Death Anniversary: Yayoi Kusama — August 14, 2026

Yayoi Kusama died in Tokyo on 14 August 2026, at ninety-seven; the news was made public on 27 August. She was born in Matsumoto on 22 March 1929, and had lived by choice since 1977 in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, working every day in a studio across the road.

The place pinned to this anniversary is not where she died: it is the lawn at the Giardini in Venice, beside the Italian Pavilion, where in 1966 she covered the grass with 1,500 mirrored spheres she had not been invited to bring, and sold them for two dollars each until she was thrown out. It is the point where her work touches the heritage this site documents.