The Japanese story inside the world’s oldest indoor theatre

One of the best things to do in Vicenza ↓ / Where to find Japan inside Teatro Olimpico ↓ / The Japanese treasure still missing ↓ / From Hiroshi Sugimoto to manga and television ↓ / Plan your visit ↓ 

One of the best things to do in Vicenza

Seven streets stretch into the distance behind the stage. Buildings shrink, perspectives converge, and a wooden city seems to extend beyond the theatre walls. These are Vincenzo Scamozzi’s streets of Thebes, made for the inaugural performance in 1585 and still intact. In Vicenza’s historic centre, Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico gives you the world’s oldest surviving indoor theatre with its original Renaissance illusion still at work. Look through the different stage openings from the auditorium: each reveals another view into the city. [1]

Where to find Japan inside Teatro Olimpico

Look high on the walls of the vestibule, also called the Antiodeo. A monochrome fresco attributed to Alessandro Maganza recalls the reception of four Japanese envoys here in 1585. Ask the visitor staff to point out the panel. [2, 3] They belonged to the Tenshō Embassy, which left Nagasaki in 1582 representing three Christian lords of Kyushu. Their journey through Asia and Europe lasted eight years. Here, inside one of Italy’s great Renaissance interiors, you can find a painted record of Japanese travellers who saw it when it was new. [2, 4]

The Japanese treasure still missing

The same embassy brought Pope Gregory XIII painted folding screens depicting Oda Nobunaga’s Azuchi Castle. Their whereabouts remain unknown. Researchers associated with the University of Melbourne and Kyushu University continue to investigate their fate through the Azuchi Screens Research Network, supported by Hiroshi Sugimoto. In 2026, Ars Orientalis, published by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and the University of Michigan, featured a new study of drawings linked to the missing screens. The search behind this Japanese journey to Italy is still open. [6, 7]

From Hiroshi Sugimoto to manga and television

When Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed Teatro Olimpico in 2015, the theatre director showed him the Japanese envoys in the fresco. Sugimoto describes that encounter as the impulse to retrace their route and photograph the European buildings they had seen. His Quattro Ragazzi project includes the Olimpico itself. [5] The voyage has also reached Japanese comics and television. Shueisha’s catalogue documents its retelling in the Sengoku Banka volume of NHK’s historical manga series Sono Toki Rekishi ga Ugoita. The drama MAGI: The Tensho Boys’ Embassy follows the same mission. In Vicenza, you can visit one of the actual places behind those retellings. [8, 9]

Plan your visit

Visit independently during museum opening hours. The admission ticket includes the scheduled POP sound and light presentation, a ten minute experience created from Alessandro Baricco and Scuola Holden’s Palladio Olimpico Project. Check the official calendar before travelling: rehearsals and performances can affect access. [10]