A Hello Kitty! rice cooker, toaster and kettle; a cloisonné enamel handbag imitating snakeskin; a selection of mobile phones designed by Naoto Fukasawa and a group of kimono from the 1920s-1930s are among recent acquisitions that will be shown in the V&A’s refurbished Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art, which will reopen at the beginning of November. The gallery refresh is part of the V&A’s ongoing FuturePlan scheme of restoration and redesign to create beautiful and contemporary new settings for the Museum’s outstanding collections. Originally opened in December 1986, the Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art was the first major gallery of Japanese art in the UK. It was designed to showcase highlights of the V&A’s internationally important collection of Japanese art and design, which the Museum has built up since it was founded in 1852. The refurbished gallery will

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