Yoshitomo Nara: An Insight into the Artist’s Creative Imagination and the Enduring Influences on His Work

By Wiktoria Iwaniak

For over three decades, Yoshitomo Nara has explored themes of isolation, resistance, and freedom in his work. The renowned Japanese artist is known for his unique style, featuring powerful portraits of childlike figures with large heads and expressive eyes. These characters encapsulate a multitude of emotions, ranging from uncertainty and dejection to resentment and displeasure, highlighting that exposure to the detrimental realities of the adult world has a profound effect on children. Nara uses his art to communicate his honest sentiments and beliefs about the world around him, often projecting himself through his characters, and admitting that they are essentially self-portraits.  

Yoshitomo Nara in his home studio in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, with one of his bigheaded girl works, Miss Moonlight, 2020. 

Image courtesy of Tetsuya Miura. 

After graduating from Aichi University of the Arts with a master’s degree in 1987, Yoshitomo Nara moved to Germany to complete further studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. It was here that he began to shape his signature style, taking a multidisciplinary approach to art-making by blending Japanese and Western cultures, philosophies, and techniques to create a completely original concept. This shows the impact that living abroad had on transforming and influencing his work, which is now recognised worldwide. 

Yoshitomo Nara, Haze Days, 1998, Acrylic on canvas, 180.3 x 164.5 cm.

Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.  

In one of the earliest examples of his mature style, Hazy Days (1998), Nara contrasts the innocent-looking young girl with the complex emotions she experiences, a recurring feature of his work from this point onward. This character is staring at the viewer in quite a hostile manner and appears to be half-submerged in a pool of some sort, almost floating in a space that seems to exist outside the constraints of time. The painting evokes ideas of loneliness and vulnerability, as well as frustration and rebellion, inviting the viewer to reflect on their own childhood experiences. This work, along with many other Nara pieces, can be interpreted through a subjective lens, allowing the artist to connect with his viewers on a personal level. 

Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara at the Hayward Gallery. 

Image courtesy of Wiktoria Iwaniak. 

Walking into the Yoshitomo Nara exhibition at the Hayward Gallery this summer and hearing You Really Got Me by The Kinks was definitely confusing at first. The first thing you would see was a huge wall filled with records from the 1960s and 1970s, which explained why American rock and folk music was playing through the speakers. I remember my friend who came with me pointing to a Bob Dylan album, impressed to see one of his favourite artists, and then turning to me to ask, how does this all relate to Yoshitomo Nara? We soon learned that music had a significant impact on Nara’s life and his art. 

When he was a young boy, Yoshitomo Nara constructed his own radio as an attempt to entertain himself while his parents were at work. With this, he accidentally stumbled upon the network broadcasts of a nearby American military base and, despite not knowing the language, became fascinated with the music the station played. This is how Nara’s love for folk music was born, which later evolved to include rock and punk. Growing up in a rural area with no access to museums, album covers were his first introduction to visual art, providing him with an unorthodox art education. These records and their covers served as an escape for young Nara, allowing him to deal with the complexities of growing up in post-war Japan, and later inspired much of his work. He sought to commemorate the lifelong influence that music had on him and his work by creating a full-wall installation of 12” record covers from his personal collection – a monument to all the music he purchased and cherished over the years.

Yoshitomo Nara, Stop the Bombs, 2019. 

Image courtesy of Wiktoria Iwaniak. 

Nara’s lifelong anti-war and anti-nuclear stance is also evident in his work, which is not surprising considering that he grew up in Japan in the period after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These traumatic events had long-lasting psychological effects on the population, leading to widespread cultural protest against the use of nuclear warfare, a recurring theme in Nara’s art. He often uses provocative slogans, as in the titular Stop the Bombs (2019), where an angry red bubble of text floats above a girl with a menacing look in her eyes and fangs protruding from the corners of her mouth. As in much of his artwork, the eyes grasp and interrogate the viewer, forcing them to acknowledge the cruel realities of the world. This vulnerable child is full of adult angst, dealing with feelings bigger and darker than her small body and mind can handle, evoking immense sympathy for the victims of the attacks.  

Yoshitomo Nara, Miss Forest/Thinker,  2016, Urethane on bronze, 500.4 cm × 139.7 cm × 158.8 cm.

Image courtesy of Pace Gallery. 

A drastic tonal shift in the artist’s work is evident in the pieces created in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and subsequent nuclear accident in Fukushima. This catastrophe deeply affected Nara, as this was a region of Japan he knew very well from his frequent travels with his mother. The enormous sense of loss that he felt left him unable to paint and compelled him to spend his time helping children and families affected and displaced by the disaster through leading community art projects and collecting resources for them. Nara’s return to art began with sculpture, which expressed themes of reflection and meditation, and most of his work from this point onwards featured characters with eyes closed in contemplation. These peaceful yet solemn figures encapsulate how much external factors can affect one’s work and world views. The disasters prompted Yoshitomo Nara to reflect on ideas of time and impermanence, elegantly portrayed in his art, both quiet and intense. 

Overall, Yoshitomo Nara is a globally recognised, pioneering figure in contemporary art who, as art critic Tom Denman describes, ‘is not just being cute’ as he continues to explore social, political, and emotional themes in his multimedia work. Nara has admitted that he did not originally plan to become an artist and that, as a child, he was a strong believer in justice, wanting to oppose what was wrong in society. Through his art, influenced by childhood, music, and current events, he achieved just that. 

Bibliography

Artlyst. “Yoshitomo Nara: Four Decades of Artistic Evolution – Guggenheim Bilbao,” 2016. https://artlyst.com/reviews/yoshitomo-nara-four-decades-of-artistic-evolution-guggenheim-bilbao/. 

Denman, Tom. “Yoshitomo Nara Is Not Just Being Cute.” ArtReview, 2025. https://artreview.com/yoshitomo-nara-hayward-gallery-london-review-tom-denman/. 

“Nara’s Record Collection,” LACMA, 2021, https://www.lacma.org/node/39341. 

Pace Gallery. “Pace Gallery | Yoshitomo Nara,” 2020. https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/yoshitomo-nara/. 

Sherwin, Skye. “Yoshitomo Nara: ‘My Works’ Roots Are in Fairytales, Not Comics’.” The Guardian, January 7, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jan/07/yoshitomo-nara-my-works-roots-are-in-fairytales-not-comics. 

Southbank Centre. “5 Things to Know about Yoshitomo Nara,” May 29, 2025. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/magazine/5-things-to-know-about-yoshitomo-nara/. 

———. “Yoshitomo Nara | Southbank Centre,” 2025. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/hayward-gallery/past-exhibitions/yoshitomo-nara/.