Following the death of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, Guardian readers shared personal reflections on how her work touched their lives, from marriage proposals to moments of quiet peace. The tributes highlight the breadth of Kusama's cultural reach, showing how her polka dots, pumpkins and infinity mirror rooms resonated far beyond the traditional art world, connecting with people across generations and countries.

Readers recounted experiences including a proposal inside an infinity mirror room in Helsinki, a self-described "self-obliteration" moment at a retrospective in Porto, and sunset visits to her yellow pumpkin sculpture on the Japanese art island of Naoshima. Others described watching a young son grow up visiting Tokyo's Kusama Museum since it opened in 2017, discovering her provocative photography above a urinal in a Shinjuku gay bar, and a mother connecting instinctively with her polka-dot imagery in Tokyo. Several contributors also noted Kusama's activism, including her performing unofficial gay wedding ceremonies before same-sex marriage was legally recognised.