Despite earning his Ph.D. from Nihonga in 1983, Murakami became more interested in contemporary styles, and in 1993 he began to develop his own pop culture icons, the first of which was called “Mr. DOB”, a kind of alter ego that was inspired by Doraemon (one of the most successful manga), Sonic the Hedgehog (the video game character) and Mickey Mouse, this after he investigated the global appeal of the most famous characters. It´s worth mentioning that the name of this character is derived from "dobojite" or "why?" in english, because for Murakami this question reflects his vision of the consumer society. But even though his art caught the attention of many viewers, it wasn´t well received in Japan.
By 1994, he received a scholarship from the Asian Cultural Council and participated in the PS1 International Studio Program in New York for a year. During his stay, Murakami began to create a type of art with a Japanese essence, but with enormous and evident contemporary Western influences such as Anselm Kiefer and Jeff Koons.
In 1996 Murakami launched the Hiropon Factory, a production workshop for working on an ever larger scale and a more diverse range of media. His model is inherited from the atelier system, which has existed for a long time in Japanese painting, printmaking, sculpture, anime and manga companies.
But in 2001, this workshop was converted into Kaikai Kiki Limited Company.
By 1999 another of his characters called OVAL would appear, and this came about thanks to the commission of Naoki Takizawa, designer and head of Issey Miyake. Murakami's task was to create an iconic character for a new line of t-shirts, and the theme was Humpty Dumpty, an egg-shaped character, so OVAL includes elements of Humpty Dumpty but also elements of a Japanese monster called Hyakume, or Hundred-Eyes.
Furthermore, upon returning to Japan, Murakami would develop the core concepts behind his artistic practice and begin to appear regularly in major galleries and institutions throughout Europe and America. He also began to focus on popular culture, such as "superflat", a theory proposed by him in 2000 in which he postulates that there is a heritage of two-dimensional images that have existed throughout Japanese art history and continue. currently through the manga and anime.
Superflat differs from Western style in its emphasis on surface and use of color planes. This also served as a critique of post-war Japanese society in which, Murakami argues, social class differences and popular taste have been 'flattened', producing a culture with little distinction between 'high' and 'low'. This theory provided the contextual background for his later work with the exhibitions Coloriage in 2002 and Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture in 2005. Both exhibitions helped introduce Japan's lesser-known culture and incorporate Murakami's multifaceted practice.
Murakami's works range from paintings reminiscent of cartoons to quasi-minimalist sculptures, giant inflatable balloons for events, movies, watches, T-shirts and other mass-produced products.
In addition, apart from the 2 characters mentioned above, it has some others, such as Kaikai and Kiki, as well as the name of the company, and they are two characters that represent the spiritual guardians of the artist. Kaikai is white with long ears and a smiling mouth, and Kiki is pink with short ears, three eyes and triangular teeth and this name was given thanks to the term kaikaikiki that was used in the book Honcho gashi or History of Japanese painting, which was compiled by Kano Sansetsu and Kano Eino) and the phrase was used to describe Kano Eitoku's work, under the phrases kaikaikiki, meaning "bizarre, yet refined" and kikikaikai, meaning "delicate, yet daring".
On the other hand we find Mr. Pointy and the 4 guardians Tamon- Kun, Jikokkun, Koumokkun and Zoucho-Kun who were inspired by pre-Columbian Mayan art and Tibetan Buddhist iconography.
Mr. Pointy is seated in the center and surrounded by the four guards perched on pedestals that float overhead as if descending into the world above the clouds.
For his part, Tamon-Kun, is "the one who hears everything", he is the guardian of the north, and he attends the prayers to safeguard the sacred places. And this figure is basically a representation of Tamontén.
On the other hand, Jikokkun is "the maintainer of the state" or "the watcher and guardian of the eastern lands". In his hand he holds a sword as a symbol that he maintains the world. This figure is a representation of Jikokuten.
Then we meet Koumokkun, who is "the one who sees everything", and he guards the west thanks to his power to see through evil. It´s worth mentioning that like the others, it´s a representation of Komokuten.
The last of the 4 guardians is Zoucho-kun, "the one who makes grow" or the "pattern of growth", guards the south, frees people from suffering, and like the others is a representation of Zochoten.
The last of the characters that we will talk about is one of the most famous and they are his smiling flowers. These have appeared in a lot of his creations.
Finally, Murakami has had many important collaborations, among which we find the invitation by designer Marc Jacobs in 2002 for the Louis Vuitton brand, in which he contributed with graphic material that was used in the design of a series of bags. This series revived the famous fashion house monogram, becoming a huge commercial success, earning him as an artist blurring the line between 'high' art and commercialism.
He also provided the artwork for rapper Kanye West's Graduation album cover and directed the animated video for the song Good Morning in 2007.
For 2009, the music producer Pharrell Williams revealed a collaborative sculpture with Murakami at Art Basel, which Williams stated "illustrates the metaphor of courage."
But despite already having enough popularity, it was in June 2011 when his fame grew thanks to the adaptation of a Google "doodle", one was for the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and a winter doodle for the southern hemisphere.
Between 2019 and 2020, he collaborated with reggaeton singer J Balvin for the art style and music videos for his album "Colores" (colors), which use Murakami's iconic flowers with the reggaeton player's signature rays as eyes, in addition to the Guess brand clothing collection.
Also between 2020 and 2021, he launched his collaboration with the mineral water brand “Perrier”, in which designs that include his iconic flowers, as well as kaikai and kiki, were presented, all this in a selected number of limited edition bottles.
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