takashi murakami launches first-ever NFT — 108 variations of his signature flowers

UPDATE 04/13/2021: murakami has taken to instagram to announce he has paused his NFT venture in order to understand better how it works. read below the full statement.

I have to make an announcement here. I was about to take on a challenge of offering NFTs, digital artworks that use electronic certification mechanism, for sale. for the following reasons, however I have decided to postpone and reexamine the sales.

initially, I took the challenge on with a spirit of trial first, groping my way forward from the preparation of the NFT artwork to entering into an NFT marketplace. I believe my team and I managed to prepare everything very quickly. on the other hand, we have been receiving many a valuable opinion and advice from a number of collectors and experts, which have led me and my team to further discuss and deepen our awareness.

in order to take full advantage of NFT and maximize the convenience for the collectors/owners while strengthening their satisfaction and sense of security in owning the works, we decided that it would be best to further explore the optimal format in which to offer my NFT works. to this end, we plan to carefully consider and discuss various factors such as: choosing between ERC721 and 1155 based on their advantages and disadvantages considering the concept of my work; whether we need independent smart contracts; whether we should build our own storefront; and whether we need IPFS; among others.

I would therefore like to withdraw the listing for the time being and tackle NFT again after further internal discussions, better prepared. I sincerely apologize to those who have already put in their bids, but I hope you will understand the logic behind this withdrawal, the aim of which is to later allow you to enjoy my NFT works more conveniently and with peace of mind.

through the preparations and discussions so far, I have become even more convinced of the great potential of NFT, and I am excited anew to work on NFT digital art. I thank you for coming along with me on this journey.

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takashi murakami is the latest person to join the NFT craze. the world-renowned japanese artist has released a set of 108 variations of his signature flowers— a number that signifies earthly desires in buddishm — in OpenSea, the current largest NFT marketplace. the artist explained on monday that the decision was inspired by watching his children enjoy animal crossing: new horizons.

‘the transformation of the reality of virtual world for me occurred during this pandemic when I saw the way my children interact with animal crossing: new horizons,’ murakami said on monday. ‘they were watching some fireworks display within the game while talking with their school friends, who they could no longer meet in person, through zoom, admiring how beautiful it was.’

murakami took to instagram to announce the release of his NFTs, where he also mentioned how inspired he was by christie’s NFT auction where a monumental digital collage by artist mike winkelmann, aka beeple (previously featured by designboom in 2015) was offered as a single lot sale at a whopping $69,346,250 to entrepreneur, coder, and blockchain angel investor metakovan, the pseudonymous founder and financer of metapurse.

‘after it became much talked about with beeple’s @beeple_crap auction the other day, I have been contemplating the right approach myself,’ murakami said on the instagram post. ‘an opportunity brought me together with yoshihisa hashimoto @hsmtyshs , an authority on online games, and we decided to partner up on this. hashimoto directed a team mainly of programmers for the renewed MMO RPG “final fantasy 14: new eorzea,” and in june 2012, he led the production of “agni’s philosophy—final fantasy REALTIME TECH DEMO” at E3. he was then the CTO of square enix and is now the representative of ZIKU technologies, Inc., a company that creates XR, AI, and avatars.’

tackling many of us, murakami explained how he’s still uncertain about the NFT future, ‘I’m groping in the dark, so I’m sure I will make many mistakes, but please bear with me.’