Mochi Evolution, a program that takes a fresh look at mochi, the glutinous rice cake long familiar in Japanese food culture, and explores its possibilities through contemporary tastes.

Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Waka Anmakido’s Mitarashi-maki wraps a large mitarashi dango—a chewy rice dumpling coated in a sweet-savory soy glaze—in a soft outer layer, bringing together airy and chewy textures in a single sweet.

Waka Anmakido, Mitarashi-maki | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Aito Denki Mochiten’s Three Fresh Daifuku are made with freshly pounded mochi using 100% glutinous rice, paired in three variations with Shumari red beans from Hokkaido, domestically grown yomogi mugwort, and black sesame. Made without preservatives, they have a shelf life of just five hours, placing the freshness and flavor of the mochi itself at the center of the experience.

Aito Denki Mochiten, Three Fresh Daifuku | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Suzuya’s An-Butter Tteok combines a dough made with mochi rice flour from Miyagi Prefecture with butter and three varieties of sweet bean paste, creating a confection that moves between the traditions of Japanese and Western-style sweets.

Suzuya, An-Butter Tteok | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
At the heart of each is mochi, an everyday presence in Japanese food culture. New textures, combinations of ingredients, and methods of preparation give this familiar food different ways to be enjoyed.

Culinary traditions, too, continue to evolve as they encounter the sensibilities of the present.

Games, Anime, and Rakugo: Tokyo Culture in the Present Tense

TOKYO ISSUE, held at the Main Building’s 6th-floor Event Hall from September 30 to October 5, shifts the focus to contemporary Tokyo.

Anime, video games, idols, food, rakugo, film, sports, and art come together in a new program that crosses genres and looks at Tokyo subculture through Isetan’s curatorial perspective, bringing different forms of culture emerging from the city into one space.

©C・A ©KADOKAWA NHFN/1996 ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. ©FromSoftware, Inc. ©Calbee/Gourmet Meister Yopi-chan ©1997 MADHOUSE ©AKB48
 | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
From the globally popular game ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, TORCH TORCH presents a collection of ten acrylic stands featuring the game’s Nightfarers, available in advance at Isetan Shinjuku.

Satoshi Kon’s feature-length animated film PERFECT BLUE is reinterpreted through a collaboration with WIND AND SEA. The resulting T-shirt features protagonist Mima Kirigoe surrounded by neon tetras, an image emblematic of the film, bringing its visual world into contemporary fashion.

©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. ©FromSoftware, Inc. | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Alongside them is Suehirotei, the historic yose theater in Shinjuku-sanchome. A yose is an intimate Japanese vaudeville theater traditionally associated with rakugo comic storytelling and other forms of popular entertainment.

For its collaboration with Takeshi Wada, Suehirotei’s traditional performer nameboards inspire a tenugui, the versatile cotton hand towel long used in everyday Japanese life. The piece is produced by Rien-zome Todaya Shoten, founded in 1872, using chūsen, a traditional resist-dyeing method in which dye is poured through sections of folded fabric.

Suehirotei × Takeshi Wada Tenugui | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Video games and anime sit alongside the culture of the yose. They may appear to belong to different periods, yet TOKYO ISSUE places them within the same cultural frame.

Tokyo’s culture is not shaped by the new alone. Practices rooted in the city for generations coexist with expressions being created today, and together they form the Tokyo of the present.

Where Artisanship Meets Contemporary Art: CONSERVATORY

JAPAN SENSES also turns toward contemporary art.

From September 30 to October 6, The Stage on the first floor of the Main Building presents CONSERVATORY, an exhibition by contemporary artist Yuichi Hirako.

Yuichi Hirako, Lost in Thought 259, 2026 | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
Hirako’s practice explores the coexistence of plants, nature, and human beings, as well as the ambiguities and questions that emerge from those relationships. The exhibition introduces new works including Lost in Thought 259 (2026).

It also features collaborative pieces created with craftspeople from across Japan, including Kutani ware artist Tamekichi Mitsui and TAKUMI KOHGEI, a wooden furniture manufacturer based in the Asahikawa area of Hokkaido.

Yuichi Hirako, Walking Palm, 2026 | Courtesy of Isetan Shinjuku
The journey begins with Japanese swords and mingei, moves through food and Tokyo subculture, and arrives at contemporary art. Yet here, once again, we encounter the work of artisans.

Craftsmanship passed down through generations does not exist only in the past. In encounters with contemporary artists and designers, those skills continue to become part of new forms of expression.

Japanese Culture Cannot Be Defined by a Single Form

Kunihira Kawachi’s tachi and Kanjiro Kawai’s vessel. Mochi, familiar across generations. ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, PERFECT BLUE, and Shinjuku Suehirotei. And the contemporary art of Yuichi Hirako.

They resist being placed within a single category. Yet each carries sensibilities cultivated, inherited, and continually renewed in Japan across different periods and fields.

A department store occupies a distinctive position in this landscape. Unlike a museum devoted to art or an institution focused on craft, it can place craftsmanship, food, fashion, art, and pop culture within the same environment.

JAPAN SENSES does not present “Japaneseness” as a fixed form. What has been passed down over time exists alongside what is being created now, with the two sometimes intersecting as Japanese culture continues to change.

Moving through more than 70 projects across Isetan Shinjuku offers an opportunity to encounter that multifaceted Japanese “sense” from the perspective of the present.