From Friday, November 6, 2026 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday), the museum shop of the special exhibition Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU (動き出す浮世絵展 GIFU) at Gifu City Museum of History (岐阜市歴史博物館) will sell vegan soaps and room sprays from the Japanese craft brand JAPON!SM (ジャポニズム). Each comes in six varieties designed with ukiyo-e, so visitors can take home the afterglow of the exhibition, along with a fragrance, after seeing works by Hokusai, Hiroshige, and other masters come to life as immersive digital art.
From Viewing Ukiyo-e to Using It
JAPON!SM was born in 2025, inspired by the 19th-century European movement known as Japonisme. It brings the compositions and colors of ukiyo-e, which captivated Western painters such as Monet and Van Gogh, to everyday items that people use in daily life. The brand's starting point is to turn ukiyo-e, usually viewed in a frame, into something to use and smell at the washstand or the entrance of a home.
Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition is an immersive exhibition that renders more than 300 works by world-famous ukiyo-e artists, including Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Hiroshige, Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku, and Utagawa Kunisada, as new digital art using 3DCG and projection mapping. For the Gifu edition, new digital works have been created from more than 50 ukiyo-e prints in the collection of Gifu City Museum of History. Subjects closely tied to Gifu, such as cormorant fishing (ukai) and Oda Nobunaga, also come to life in the video.
JAPON!SM Vegan Soap (6 Varieties)
The soaps use a vegan formula with no animal-derived ingredients. All six varieties contain fermented rice bran extract, inspired by the "nuka bukuro" rice bran bag of the Edo period, and volcanic ash from Kagoshima Prefecture. Unusual among Japanese soaps, they have a distinct, perfume-like fragrance, and the formula rinses off crisply without lingering on the body. Each bar is finished by hand by a soap craftsperson in Fukuoka and wrapped in kraft paper.
The six varieties are:
SAKURA (cherry blossom): Fruity & Elegant
MATCHA: Smoky & Woody
YUZU: Fresh & Citrus
FUJI (Mt. Fuji): Aquatic & Fresh
KISERU (traditional smoking pipe): Smoky & Sweet
HINOKI (Japanese cypress): Soft Woody & Fresh
Size: 150 g each
Price: ¥2,980 each (tax included)
Use: Face, body, and hands
JAPON!SM Room Spray (6 Varieties)
The room sprays are fragrances for rooms and linens, with ukiyo-e designs on black bottles reminiscent of sumi ink and black lacquer. They come in the same six scents as the soaps, so the fragrances can be matched. The 50 ml size fits easily in travel luggage.
- Size: 50 ml each
- Price: ¥1,980 each (tax included)
- Made in: Japan
Sales Information
- Where: Museum shop of Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU (1st floor of Gifu City Museum of History, at the exit of the special exhibition room)
- Period: Friday, November 6, 2026 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday), following the exhibition's closed days
- Products: JAPON!SM Vegan Soap, 6 varieties (150 g each, ¥2,980 tax included) and JAPON!SM Room Spray, 6 varieties (50 ml each, ¥1,980 tax included)
- Note: An exhibition admission ticket is required to use the museum shop.
Exhibition Details
- Name: Gifu City Museum of History Renewal and Gifu Shimbun 145th Anniversary Special Exhibition "Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU" (岐阜市歴史博物館リニューアル・岐阜新聞創刊145年記念特別展「動き出す浮世絵展 GIFU」)
- Dates: Friday, November 6, 2026 to Monday, January 11, 2027 (national holiday)
- Hours: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (last admission 4:30 PM)
- Closed: Every Monday (open on Monday, November 23 and Monday, January 11, both national holidays), Tuesday, November 24, and December 28 (Monday) to January 4 (Monday)
- Venue: Special Exhibition Room, 1st floor, Gifu City Museum of History (2-18-1 Omiya-cho, Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture, inside Gifu Park)
- Organizers: Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition GIFU Executive Committee (Gifu City, Gifu Shimbun (岐阜新聞社), Gifu Broadcasting (岐阜放送), HITOHATA, INC. (一旗), TV Aichi (テレビ愛知))
- Supported by: ZIP-FM
- Planning and production: HITOHATA, INC. (一旗), TV Aichi (テレビ愛知)
- Official website: https://www.ukiyoeimmersiveart.com/gifu
