Myth of Tomorrow, Mural in Shibuya Station, Japan
Myth of Tomorrow is a mural by Tarō Okamoto located in Shibuya Station, Tokyo. The composition stretches 30 meters wide and 5.5 meters tall, showing human figures and creatures rendered in large-scale, expressive brushwork.
Okamoto created the work in 1969 as a commission for a hotel in Mexico City that never opened. The painting disappeared for decades until its rediscovery in 2003 in a Mexico City suburb and its return to Japan in 2008.
Okamoto's title refers to a myth for the future: the mural shows a burning skeleton with its mouth wide open, which his adopted daughter Okamoto Toshiko described as anger exploding as human pride. To the right stands the Daigo Fukuryū Maru; to the left, people rest in a peaceful world. The central skeleton motif draws on pre-Hispanic Mexican culture.
The mural hangs in the upper floor of the station, near the Mark City entrance, where commuters pass daily. Travelers can view it while switching train lines or pause briefly to study its details.
In 2011 the artist group Chim↑Pom stuck a plywood panel showing a Fukushima-like scene onto the mural's lower blank area, calling it "LEVEL7 feat. Myth of Tomorrow". Police removed it the same day; the group later donated the work to the Okamoto Taro Memorial Museum.
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