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Tokyo Skytree will celebrate its first anniversary Wednesday but has not yet completed its prime mission of reliably broadcasting to households in the capital and its suburbs. Since December, the world’s tallest free-standing tower, at 634 meters high, has been making test broadcasts to ...
If you work in an office, you probably spend a fair part of your time sitting at a desk, which, of course, isn’t very healthy. To combat that the Pomodoro technique recommends that you work in intervals with regular breaks — for example, 25 ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
"Outsider art" is relatively new in Japan and, as a genre, works made by self-taught Japanese artists are still not very well known on the category-delineating, label-loving international art scene.
After all these years, Rafael Nadal still knows how to dominate Roger Federer. In the 30th meeting between the two tennis greats, Nadal controlled the final from start to finish to win 6-1, 6-3 Sunday for his seventh Italian Open title. “Rafa was just ...
Besides being an actor, Arata Iura has proved to be artistically talented in other fields. He runs his own fashion label, which offers a mix of traditional craftsmanship with modern design, and is now revealing himself to be a gifted photographer. Impressed by his ...
The National Museum of Western Art opened in 1959 as the only museum in Japan dedicated to Western artworks. Since its establishment, it has actively continued to collect, preserve and display Western works, becoming the major driving force behind today’s widespread presence of European ...
In ancient Japan, the term Yase Doji referred to the people who lived in the Yase district of Kyoto and worked for the area’s Enryaku temple. Despite their plebeian status, Yase Doji were prosperous and maintained strong connections with those in power, including emperors, ...
Inspired by the British ceramist Bernard Leach, Kenkichi Tomimoto decided to pursue a career as a ceramicist at the beginning of Taisho Era. He was also influenced by Soetsu Yanagi, who spearheaded the Mingei (folk arts) movement, and succeeded in creating a new style ...
Kissho monyo refers to Asian auspicious motifs that are often used on objects to bring about good fortune or ward off back luck. Such designs are typically inspired by mythological tales and include animals such as tigers, cranes and turtles. The motifs symbolize a ...
Shozo and Ayuko Shimada are highly respected European-style artists in Japan. Both graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts and they celebrate their 50 years of marriage this December. As oil painters, they were both influenced by Cubism, yet their styles developed in quite ...
Born in South Korea, artist Do Ho Suh moved to the United States to study at the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University after achieving a BFA and MFA in Oriental Painting at Seoul National University. His works often reflect an inner ...
The Gobi Desert in Mongolia has been attracting paleontologists from across the globe ever since the 1920s when a U.S. team of naturalists uncovered a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs there. The numerous explorations that followed led to a flurry of other discoveries, establishing ...
Sketches are in themselves important clues to an artist’s inner struggles and show the possible changes to their original intent in a final work. It is for such reason that Tanabe City Museum of Art takes good care of preparatory sketches, seeing them a ...
In the late 19th century, with the better part of the West in the grip of materialism, a group of artists united under the label Symbolism in an effort to counter the trend. Instead of staying within the realm of realism and possibility, Symbolists ...
Kayo Yamaguchi (1899-1984) developed his interest in portraying animals while still a child. He later apprenticed himself to Goun Nishimura, and learned the traditional technique of Japanese realistic-painting. As he furthered his career, Yamaguchi began to experiment with a more “modern” Western painting styles, ...
Although born into a family of merchants in southwestern Japan, Edo-Period illustrator Kinzo (1812-76) was endowed with such outstanding skills that as an adolescent he moved to Tokyo to study at the prestigious Kano painting school. After returning to his hometown, he continued his ...