The Games in Art: Tokyo 2020 Posters Go on Display

Art posters created for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games went on display on January 7 in the entrance hall of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. They were unveiled the previous day at a ceremony attended by Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko.

Artists hold 14 of the posters at the opening ceremony.

Among the 19 creators of the posters are calligrapher Kanazawa Shōko, photographer and film director Ninagawa Mika, and popular manga artists Araki Hirohiko and Urasawa Naoki. Araki, best known for his JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, imagined the gods of sports descending on Japan, taking Hokusai’s classic The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa as his compositional motif. Urasawa drew a manga-like poster divided into panels with “To be continued!” written in Japanese in the bottom left-hand corner.

The posters will be on show in the museum’s entrance hall until February 16. No fee is required, but note that the museum is generally closed on Mondays.

Tokyo 2020 Official Art Posters

Goo Choki Par, Paralympian

Satō Taku, Olympic Cloud

Honma Takashi, Tokyo Children

Viviane Sassen, Ludus

Ninagawa Mika, Higher than the Rainbow

Kakinuma Kōji, Open

Kanazawa Shōko, Fly High!

Mori Chihiro, Beyond the Curve

Tokoro Asao, Harmonized Chequered Emblem Study for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tokoro Asao, Harmonized Chequered Emblem Study for Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

Shinki Tomoyuki, Offense No. 7

Theseus Chan, Extreme Revelations

Ōhara Daijirō, Flow Line

Konoike Tomoko, Wild Things—Hachilympic

Philippe Weisbecker, Olympic Stadium

Yamaguchi Akira, Horseback Archery

Chris Ofili, The Games People Play

Ōtake Shinrō, Space Kicker

Araki Hirohiko, The Sky Above the Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa

Urasawa Naoki, Now It’s Your Turn!

(Originally published in Japanese. All poster images courtesy the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.)