Mettsa Co., Ltd. (President: Kiyoshi Mochizuki), which operates the Nordic lifestyle experience facility "Mettsa Village" in Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture, announced that the contemporary art museum "HYPER MUSEUM HANNO" (Director: Shigeo Goto) will celebrate its 1st anniversary on March 1, 2026 (Sunday). To commemorate this milestone, the museum will present "KAWAIITOPIA -GO TO HEAVEN (HELL)-" by Sebastian Masuda, a pioneer of Japan's pop culture "KAWAII" phenomenon with fans worldwide, opening March 14, 2026 (Saturday).
Pre-sale tickets with date and time designation for this exhibition will be available from various ticket vendors starting February 17, 2026 (Tuesday).
Exhibition: Sebastian Masuda "KAWAIITOPIA -GO TO HEAVEN (HELL)-"
Sebastian Masuda is a pioneer of Japan's pop culture "KAWAII" and an artist with a global fanbase. Currently based in both New York and Tokyo, he has been involved in theater and contemporary art since the early 1990s. He held his solo exhibition in New York in 2014 and has participated in exhibitions at art spaces, museums, and international art festivals both domestically and internationally, receiving high acclaim. Based on his colorful sense of color, he opened "6%DOKIDOKI" in Harajuku in 1995 as his own expression platform, and has since expanded his creativity to include fashion, entertainment, and product development. He has demonstrated his exceptional talent through Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's debut MV art direction and live performances, and the production of Harajuku's "KAWAII MONSTER CAFE," creating many opportunities for "KAWAII" to be recognized worldwide.
This exhibition is his first large-scale exhibition in five years and takes place at the special timing of the 30th anniversary of the opening of his Harajuku base "6%DOKIDOKI."
Artist Statement
It's a funny but true story, I thought humanity would perish with Nostradamus.
Our generation believed it quite seriously.
After that carefree end of the century, real crises came: earthquakes, pandemics.
Still, we're alive.
Since then, our generation has survived three times.
When the future finally arrives, the future I dreamed of isn't there.
Still, we must continue living in this crazy world.
Still, we believe.
No, we're certain.
Of the utopia that lies ahead.
GO TO HEAVEN (HELL)
Which will tomorrow be?
Sebastian Masuda
Exhibition Concept
The exhibition title "KAWAIITOPIA" is a coined term created by Masuda himself, combining KAWAII + UTOPIA. This vision contains a strong message from Sebastian Masuda, who has sublimated the power of "KAWAII" into art during "difficult times."
Masuda states, "KAWAII is a small universe of one's own that no one can interfere with. If there are 100 people, there are 100 different KAWAIIs. Accepting each other's small universes = recognizing each other's values is the power of KAWAII, and KAWAII is an action for peace."
An important point of this exhibition concept is that it doesn't limit "KAWAII" to superficial "cuteness" but captures it as a mental movement traveling between HEAVEN and HELL, a kind of journey (pilgrimage), presenting it as art based on his own experiences.
Title: Sebastian Masuda "KAWAIITOPIA -GO TO HEAVEN (HELL)-"
Exhibition Period: March 14, 2026 (Saturday) to August 30, 2026 (Sunday)
Opening Hours: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Ticket Prices:
- Pre-sale: Adults 1,000 yen, Children (4 years old to high school students) 500 yen
- Same-day: Adults 1,200 yen, Children (4 years old to high school students) 700 yen
Ticket Sales: Please check each ticket site for details.
- Asoview! https://www.asoview.com/channel/ticket/6UpKVvgDWW/ticket0000048520/
- ArtSticker https://artsticker.app/events/119363
- Lawson Ticket https://l-tike.com/event/mevent/?mid=777064 *Sales start February 19 (Thursday)
- Seven Ticket https://7ticket.jp/sc/fmox *Sales start February 20 (Friday)
*Same-day tickets are available at the Museum Ticket Booth (Sales hours: 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM)
Support: Hanno City, Hanno City Board of Education, FM NACK5 Co., Ltd., Television Saitama Co., Ltd.
Cooperation: Sign Artec Co., Ltd.
Exhibition Structure and Highlights
1. A Giant Art Installation of "Heart Protected by Thorns," Pink Island Appears in Lake Miyazawa!
"KAWAII-CORE ISLAND"
After passing through the Mettsa forest and reaching Lake Miyazawa, you'll find the pink island "KAWAII-CORE ISLAND"! The giant installation of "Heart Protected by Thorns" standing 6 meters high and 7.5 meters wide is the symbol icon "KAWAII-CORE" of this exhibition. You can actually enter inside the core, where the artist's final question to you awaits. Please land on this KAWAII sanctuary and experience it firsthand.
*Boarding requires separate boat ticket purchase (same-day sales only), and service may be canceled during bad weather such as strong winds.
2. A 6-Meter Tower Appears Under the Museum Staircase!
"Polychromatic Skin -Gender Tower-"
"Polychromatic Skin" is a tower-type work themed on "colorful blood circulates beneath our skin." This is Sebastian Masuda's series work that breaks through and liberates the unconscious stereotypes that stand before freedom and peace represented by gender. We already possess the means to connect beyond all walls of race, religion, age, gender, and national borders. This tower broadcasts that message to the world.
3. Indoor Exhibition
The main exhibition of "KAWAIITOPIA -GO TO HEAVEN (HELL)-" is inside the museum. It consists of seven areas that progress while traversing Sebastian Masuda's own memories. The journey's story to "KAWAIITOPIA" continues as you tour the KAWAII heaven (hell).
Exhibition Entrance Work: "Express Yourself"
Born with hearing loss, Sebastian Masuda relied on his vision the most until he could hear in elementary school. Therefore, the color stimuli he experienced as a child became intense original experiences.
This work "Express Yourself" installed at the exhibition entrance features Masuda's collection of toys and accessories, which are the accumulation of his "memories," piled up within transparent human face-shaped outlines. Monitors built into the work display "eye footage" of approximately 40 people from Kawaii communities around the world, watching you.
Indoor Structure: Seven Areas Touring "KAWAIITOPIA" (6 KAWAII Heaven (Hell) Rooms and 1 Reality)
Small themed rooms and areas are configured inside HYPER MUSEUM HANNO. Like GO TO HEAVEN (HELL) - "KAWAII Heaven (Hell) Tour," you follow the signposts to "KAWAIITOPIA."
Room 1: Sweets Hell
Candy packages and colorful graffiti are the original landscape and first impulse.
Sebastian Masuda's parents were busy, and he spent time in shopping districts during his childhood. The colorful packages he encountered at candy stores were his original landscape that comforted him. This impulse still drives him today.
Room 2: Plushie Hell
A group of disassembled plushies, commonly known as "Hell Plushies."
In an era when people were puzzled, "Even though you're an adult? Even though you're a man?" if he said he liked plushies. For Masuda, who has been attracted to the trampled demons beneath Buddhist statues rather than the statues themselves since childhood, plushies and Buddhist statues are equally adorable characters.
Room 3: White Hell
Swinging on a swing in a pure white world.
When you deviate from the rails, you can create a future using means that people on the rails don't choose. Masuda states that being rejected from art and fashion genres in his twenties may have been hope rather than despair in retrospect.
Room 4: Materials Hell
Reconstructing various materials collected from around the world to create new colors.
Masuda's second original landscape is Los Angeles in the late 1990s. Strange toys being thrown away at flea markets, colorful fur fabrics rolling around in fabric markets - his journey of finding his own paints, like this, continues to this day.
Room 5: Words Hell
Words are visual.
Masuda, also called a visualist, thinks of words before anything else. What he questioned himself in a small motel room when he panicked during preparations for his first solo exhibition in New York determined his subsequent artist life.
Room 6: Colorful Rebellion -Seventh Nightmare-
A door opens to another dimension in the landmark KAWAII work born in New York 12 years ago.
This work consists of self-portrait rooms named "desire," "the future," "delusion," "fate," "wound," "reality," and "yourself." A special version exclusively for HYPER MUSEUM HANNO is displayed as a sequel spanning 12 years.
Real or Hell? - KAWAII-CORE
The area outside the rooms is named "Real or Hell?" and depicts colorful trajectories in an inorganic world. After passing through Room 6, you'll see the transparent heart-shaped work "KAWAII-CORE" shining brightly in the distant sky. The core pulsing pink as if showing proof of living here and now guides you further outside, to "KAWAII-CORE ISLAND."
4. Pop-up Store "THE KAWAII WORLD SHOP" Opens!
In the museum's free area, a pop-up shop featuring popular KAWAII goods from Harajuku and exclusive limited goods and advance goods available only here will appear. A booth where you can photograph Sebastian Masuda's works will also be installed.
*Image is for illustration purposes
HYPER MUSEUM HANNO
Creating a Further Cultural City by Fusing Nordic and Japanese Culture, Nature and Digital Through Art
Mettsa's proposal for a new era, aiming to enrich people's lives through Nordic lifestyle experiences, is to provide experiences that fuse nature and digital through art. The contemporary art museum combining "nature and digital" and "character art" opened on March 1, 2025, with Shigeo Goto, a professor at Kyoto University of the Arts known for art production such as photographer Kishin Shinoyama's museum exhibitions, as director.
Please look forward not only to the indoor art installations but also to the contrast with outdoor art installations utilizing the rich natural environment of forests and lakes developed throughout Mettsa.
Official Website: https://metsa-hanno.com/hypermuseumhanno/
Official Instagram: @hypermuseumhanno
Sebastian Masuda Profile
Born in 1970. Lives in New York. Has had a base in Harajuku, Tokyo since 1995, creating works that transcend the boundaries of art, fashion, and entertainment with his consistent unique color sense. Created opportunities for Kawaii culture to be recognized worldwide, including the art direction for Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's "PONPONPON" MV and production of KAWAII MONSTER CAFE. Continues to create using all phenomena that exist in the world as materials. 2017 Agency for Cultural Affairs Cultural Exchange Envoy / 2018 Visiting Researcher at New York University / 2019 Newsweek Japan's 100 Japanese People the World Respects.
Selected Exhibitions and Projects:
- 2014: "Colorful Rebellion -Seventh Nightmare-" (New York, Milan, etc.)
- 2014-2019: Art Project "Time After Time Capsule" (New York, Los Angeles, London, São Paulo, etc.)
- 2015: Concept Restaurant "KAWAII MONSTER CAFE" (Harajuku, Tokyo)
- 2016: "TRUE COLORS" (Ronin Gallery, New York / T-ART HALL, Tokyo)
- 2017: Group Exhibition "THE Doraemon Exhibition" (Mori Arts Center Gallery, Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Taiwan, etc.)
- 2018: "Point-Rhythm World -Monet's Small Universe-" (Pola Museum of Art)
- 2021: "Yes, Kawaii Is Art" (kagoo, Osaka / Kanda Myojin, Tokyo)
- 2022: "COLOR FOR PEACE" (Mizuma & Kips, New York)
- 2023: Concept Restaurant "SUSHIDELIC/TOKIODELIC" (New York)
- 2024: "Yes, Kawaii Is Art -Express Yourself-" (Japan House, Los Angeles)
- 2025: Concept Restaurant "FUTURE TRAIN KYOTO DINER & CAFE" (Kyoto)
- 2026: Complex Entertainment Facility "KAWAII MONSTER LAND" (Harajuku, Tokyo)
About Mettsa Village
"Mettsa," meaning "forest" in Finnish, is a lakeside Nordic lifestyle experience facility surrounded by abundant nature. It features a market hall with over 100 Nordic brands of imported goods, restaurants and cafes, and hosts seasonal workshops and events. Activities include boat activities where you can enjoy floating on the lake, and an RV park where you can stay overnight in your vehicle, allowing you to experience "nature" up close.
https://metsa-hanno.com/metsa/
About Mettsa Co., Ltd.
Mettsa Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Hanno City, Saitama Prefecture, President: Kiyoshi Mochizuki) is a group company of Fintech Global Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, President: Nobumitsu Tamai), responsible for marketing operations, event planning, operation, and new business development of Mettsa Village, where visitors can experience Nordic lifestyle.
