Japan's quadrennial art festival at the foot of Mount Fuji is back. The Mt. Fuji Art Festival 2026 opened October 17 across seventeen venues in Yamanashi Prefecture, spanning the Kofu and eastern basin areas, the northern region, and the southern Fuji foothills, and continues through November 15.

Held every four years as a wide-area touring festival in the shadow of the World Heritage mountain, this edition takes "living" as its theme. Visitors are invited not only to view works but to absorb the region's history, culture, and community life as part of the experience. Venues reach well beyond conventional white cubes: the Nezu Memorial Hall, Kai Zenkoji temple, the Keisetsuryo villa in the Nirasaki Omura Memorial Park, the former Futabaya sake brewery, the Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum, and the Paul Rusch Memorial Hall all host contemporary works by Japanese and international artists.

Some forty-five artists are participating, including Yoshihiro Suda, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, Tokuro Sakamoto, Hanae Kashiwabara, and the collective hellowakana. The program extends past exhibition into making: workshops offer onigawara demon-tile crafting, parent-child daruma painting, ink-grinding, gemstone polishing, bamboo craft, washi papermaking, senko-hanabi sparkler making, garden sketching, and nihonga sessions.

Music, dance, and performance round out the schedule, from a tea ceremony exploring the history of tea to a collaboration between the Japan Aviation High School taiko drum team and CHUTA and YULI, a stringraphy and ITONE concert, and a performance at Kaizenji temple. In a crowded autumn calendar of Japanese regional art festivals, the Fuji edition distinguishes itself by folding art into the everyday fabric of the prefecture, from shrines to breweries.