Yayoi Kusama, the visionary Japanese artist who died at 97, had a complicated relationship with her home country. She endured a traumatic childhood and was later shunned by the Japanese cultural elite for her provocative style. Yet as news of her passing spread, Japanese artists, scholars, politicians and art lovers rushed to celebrate her legacy, describing her as a cultural giant who helped bring Japanese art to the masses.

In Matsumoto, her hometown about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo, the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun published a special edition hailing her as a "world-renowned avant-garde artist." The mayor of Matsumoto, Yoshinao Gaun, said her works "instilled pride in our citizens and served as a vital bridge connecting our city to the world." Her sculpture "Phantom Flowers," of tulips covered in signature polka dots, stands at the entrance of a local art museum, and some city buses feature her iconic polka-dot design. Kusama was born in 1929 to a wealthy family in Matsumoto. She endured physical abuse and family trauma, studied Nihonga style painting in Kyoto, and left Japan in 1957 for the United States.

After destroying thousands of early drawings along a riverbank, she moved to New York, where her career took off. She returned to Japan in 1973 and checked herself into a mental hospital in Tokyo in 1977, making it her permanent home. Daisuke Miyatsu, a professor at the Yokohama University of Art and Design, admired her ability to succeed in the United States despite a white male-dominated art world.

Her physical body may have faded, but her consciousness continues to paint. In her autobiography, Kusama said she did not fear death, seeing it as merely stepping into the next room.