Tivoli Opens Hikari, Its Largest Themed Area Ever, With Murakami Art and 60 Tonnes of Japanese Bricks

Tivoli, the 183-year-old amusement park in central Copenhagen, opened its new Japanese-themed district Hikari on 15 August 2026 — the largest themed area in the park's history (Dezeen).

The name means "light" in Japanese. The 2,000-square-metre zone sits in a corner of Tivoli that already held a Japanese garden and pagoda, now expanded into a full street scene drawing on Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka (Dezeen).

To build it, Tivoli shipped 60 tonnes of bricks from Japan, along with 200 wooden windows and doors, sake barrels and kokeshi dolls — the traditional limbless wooden figures that date to the Edo period. Japan-style buildings, shops, restaurants and a fun-house ride called Hotel Hikari line the street. A new spinning ride, Typhoon's Eye, sits behind exteriors that resemble shoji, the sliding paper screens used in Japanese interiors (Dezeen).

Tivoli describes Typhoon's Eye as Hikari's wildest ride, offering visitors "a taste of the immense power of Japanese typhoons," while Hotel Hikari plays with perspective and illusion, keeping visitors guessing what waits around the next corner (Tivoli). The area includes two new rides in total (Tivoli).

Hikari also features an artwork by Takashi Murakami, the Japanese contemporary artist known for his brightly coloured, manga-influenced paintings and sculptures, complemented by street art and decorative elements throughout the district (Amusement Today).

Tivoli's CEO, Susanne Mørch Koch, told Dezeen that bringing the world to Copenhagen and interpreting it through the park's own imagination has been "part of our DNA for more than 180 years." Design and development director Rasmus Altenborg said Hikari's street was designed to reflect different periods of Japanese architecture rather than copying a single era (Dezeen).

The park worked with an advisory board of Danish and Danish-Japanese experts, plus a Japanese graphic designer who contributed to the signage. Tivoli says Hikari was designed as a respectful, authentic interpretation of a Japanese district — not a direct replication (Dezeen).

What makes Hikari stand out is the sheer volume of material shipped across continents to anchor the illusion. Sixty tonnes of brick is not scenic paint on plywood. It is masonry with a freight manifest.

Tivoli, which opened in 1843 and is said to have inspired Walt Disney's vision for Disneyland, runs its summer season from April to September. Hikari is accessible with a standard entrance ticket and a ride pass — or turpas, as the park calls it (Tivoli).