1925
June 27: Born in Kobe
1943
April: Enrolls in a preparatory course at Kwansei Gakuin University
Joins the Gengetsu-kai painting club
June: Begins to study painting with Hiroshi Kanbara
1948
October: Graduates from the philosophy department at Kwansei Gakuin University
1949
September: Participates in the 13th Shinseisaku Art Society Prize Exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)
October: Begins to study with Tsuguro Ito
1951
May: Enrolls in a postgraduate course in aesthetics at Kwansei Gakuin University
1952
June: Participates in the 5th Ashiya City Exhibition (Ashiya Buddhist Hall), an event he continues to take part in every year until the 47th installment in 1994
Joins the Zero-kai (Group Zero), a group consisting of radical members of the Shinseisaku Art Society
The group also includes Akira Kanayama, Kazuo Shiraga, and Atsuko Tanaka
1953
July: Participates in a two-person show with Kazuo Shiraga under the name "Murakami-Hiko"
(Hankyu Department Store gallery, Osaka). *Murakami's nickname at the time
Meets Jiro Yoshihara for the first time at the exhibition venue
1954
Participates in a Group Zero exhibition (Window display at Sogo Department Store, Osaka
1955
Joins the Gutai Art Association. Continues to show his work at every Gutai exhibition until 1970
July: Participates in the "Experimental Outdoor Exhibition of Modern Art to Challenge the Midsummer Sun" (Ashiya Park)
Among the works is one in which Murakami "tears" a section of asphalt roofing
October: Participates in the 1st Gutai Art Exhibition (Ohara Hall, Tokyo)
Among Murakami's works is a series of breakthrough performances that includes Six Holes (Muttsu no ana) and Entrance (Iriguchi)
Around this time he begins teaching painting to kindergarteners in Itami, Nishinomiya, and Osaka – something he continues for the rest of his life
1956
April: Participates in the 6th Exhibition of Kansai Sogo Bijutsu (Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts)
On the invitation of the museum's Western painting division, Murakami shows Work – Please Sit Down (Suwatte kudasai), which consists only of a wooden box. The work is the subject of much controversy
July: Participates in the Outdoor Gutai Art Exhibition (Ashiya Park)
Among the works are Murakami's Sky (Sora) and All Possible Landscapes (Arayuru fukei), both of which function to crop and frame the surrounding scenery
October: Participates in the 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition (Ohara Hall, Tokyo)
Among the works is Murakami's paper-breakthrough Passing Through.
1957
April: Participates in the 3rd Gutai Art Exhibition (Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art)
Includes an over three-meter work by Murakami in which the paint gradually peels during the exhibition
May: Participates in the Gutai Art Using the Stage exhibition (Sankei Hall, Osaka and Tokyo)
Includes Murakami's paper-breakthrough Confrontation with a Screen
1958
Begins to focus on painting, a trend that continues into the '60s
September: Participates in the 6th Gutai Art Exhibition
The show travels to the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York and three other U.S. cities
1960
April: Represents Japan at the International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin
1962
September: Participates in an exhibition commemorating the opening of the Gutai Pinacotheca Osaka
Jiro Yoshihara creates a paper-breakthrough, Entrance (Iriguchi), for the event
1963
April: Holds a solo exhibition (Gutai Pinacotheca, Osaka)
July: Participates in the "Trends in Contemporary Art" exhibition (National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto)
1966
February: Participates in the "Grüppe Gutai" exhibition (Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne)
1970
March: Participates in the "Moving Art and Light Square" event (Festival Square Expo, Osaka)
Presents a work in which a box falls over when it is hit by a spotlight (the effect is achieved by a man inside who throws his body against the box)
1971
April 1-15: Holds a solo exhibition titled Box (Hako) (Mori's Form, Osaka)
Murakami's resignation from the Gutai Art Association is rejected
1972
March 31: The Gutai Art Association is dissolved
1973
May 21-June 2: Holds a solo exhibition commonly known as "Wooden Clappers" (Hyoshigi)(Gallery Shunjukan, Osaka)
October 1- 6: Holds a solo exhibition commonly known as "Silence" (Mugon) (Mugensha, Osaka)
1974
February 18-23: Holds a solo exhibition commonly known as "Water" (Mizu) (Shinanobashi Gallery Apron, Osaka)
July 29-August 3: Holds a solo exhibition commonly known as "Lines" (Suji) (Shinanobashi Gallery Apron, Osaka)
1975
March 20-30: Holds an exhibition titled Kakikuke Solo Show (Kakikuke koten) (Gallery Seiwa, Osaka)
Joins the Artists' Union
1976
May 17-22: Holds a solo exhibition commonly known as "Floor" (Yuka) (Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka)
November: Participates in the "Eighteen Years of Gutai Art" exhibition (Osaka Prefectural Gallery)
1977
June 4-18: Holds a solo exhibition titled Dislike for the Principle of Identity (Jidoritsu no fukai) (Galerie Kitano Circus, Kobe)
1979
January: Participates in the "Jiro Yoshihara and Contemporary Aspects of Gutai" exhibition
(Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art)
1981
September: Participates in "Trends of Contemporary Art I (Light and Dark Beams): Exhibition in the ‘50s" (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo)
1983
Participates in the "Sechs Japanische Künstler der Gutai-Gruppe" exhibition (Atelierhaus Hildebrandstraße, Düsseldorf)
1985
December: Participates in the "Reconstruction: Avant-Garde Art in Japan 1945-1965" exhibition (Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; others in the U.K.)
1986
August: Participates in the "Gutai: Action and Painting" exhibition (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art)
December: Participates in the "Japanese Avant-Garde: 1910-1970" exhibition(Centre Pompidou, Paris)
1988
March: Participates in the "Taruho and San-chan" exhibition (Art Space, Nishinomiya)
The show is curated by Shozo Shimamoto and devoted to the writer Taruho Inagaki, a favorite of Murakami's
Yukio Fujimoto also participates in the show
1990
December: Participates in the "Japanese Avant-Garde: The Group Gutai in the 50's" exhibition
(Galleria Nazionale d'Art Moderna, Rome)
1991
March: Participates in the "Gutai: Japanese Avant-Garde 1954-1965" exhibition (Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Germany)
1992
June: Participates in the "Gutai I" exhibition (Ashiya City Museum of Art & History).
July: Participates in the "Outdoor Exhibition Revisited" (Ashiya Park) in conjunction with "Gutai I."
1993
January: Participates in the "Gutai II" exhibition (Ashiya City Museum of Art & History)
June: Participates in the 45th Venice Biennale: "Passage to the Orient."
Participates in the "Gutaï…suite?" exhibition (Musee d'Art Moderne, Toulouse)
December: Participates in the "Music: Every Sound includes Music" exhibition (Xebec Foyer, Kobe)
1994
September: Participates in the "Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky" exhibition
(Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; others)
November: Participates in the "Hors Limites" exhibition (Centre Pompidou, Paris). Murakami's work Exit
(Deguchi) is subsequently acquired by the museum
Participates in the "One-Day Museum: Feeling by Seeing" event (Kawanishi City Hall) with his final paper-breakthrough performance, Exit (Deguchi)
1995
April: Participates in the "Japanese Culture: The Fifty Postwar Years" exhibition (Meguro Museum of Art,Tokyo; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art; Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art)
1996
January 11: Dies of a brain contusion at the age of 70
April 6- May 12: A solo exhibition of Murakami's work is held (Ashiya City Museum of Art & History)