Takashi Murakami, Dragon in Clouds—Red Mutation: The version I painted myself in annoyance after Professor Nobuo Tsuji told me, “Why don’t you paint something yourself for once?" (detail), 2010

The latest display of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics, takes a time-travelling approach to art, featuring a dialogue between the paintings and sculptures of contemporary artist Murakami and classic works from the MFA’s renowned collection. The pop art- and manga-influenced Murakami worked with Japanese art historian Professor Nobuo Tsuji to select an eye-popping array of Murakami’s own pieces that reflect on the masterpieces that hang nearby, including the 13th century Heiji Scroll, one of the most famous Japanese works of art not in a Japanese museum, and Soga Shōhaku’s stunning, 35-foot-long Dragon and Clouds from 1763.