HANAE MORI Vital Type: The 100th Anniversary of Birth

April 15 (Wed), 2026 - July 6 (Mon), 2026

Now on View
Special Exhibitions

The Japanese Haute Couture That Captivated New York and Paris: 400 Works Tell the Full Story of Hanae Mori.

In spring 2026, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth, the National Art Center, Tokyo presents the first retrospective of Hanae Mori since her death. Mori was a leading figure in Japanese fashion and was the first Asian designer admitted as a regular member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. She began her career in the 1950s, making her name in costume design for film. During postwar Japan’s rapid economic growth period, her ability to balance family life with major professional achievement drew attention as a model for a new kind of womanhood. In 1961, writing in the magazine Soen, she put forward a new figure she called the “Vital Type”: cheerful and tireless, qualities that would also define how she lived her own life. After presenting her first New York collection in 1965, she continued to work internationally well into her later years.

With some 400 haute couture dresses, archival materials, and works on public view for the first time, the exhibition illuminates the full range of Mori’s creativity. It is a rare chance to explore not only her extraordinary achievement as a designer but also the life and convictions at the root of it.

Website

Overview

Period

April 15 (Wed), 2026 – July 6 (Mon), 2026

Closed on Tuesdays
*Open on May 5

Opening Hours

10:00-18:00 (Fridays and Saturdays, 10:00-20:00)
*Last admission 30 minutes before closing

Venue

The National Art Center, Tokyo
Special Exhibition Gallery 1E
7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8558

Organized by

The National Art Center, Tokyo; TV Asahi Corporation; The Tokyo Shimbun

With the special cooperation of
Hanae Mori Office, HANAE MORI FOUNDATION

With the cooperation of
Iwami Art Museum

With the sponsorship of
DAI-DAN CO., LTD.

Inquiries

(+81) 47-316-2772 (Hello Dial)

Admissions & Tix

General	2,200 yen (Adults), 1,800 yen (College students), 1,400 yen (High school students)
Advance	2,000 yen (Adults), 1,600 yen (College students), 1,200 yen (High school students)

・Online Ticket Sales
　[Advance] Selling Period: February 2 (Mon), 2026, 12:00 PM - April 14 (Thu), 2026, 11:59 PM
　[General] Selling Period: April 15 (Wed) , - July 6 (Mon), 2026
　On Sale at: asoview!

・On-Site Ticket Sales
　Selling Period: April 15 (Wed) , - July 6 (Mon), 2026
　On Sale at: Ticket Counter （The National Art Center, Tokyo)

Book tickets here [asoview!]

Advance tickets will go on sale starting February 2, 2026, at 12:00 PM.
Visitors who are under junior high school students and disabled people with ID booklets (along with the one assistant) will be admitted for free.
Free entrance to the exhibition for high school students from April 17 (Fri.) to April 19 (Sun.), 2026, upon presenting student ID.
Reduction (100 yen off) applies to visitors who present the ticket stub of a current exhibition at The National Art Center, Tokyo; Suntory Museum of Art; or Mori Art Museum. Please show the ticket stub at the YBA & BEYOND exhibition ticket booth.
Students, faculty and staff, of "Campus Members", can view this exhibition for 1600 yen (students) and 2000 yen (faculty/staff). Please purchase tickets at the "YBA&BEYOND" exhibition ticket booth.
The following credit cards and e-cash options are available for purchasing tickets at The National Art Center, Tokyo ticket counters.
Credit Cards: MasterCard, VISA, JCB, AMEX, Diners Club, DISCOVER, UnionPay
Electronic Money: QUICPay, Transportation IC Cards, Rakuten Edy, WAON, nanaco, iD
QR Payments: auPay, BankPay, Alipay, WeChat Pay, PayPay, d Payment, Japan Post Pay

List of Works

English
Japanese
Chinese
Korean

Guidebook

MINI GUIDE

Exhibition Highlights

1. Extensive lineup of dresses by Hanae Mori, the first Japanese and first Asian regular member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris

Dresses are presented by theme, drawn from the vast body of haute couture to which Mori devoted herself over 27 years starting in 1977. Each piece is one of a kind, made with the finest materials and the most exacting craftsmanship, and together they convey the full power of her aesthetic vision and inventiveness.

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Video of HANAE MORI's Final Haute Couture Collection, 2004
Courtesy of Hanae Mori Office

2. The Japanese fabrics that Mori prized

When Mori brought her work to the United States in 1965, she showed designs made from Japanese obi (kimono sash) fabric and silk textiles, both of which have deep roots in the kimono tradition. Her own designs, fine silks printed in vivid colors, soon drew attention for their distinctly Japanese aesthetic sensibility. New research into the textiles she used has turned up original design drawings and test prints, on view here for the first time.

Ukon Textile Design House, Textile "Blooming in Late Summer," Shiki Fabric House, 1972
Hanae Mori Office

Hanae Mori, Brand label, coat of obi fabric, HANAE MORI, 1964
Iwami Art Museum, Photo: Masaki Ogawa

3. Works by Mori from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view in Japan for the first time

For the first time in Japan, the exhibition presents dresses by Mori from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Mary Griggs Burke, a client of Mori’s and a noted collector of Japanese art, commissioned a dress inspired by Ito Jakuchu’s 1755 painting White Plum Blossoms and Moon, which she owned. This dress and three other works by Mori are on view at the Tokyo venue. Through a wealth of garments and documentary materials, the exhibition gives a comprehensive picture of Mori’s years in America, a chapter of her career that has until now received little attention.

Hanae Mori, Evening ensemble, HANAE MORI, 1968
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Madame Hanae Mori,1975 (1975.86.1a-c)
©The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

Hanae Mori, Evening ensemble, HANAE MORI, 1974
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mary Griggs Burke, 1996 (1996.130.6a,b)
©The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY

4. Focus on Mori’s efforts to elevate the cultural status of fashion through her work in media

When Mori began her career in the early 1950s, fashion still had little cultural standing in postwar Japan. Determined to raise its profile, in 1966 she launched Fashion News from Hanae Mori as a magazine for her own boutique and a forum for serious writing about fashion. The publication was renamed Ryuko Tsushin in 1969 and grew into one of the country’s leading fashion magazines. In 1978, she completed the Hanae Mori Building in Tokyo’s Omotesando district as the home base for her brand. It soon became indispensable to fashion in Tokyo, hosting her own shows as well as those of major designers from abroad who came to present their collections in Japan. This section looks at her pioneering activities as a designer, and at the magazines, boutiques, and other venues she created to bring fashion to a wider public.