Japan Society Performing Arts

Japan Society Performing Arts Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-edge theater, dance and music.

Japan Society's 26 - 27 performing arts season features a series of premieres rooting up the national stories of Japan & the US; a vicious work of modern puppet theater; the return of the Contemporary Dance Festival; exquisite traditional arts and more. Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 600 of Japan’s finest performing arts to an extensive American audience. The Program also commissions new works, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Back Stage).

07/16/2026

We're about two months away from the start of a brand new season at Japan Society - general tickets are now on sale!

Retrospective: 2025-26 — Yukio Mishima's KINKAKUJISeptember 11 - 20, 2025"KINKAKUJI is the story of an ego eternally wou...
07/14/2026

Retrospective: 2025-26 — Yukio Mishima's KINKAKUJI

September 11 - 20, 2025

"KINKAKUJI is the story of an ego eternally wounded trying to fill an unfillable void... This is art at its best, and it needs to be seen." — Stage and Cinema

World premiere (Japan Society commission), based on Yukio Mishima's 1956 novel Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

Directed by Leon Ingulsrud
Performed by Major Curda
Set Design by Chiharu Shiota

📸: Richard Termine

Our 2026–27 season brochures just arrived!Across our small team, we collectively spend several hundred hours each year o...
07/09/2026

Our 2026–27 season brochures just arrived!

Across our small team, we collectively spend several hundred hours each year on these books — what to say about each program, the layout of each page, and how it should feel in someone's hands. Getting to finally hold the finished thing never gets old.

Our Fall Series, TWO SOILS, kicks off the new season this September.

07/02/2026

Twelve years ago, on Japan Society's stage, Akiko Yano and Hiromitsu Agatsuma played together for the very first time. This footage from Japan Society's archive shows a small fragment of that extraordinary night.

This September, that same chemistry returns to our stage.

Kumamoto Prefecture folk song - Tabarazuka

06/23/2026
Hiroaki Umeda's swirling cosmos of dance, music, digital design, and lighting came to life on Japan Society's stage this...
03/25/2026

Hiroaki Umeda's swirling cosmos of dance, music, digital design, and lighting came to life on Japan Society's stage this past weekend. Thank you to Umeda-san and Somatic Field Project (Takara Nakamura, Yuki Nakamura, Ikumi Otsuka, and Yu Suzuki) for sharing their fluid artistry with New York audiences!

📸: Maria Baranova

03/11/2026

In ten days, digital artist and choreographic mastermind Hiroaki Umeda returns to New York City with a double-bill of his latest works.

Featuring liquid-like, mercurial movement silhouetted against striking divisions of dark and light, Umeda's Moving State 1 is a cinematic group work melding technology and bodies as a single choreographic arc.

See this visually stunning new work, along with a high-octane solo performed by Umeda himself, on March 20 and 21 at Japan Society: https://japansociety.org/events/hiroaki-umeda-assimilating-and-moving-state-1/

Address

333 E 47th Street
New York, NY
10017

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 7pm
Tuesday 11am - 7pm
Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+12127151258

Website

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