Doraemon x Takashi Murakami

The first Doraemon by Takashi Murakami

The first work of  It all began in 2002, when Murakami was commissioned to create a piece for the first-ever Doraemon-themed art exhibition. Doraemon, of whom Murakami says he has always been a fan, jogged memories of his childhood. 

“I painted it by thinking hard back to my days as a kid, as though I was encountering my honest self. The setting of this work is early summer in Japan during the early 1970s. I was able to dive in at once to the time when I used to play with my younger brother in the empty lot of an industrial district” (Murakami).

Who is Takashi Murakami?

Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo in 1962. He studied Japanese Painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts, earning a PhD. Inspired by the flat, deformed expressions of painters such as Kanō Sansetsu and Soga Shōhaku during the Azuchi-Momoyama period through the Edo period, as well as by otaku culture that matured in Japan after its defeat in WWII, including manga and anime, he proposed a “Superflat” theory which analyzes the aesthetic unique to Japan. His contemporary artworks and exhibitions based on this concept have been recognized internationally. In recent years, he has held large-scale solo exhibitions at some of the world’s leading art museums, including the Mori Art Museum in Japan and Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong, which each attracted record-breaking numbers of visitors. He is also involved in creating anime and film works.

Referring to abstract expressionism based on “Superflat”

Murakami, who was strongly influenced by Japanese art from the Azuchi-Momoyama period through the Edo period and postwar “otaku” culture, attracted international attention by translating the uniqueness of Japanese culture, which he dubbed “Superflat,” into Western-style contemporary art. Part two of the collaboration, exhibited at the second “THE Doraemon Exhibition” in 2017, vividly reflects the origins of his art.

The entire surface of this giant painting is covered with his characteristic motif flowers, in reference to American abstract expressionism. Countless famous scenes from “Doraemon” are depicted on top of this dizzying flower pattern in the manner of an “emakimono” (illustrated handscroll), creating a scene beyond time and space as though in the midst of a time warp.

Respect for Fujiko F. Fujio

Fujiko F. Fujio, wearing a beret, is also riding this “time machine” of a painting.

In fact, in 2020, “Doraemon” celebrated its 50th anniversary since it was first serialized as a manga. Murakami, who was influenced by manga and anime and who has been trying to break down the boundary between the arts and popular culture, deeply respects Fujiko as the creator of a great icon, akin to the Mickey Mouse of Japan. “I think manga is art. I think it’s also a rare, original culture that was brought into the world by postwar Japan” (Murakami). The fact that Fujiko wore a beret, a symbol of being an artist, is thought-provoking.

Doraemon’s trademark blue color has been replaced by a pattern of flowers and “Doraemon” characters, creating an interesting dynamic in which the relationship between figure and ground is reversed. Images of works of this type have been used in Uniqlo collaboration t-shirts and plush merchandise.

Murakami's change in style

This piece was exhibited at the “Superflat Doraemon” solo exhibition held at the Perrotin Tokyo from 2019 to 2020. While the composition and motifs remain virtually the same as that of the first work of the collaboration in 2002, changes in Murakami’s style over that time period can be seen when the two are compared.

The characters are now fringed with bands of several colorful lines in addition to being outlined in black, and the field of flowers has become more patterned and decorative.

New reality for the digital age

The character motifs in the aforementioned work is repeated in his shaped canvas paintings. The blue sky with its printed halftone dot design also links with Doraemon’s blue color, creating a Superflat space that extends forever.

At Murakami’s production studio, computer-generated images prepared in Illustrator or Photoshop are printed on canvases using a silkscreen process, then finished by hand painting. His concept and method of producing infinite variations through repeated motifs, while a distant reference to Andy Warhol, can be said to have created in his works a new reality for the digital age.

Manga is a culture of healing

“Eventually, I hope that Doraemon’s worldview itself will be conveyed through contemporary art” (Murakami). Manga is a culture of healing that was born from the destitution of Japan after its defeat in the war, Murakami repeats. Stories of daily life involving Doraemon and the people-pleaser Nobita depict universal human emotions such as laughter, tears, admiration, and inspiration and invite empathy from the audience. Nobita’s innocent awakening to his feelings for Shizuka (Sue) is also one of the story’s highlights.

Bringing grammar of contemporary art and the grammar of comics close

Doraemon first appears in the story as a chaperone whose duty is to save Nobita, but a friendship gradually develops between the two of them. This piece depicts the symbolic scene in which Doraemon, whose time has come to return to the future, tearfully praises Nobita for having won a fight on his own for the first time without relying on Doraemon’s help.

According to Murakami, the main point of interest of those collaboration works is how he attempted to bring his grammar of contemporary art into close proximity with the grammar of manga as seen in “Doraemon”. By applying painted textures to the character motifs, the famous scene etched into the hearts of many people has been rendered in a more lyrical manner.

These paintings, which resemble music album covers, overflow with free-spirited fun that is different from the flower series.

Something that show you the unknown

The Takashi Murakami and Doraemon collaboration enjoyed huge popularity in countries across Asia and has become a symbol of Asian pop art. “Doraemon” is a story that effortlessly merges reality with the world of dreams, says Murakami. Perhaps Doraemon’s “Anywhere Door,” a gadget that can transport its user to any desired location, overlaps in some ways with art, which shows us regions of the unknown.

What kind of future world do you dream of on the other side of this door? Where this collaboration between two of Japan’s great legends will lead in the future is worth keeping an eye on.