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May 18, 2024
 

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Mio Yamada

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Mio Yamada
A freelance arts and lifestyle editor and writer, Mio Yamada focuses on design, crafts and architecture. When she’s not visiting galleries and trade fairs, you'll find her taking photos of everything and being distracted by shiny objects. She's also surprisingly British.
For Mio Yamada's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014
OK Go shares a love of Japan with fans
'Sharing' used to be a dirty word in the music industry, but OK Go have been instrumental in changing that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2014
Susumu Shingu knows which way the wind blows
Less than five minutes into conversation, Susumu Shingu's wife, Yasuko, pulls out a large binder crammed with photographs, sketches and drawings and starts flipping through images of her husband's most recent sculptures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2014
Ballet's dance with the avant-garde
On May 29, 1913, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris witnessed what has become a tale of artistic scandal re-told and exaggerated to almost mythic proportions. It is said that just seconds after the stage curtain was raised, the Ballet Russes' performance of Igor Stravinksy's "The Rite of Spring"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2014
'Specters, Ghosts and Sorcerers in Ukiyo-e'
Ghouls, monsters, specters, ghosts — all manner of the supernatural have long fascinated and frightened in all cultures, but the Japanese have historically enjoyed a particularly entertaining, and pictorial, relationship with the eerie and uncanny.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2014
'You Reach Out — Right Now — for Something: Questioning the Concept of Fashion'
Though fashion is often dismissed as just trends in clothing, it has always had a close relationship with art — whether it has been depicted within art, is influenced by it or is considered as artwork itself. Based on magazine editor Nakako Hayashi's 2011 book "Expanded Fashion," this exhibition...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 18, 2013
Old ways to break the mold of mass production
The simplicity of form and color on display at "Product Design Today: Creating 'Made in Japan' " is undeniable. The ceramics are predominantly white, wooden items reveal natural grains, cast iron is kept jet black, contours are uncomplicated and there is not one single ostentatious embellishment.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Dec 12, 2013
Find art contained at affordable prices
The Container, the freight-container-sized gallery in Nakameguro that has been impressively punching above its weight in Tokyo's art scene since 2011, is taking its mantra of "art for everyone" one step further with its latest show. Described as "shamelessly" manufacturing and retailing contemporary...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Dec 5, 2013
Original gifts pop up in Harajuku
If you're out of ideas for gifts this Christmas, photographic art specialists Subject Matter and creative agency UltraSuperNew's Pop Up Gallery is worth a visit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2013
Issei Suda: everything but square
Baring its teeth and twisting awkwardly as it struggles against a rope around its neck, the distressed goat in Issei Suda's 1976 photo appears slightly demonic. Its white fur glows uncannily against a mass of dark branches, while its mud-streaked horns and hooves make it all the more ominous. Trapped...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Japan Pulse
Oct 28, 2013
Tokyo Designers Week 2013
This year's Tokyo Designers Week gets its creative juices flowing with more markets, music and a festival vibe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Japan Pulse
Oct 24, 2013
Isetan Mitsukoshi Design Week
Isetan showcase lifestyle brands with its Designers Week product fair 'Hand Made By For Me.'
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 10, 2013
Psssst! Wanna bottle of fresh air?
Is that bottle of air half full or half empty?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013
The poster nation of unusual graphic design
Art often thrives as it wriggles out from under a big heavy rock. This can be said about creativity in Czechoslovakia from the 1960s to '80s. As the nation broke free of Stalinism, careered toward the Prague Spring and then finally celebrated the end of Communism in 1989, music, art and film began mixing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 19, 2013
Darren Johnston: dance's accidental controversialist
In 2003, prominent arts writer Allen Robertson wrote in The Times: "If there was a Turner Prize for dance, Darren Johnston would undoubtedly be on the shortlist."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2013
Big works buoyed by Dojima River's 'Little Water'
Standing in front of the largest work at the Dojima River Biennale, currently showing at the Dojima River Forum in Fukushima, Osaka, is a mesmerizing experience. A 10-meter-tall digital projection of an ethereal cascading waterfall, it glows mysteriously as its gentle rumbling permeates the dimly lit...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 29, 2013
Architecture and art of a Setouchi summer
In 1988, Soichiro Fukutake, then president and representative director of Fukutake Publishing (now Benesse Corporation), approached architect Tadao Ando and told him that he wanted to create a 'utopia' in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Japan Pulse
Jul 23, 2013
Crafty creators converge on HandMade in Japan Fes 2013
Lovers of homespun goodness gather to celebrate the power of craft and creativity.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 4, 2013
Good, clean fun at Ito tub race
The seaside town of Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, is well known for its dark, sandy beaches, hot springs, giant koi carp and spectacular summer fireworks displays.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jul 4, 2013
Marketing that enters your brain through your nose
The nose knows what it wants, and cutting-edge marketing experts want a piece of the olfactory action.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2013
What provoked Japan's contemporary photography?
In 1968, as the world reeled from The Prague Spring, the turbulent union and student strikes in France, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Japan, like so many other nations, found itself in the midst of social unrest. Citizens questioned the West's involvement in the Vietnam...
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Japan passes bill to introduce 'blue ticket' fines for cyclists
A new system under which bicycle riders pay fines for minor traffic violations to escape criminal punishment is expected to be introduced in Japan no later than 2026.
Japan changes law to allow joint custody after divorce
Legislation that allows the option of joint custody of children after divorce is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Friday.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan to review romanization system for first time in 70 years
An advisory panel to the education ministry will consider how the Japanese language should be transcribed into the Latin alphabet, including unifying different romanization styles currently in use.
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.

Podcast

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Longform

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By Mai Yoshikawa

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