iMuseu do OrienteAlcântara
Japan: Festivities and Rites
More than 1,500 objects, recreated altars and shrines trace Japan's calendar of Shinto and Buddhist festivals, from New Year and the Boys' and Girls' festivals to funeral rites.
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Part of this show is rebuilt rather than hung: altars and worship spaces recreated from Japanese festivals, among them the altars set up for the Boys' and Girls' festivals. Around them sit more than 1,500 objects from the Fundação Oriente collection, all shown here for the first time.
It follows Japan's year in order, starting with New Year purifications and moving through fertility cults to offerings for the festival of the dead, with Shinto worship of the kami and Buddhism as the two threads. Alongside devotional objects and statues there are prints, photography, video and multimedia installations, plus contemporary testimonies. The museum frames the whole thing as a show about how rituals bind people to a community and to nature.
It is on the second floor, and one €10 ticket covers every exhibition in the building. Friday entry is free from 18:00 to 20:00. It closes on 3 January 2027, so New Year purification rites make a sturdier plan for 1 January than your gym membership.
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More than 1,500 objects and recreated altars and shrines follow Japan's Shinto and Buddhist calendar, from New Year and the Girls' and Boys' festivals to funeral rites. In a former cod warehouse on the Alcântara docks, free on Fridays from 18:00.
Look for
The recreated altars and worship spaces
Altars and places of worship rebuilt inside the galleries, so the devotional objects are seen set up as they would be used.
The Boys' and Girls' festival altars
Displays for the two spring festivals aimed at children, each with its own set of objects.
New Year purification
The opening of the Japanese calendar, shown through the objects used in the rites that cleanse the year.
Offerings for the festival of the dead
Objects given to ancestors during the festival that honours the deceased.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Rainy Days
With kids
Children aged 6 to 12 pay €3 and under-5s are free. A family ticket is €22.
Also at Museu do Oriente
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Image credits
6
- Japan: Festivities and RitesCourtesy of Museu do Oriente
- Sara Sadik. KhtobtogoneCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- Mostra Espanha 2026: Guest Works by Maruja MalloColección Centro de Arte Fundación María José Jove / VEGAP
- The Photographic Impulse: (Un)settling the Colonial ArchiveCourtesy of Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
- Museu do OrienteJoaomartinho63 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA)Ana Correia 28 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0