These days it seems like every where we turn we stumble into the artwork of Takashi Murakami. Whether it’s his actual artwork — paintings and sculptural objects — at a major museum, on the internet, on Instagram or TikTok, at a Louis Vuitton pop-up store in Tokyo or on TV.
But we never expected to see Murakami throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Major League baseball game. That was not on our bingo card.
But that’s exactly what happened before a friendly pre-season exhibition match between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo. Murakami walked out to the pitcher’s mound with his signature flowers headwear atop his graying long hair to hurl a baseball to home plate and the waiting mitt of a Dodgers catcher.
Seeing this was a bit of a head-scratcher for us. Baseball and Japanese contemporary art? These are not things we’d ever expect to come together this way.
But the Los Angeles Dodgers are massively popular in japan, in large measure due to the the team’s star player, the truly phenomenal Japanese pitcher and slugger Shohei Ohtani. He’s one of two professional Japanese players to join the team, which with the help of Ohtani’s incredible athletic performance last year were crowned Major League Baseball champions after winning the World Series.
The Dodger’s are playing their official season opening series against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo on March 18th and 19th in addition to the recent exhibition game with the Tokyo Giant’s.
Tapping into the fervent interest in the Dodgers’ Japan connection, Major League Baseball created a collection of merch in collaboration with Murakami, including Dodgers and Cubs baseball jerseys decorated with Murakami’s artwork. So Murakami’s first-pitch appearance makes a lot more sense as a PR stunt.
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