Spirit of Japan at Remastered Rotterdam

FROM 17 JUL '26 | Geishas, samurai, spirits, cherry blossoms and towering waves now fill the walls and floors of Remastered Rotterdam. The new Spirit of Japan experience brings more than 400 Japanese artworks from 20 museum collections into a 360-degree digital production beneath the Erasmus Bridge.

Opened on 17 July 2026, Spirit of Japan is the first new immersive show introduced by Remastered in five years. The one-hour experience combines Japanese printmaking, animated imagery, electronic music and interactive installations. Remastered’s existing Dutch Masters experience remains available as a separate programme.

Japanese art surrounds the audience

Rather than presenting prints in frames, Spirit of Japan expands them across the walls and floor of Remastered’s main hall. Figures move through landscapes, waves rise around the room and scenes shift between nature, city life, mythology and Japanese popular culture.

The production uses more than 400 works from the collections of 20 museums. The selection includes images by major Japanese artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Utagawa Hiroshige, as well as later printmakers including Yoshida Hiroshi and Kawase Hasui.

Music and sound design are central to the experience. Traditional and contemporary influences accompany each visual chapter, giving the scenes their own rhythm and atmosphere as they gradually form a single audiovisual journey. 

The pictures of the floating world

The central inspiration is ukiyo-e, a Japanese art form that flourished between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Its name is commonly translated as ‘pictures of the floating world’.

Ukiyo-e prints recorded the popular culture of Japan’s Edo period. Common subjects included kabuki performers, courtesans, fashions, city entertainment, folklore, travel routes and landscapes. Woodblock printing allowed these images to be reproduced in larger numbers, making them accessible to a broader urban audience than traditional paintings.

Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige became particularly celebrated for their landscapes. Their unusual viewpoints, cropped compositions, firm outlines and flat areas of colour later influenced European artists including Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

That connection gives Spirit of Japan an interesting place within Remastered. Visitors can choose between a Japanese show rooted in ukiyo-e or the venue’s original Dutch Masters programme, which digitally reinterprets works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh and other artists from the Netherlands. 

Inside the Spirit of Japan experience

The Spirit of Japan programme begins with several shorter digital environments before visitors enter the large projection hall for the main Japanese presentation, also titled Spirit of Japan.

Along the way, Reflections responds to visitors’ movements with a simulated liquid surface, while Matter of Painting transforms brushstrokes and paint-like gestures into a moving composition. Mutation adds a more abstract sequence of changing shapes, textures and sound. Visitors also pass through LED Alley, where illuminated strips, moving waves and a digital waterfall form the transition into the darker exhibition spaces.

The main Spirit of Japan presentation lasts around thirty minutes and forms the centrepiece of the visit. Here, Japanese prints and artworks fill the walls and floor in a 360-degree audiovisual production.

Tickets for Spirit of Japan

Regular admission currently costs €24.50 for visitors aged 13 and over and €16.50 for children aged six to twelve. A service charge of €1.45 applies to each ticket. Remastered also lists a family ticket for €75 and a VIP ticket for €64.50. 

Tickets are sold for fixed starting times. Visitors are advised to arrive fifteen minutes before their booked slot. Tickets can be displayed on a smartphone and do not need to be printed.

Bookings cannot be refunded, although the date and starting time can be changed through the link in the confirmation email. Remastered is a card-only venue and does not accept cash. Tickets are available at: https://remastered.nl/en/spirit-of-japan/

No closing date has been announced. Remastered currently presents Spirit of Japan as an ongoing sixty-minute experience alongside its separate Dutch Masters programme. 

Opening hours

Remastered currently publishes the following opening hours:

• Monday and Tuesday: 10:30 to 15:00
• Wednesday: 10:30 to 16:30
• Thursday: 10:30 to 15:00
• Friday and Saturday: 10:30 to 18:00
• Sunday: 10:30 to 16:30

Starting times and daily availability can vary, so reserving a time slot online before travelling is recommended.

Accessibility and age suitability

Remastered recommends the experience from the age of six. The moving images, loud sound, darkness and large-scale projections can be intense, particularly for younger children.

The venue warns that its audiovisual effects make the experience unsuitable for people with epilepsy. Several parts of the route are narrow and dark. Visitors who experience claustrophobia can speak to a member of staff, who may be able to guide them around these sections.

Remastered is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible toilet. Electric wheelchairs cannot enter the experience because of the sensitive equipment, but a manual replacement wheelchair is available. Assistance dogs may be permitted by prior arrangement. 

How to get there

Remastered is located at Willemsplein 79, directly beneath the Erasmus Bridge. The entrance is close to the Spido departure point, the Wereldmuseum and the waterfront of the Scheepvaartkwartier. Leuvehaven is the nearest metro station and is served by lines D and E. From there, the venue is approximately ten minutes away on foot. Several tram and bus stops are also located nearby. Visitors arriving by car can use the Erasmusbrug car park beside the venue or the APCOA Scheepvaartkwartier car park. Remastered also sells parking tickets through its booking system, subject to availability.