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Rhiannon Paget
For Rhiannon Paget's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2014
How a master circled the system
Favorites of today's museum-going public, the lushly colorful, sensuous and grotesque paintings of beautiful women by Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936) have long been written into the canon of nihonga (Japanese-style painting). It is easy to forget, however, just how transgressive Bakusen's images were at the time of their conception, and how they thrilled and appalled his contemporaries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2014
Edo-Tokyo Museum maps out the history of Japan's capital
The transformation of Edo from a mosquito-infested fishing village to seat of power and cultural center has endlessly fascinated lovers of history. After the imperial capital Kyoto fell to military rule in 1185, ensuing battles for power saw the capital move to Kamakura, then Muromachi, Azuchi, and Momoyama before settling in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), the headquarters of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) and his descendents, in 1603. In the stability that followed, Edo swelled to over a million inhabitants by the early 1700s, about double the size of London at the same time. "Edo and Kyo: The Townscape in Asia" contains more than 160 items, among them paintings, maps, and costumes, that tell the story of this most enigmatic of cities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 12, 2014
Hasekura Tsunenaga's portrait has a tale to tell
History is littered with grand projects and dashed expectations that are no less intriguing than its moments of triumph and heroism. A large portrait in oils of a splendidly attired, mid-ranking samurai posing regally in a Roman palace in the early 1600s bears witness to one such episode.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014
Once admired from afar, now enjoyed up close
Billed as an exhibition of masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), "Admired from Afar" is the latest in a number of exhibitions of Japanese art from American collections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2013
Exploring Japan's ancient capital inside and out
Beneath Kyoto, the destination par excellence of tourists, aesthetes, and historians, are the scars and ashes of a much older capital of Japan. Founded in 794 as the seat of imperial authority, after a devastating civil war from 1467 to 1477, the city was rebuilt with opulent temples and palaces, which were decorated by the Kano school, the preferred artists of the ruling warrior class. "Kyoto from Inside and Outside" at the Tokyo National Museum, offers two compelling views of this ancient city: that of a bird, and that of an intrusive housefly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2013
The different brush strokes of Tani Buncho
The latest exhibition at the Suntory Museum of Art commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Tani Buncho — a painter, connoisseur and art historian of formidable energy and with an insatiable drive for knowledge. Of samurai lineage, Buncho underwent foundational art training in Kano School painting under the tutelage of Kato Bunrei (1706-82), but subsequently expanded into literati painting, the Nagasaki School, yamatoe (Japanese nativist painting), Buddhist art and Western pictorial techniques.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013
Seeing the wood for Enku's Buddhas
While a golden age for secular arts, Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867) is broadly dismissed by art historians as a period of stagnation for Buddhist sculpture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2012
Harnessing the spirit of Kuniyoshi
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) belongs to a category of ukiyo-e print artists that have long polarized art historians and connoisseurs for their jarring colors and compositions, cynical depictions of sex and violence, and use of Western pictorial techniques. These so-called "Decadents" were seen to represent the deterioration of Edo Period (1603-1867) bourgeois society as well as of an art form that celebrated elegance and subtle eroticism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2012
The lacquered layers of master Shibata Zeshin
With a career spanning Japan's transition from disintegrating feudal regime to modern nation, Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) was an exceptional artist, reaching the zenith of both painting and lacquer. Nezu Museum's exhibition "Shibata Zeshin: From Lacquer Arts to Painting" presents 139 objects from arguably the most broadly gifted artist of 19th-century Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012
Exploring what makes the fabric of a nation
Held in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from U.S. to Japanese control, "Bingata: Colors and Shapes of the Ryukyu Dynasty" presents 245 examples of vibrantly colored textiles and stencils produced in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which between the 14th and 19th centuries ruled over the area now known as Okinawa Prefecture. Possibly the most comprehensive public exhibition of bingata (Ryukyuan traditional resist-dyed textiles) to date, the mesh of cultures visible in these objects on display at the Suntory Museum of Art make a strong case for Japan's largely underestimated cultural diversity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2012
Japanese art history, through the eye of the collector
"Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" is not a survey of Japanese art, nor is it representative of the vast holdings of the institution. Rather, it is an exhibition that tells of an understanding of Japanese art formulated in the late 19th century by the collectors and scholars Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), William Sturgis Bigelow (1850-1926), and Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913).

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world