Japan's Art Aquarium Is Now a Permanent Museum of Living Goldfish in Nihonbashi, Tokyo

Last year, the Japankuru team heard that the extremely popular and often-photographed Nihonbashi Art Aquarium exhibition would be happening for the very last time in 2019, so we knew we had to visit the Art Aquarium before it was too late. At the time, all the general public knew was that the exhibition's producers were planning to move the yearly summer event to Kumamoto Castle, all the way south in Kyushu and far from Tokyo. We thoroughly enjoyed our little tour through the compact exhibit, which fit thousands of lively goldfish and beautiful, sculptural fish tanks into a department store event hall. While we were glad to hear that the people of Kumamoto would be able to enjoy the flashy spectacular in years to come, we were sad we wouldn't have a chance to easily see what new wonders artist Hidetomo Kimura would create. So, we were quite happy to hear the news that a brand new Art Aquarium Museum would be opening not far from the original exhibition, in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo!

The new Art Aquarium Museum is set to open on August 28, 2020, in a new spacious facility that can hold far more people (and more goldfish) than previous incarnations. Current photos and digital recreations of the soon-to-open museum show a brand new layout, featuring art pieces both new and old.

Some of the old favorites appear be returning to the Art Aquarium's exhibits, like this tank that creates the image of a kimono with an ever-changing goldfish design, or the enormous, sculptural fishtank-turned-waterfountain pieces towering overhead and full to the brim with fish flashing in the bright lights.

On top of those classic Art Aquarium pieces, the museum looks like it will also be home to quite a few new pieces, with everything mixed together to create brand new experiences.

We're especially intrigued by this area of the museum, dubbed "Mystery" ("神秘"), a room filled with towering columns of goldfish and multicolored lights. It's possible that these fish tanks made an appearance at past Art Aquarium exhibitions, but we certainly didn't see them in 2020!