Early on in his career, Takashi Murakami was driven to create art rooted in his own Japanese culture and history, but still fresh and valid internationally. To this end, he began searching for something that could be considered ‘uniquely Japanese.’ His search led him to the conclusion that elements of ‘high’ art were inaccessible to many, so he began to focus on Japan’s ‘low’ culture, especially anime and manga, and the larger subculture of otaku.

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He has described his work as "Superflat" a term that he uses to describe the both the flatness of the screens and colour fields of Asian Art and the convergence of high and low culture in the Post War Contemporary world.

 

Throughout his work are cute/disturbing anime-esque characters rendered in bright colors, flat and highly glossy surfaces, and life-size sculptures of anime figurines that draw on a wide array of sources and promote the idea of art as simultaneously familiar and strange.