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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2013

Outsider art that comes from within

'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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2010

Chronicling a collection

Last fall, Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) quietly launched a series of exhibitions seeking new interpretive approaches to the institution's permanent collection of modern and contemporary art. Tucked away in a modest group of second-floor galleries, the first exhibition in the series, "Chronicle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 23, 2009

Stuck on cellotape

Ryo Sehata is that often- mentioned but seldom- encountered individual, a truly unique artist. His art is so uncommon that his fame has now assumed viral form, spreading through the Internet via blogs, vlogs, Twitters, links, Diggs and other clickable whatchamacallits. The young artist and his unusual...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2019

Tokutaro Yamamura: A gatekeeper of art history

The Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art presents Tokutaro Yamamura's full collection of Japanese postwar avant-garde art collection for the first time in two decades.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 20, 2019

Controversial art exhibit's closure leaves Japan pondering limits of freedom of expression

Ever since a section of a public art exhibition in Nagoya was closed after coming under a barrage of complaints and threats, Japan has been in a state of introspection over its freedom of expression.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 9, 2018

Buy what you like, sell what the market fancies: Top collectors reveal how to make a fortune in art

Andy Warhol once said: "Making money is art." But what about making money from art?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 17, 2011

Tezuka on iPad represents shift in manga biz

Manga is an integral part of the entertainment industry in Japan, and has been for decades. There are numerous weekly and monthly manga anthologies. Series carried in those magazines often become bestsellers in paperback form and are adapted into anime, live-action TV shows and films. However, with fewer...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2011

G-tokyo art fair hopes for another triumph

Although Tokyo is a major world city, its contemporary art scene lacks the allure of its peers. Japanese interest in contemporary art is growing, though, as evidenced by the record 50,000 visitors at last year's Art Fair Tokyo. However, sales remained at the 2009 level, a fraction of what big art fairs...
JAPAN / OKINAWA'S HOSTAGE ECONOMY
Jul 7, 2010

Futenma relocation has certain bidders salivating

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Last month an executive of a major construction company in Nago confessed what was considered a long-held industry secret in this city that is poised to be the replacement site for the Futenma military base: For decades most local contractors had rigged bids for public works projects,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2010

More than a few favorite things

Museum curators are usually in the position of assessing an artist's career, but rarely turn that same critical lens upon themselves. However, the exhibition "My Favorites-Index of a Certain Collection: Selections from the MoMAK Collection," which opened to the public on March 24 at the National Museum...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2010

Reinterpretations of modern history

One of Japan's pre-eminent contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura is known for his gender-bending self- portraits reinterpreting canonical works of Western art history. His works combine aspects of painting, sculpture, set design, performance and photography, and often use humor to subvert revered icons....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010

Spring blooms early in art world

Seasons play an important role in Japanese culture, which has long celebrated the appreciation of ephemeral beauty as a reflection of life itself. One of the most important seasons in Japan is New Year's, a time for families to gather and celebrate with several days of elaborate feasts. Traditionally,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2009

Escape from propaganda

Artist, architect, designer, photographer, curator, writer, editor, activist — Ai Weiwei is many things. This multiplicity of means all serve a united end that centers on the existential question: What does human freedom mean in China today?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 29, 2008

The last splash of spring

Tokyo's multifaceted gallery scene usually slows down a bit in the summer, so May has seen a whack of openings across the city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 10, 2006

There's an art to saving country life

Just a few hours north of Tokyo's seemingly endless sprawl is the mountainous region of Echigo-Tsumari in Niigata Prefecture. Like so many other rural parts of northern Japan, it is a rugged, isolated, aging and economically stagnant place where elderly men and women can be found doubled over in terraced...
JAPAN / 60 YEARS,AND ONWARD
Aug 14, 2005

War's end brought cash to Hokkaido

When the 77th Division of the 9th Army Corps landed in Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Oct. 4, 1945, it began a low-key U.S. presence in Japan's northernmost prefecture which continues to this day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2002

Art macht frei

"Arbeit macht frei (Work brings freedom)" were the words famously written above the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Austrian-born artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was murdered in a gas chamber on Oct. 9, 1944. Friedl's life, however, had been devoted to a different, truer precept:...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2000

World of freeze-framed flowers at Mitsukoshi

Despite a long history dating back to the 16th century, when botanists in England and Italy began systematic collection of specimens, the art of flower pressing still tends to be treated as a mere hobby or handicraft in many countries. In Japan, too, although the number of oshibana (pressed flower) artists...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 14, 1999

A British art gallery finds an answer to a perennial problem

SOUTHAMPTON, England -- The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is generally acknowledged to be the world's first modern museum worthy of the title. Unlike its predecessors, it was not just a cabinet of curiosities -- archaeological relics and anthropological wonders amassed by some explorer and shown in his...
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 15, 2023

Haruki Murakami’s new novel. Plus, allegations resurface in J-pop.

Celebrated author Haruki Murakami reveals the title to a new novel, “The City and its Uncertain Walls.” Also, the BBC puts out a documentary on J-pop titan Johnny Kitagawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 21, 2022

Designart Tokyo 2022 envisions a more sustainable future

Through Oct. 30, Tokyo abounds with functional and fantastical designs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 7, 2022

Go For Kogei: The evolution of Hokuriku's crafts, art and nature

The craft-art festival, which takes place at three historical temples and shrines, showcases how the region's history and artisanal works are closely intertwined.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2017

'Vagina artist' Megumi Igarashi continues her battle with Japan's definition of obscenity

Artist Megumi Igarashi had never imagined battling investigative authorities over freedom of expression until they claimed she had committed crimes with her works of art.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2015

Why infrastructure repairs are being ignored

Several days after a storm caused the Kinugawa River to overflow its banks and destroy communities in Ibaraki Prefecture in September, the infrastructure ministry held on-site meetings to look into what went wrong.
In what is billed as the first major production in English of Hisashi Inoue's "The Face of Jizo,” the Japanese play will have performances at the Seymour Centre in Sydney both in English and in Japanese.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2025

'The Face of Jizo': Hisashi Inoue's play staged in Sydney commemorates WWII victims

Billed as the first major English-language production of the play, "The Face of Jizo" also increases the variety of roles for Japanese actors in Australia.
Shuji Nakagawa created a teahouse using the same technique for making traditional wooden buckets.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 19, 2025

A bucket becomes a house in the hands of craftsman Shuji Nakagawa

At Go for Kogei 2025, a third-generation woodworker envisions new forms for a humble vessel.
Yuanhui Li's illustration is one of the awardees in the student category of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators' annual award for artists.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 26, 2025

Architecture art exhibition highlights unsung industry artists

For only the second time in its 39-year history, the “Architecture in Perspective” exhibition will take place in Japan's capital.
Ari Bayuaji's artwork of the benevolent Bali god Barong is on display in a glass case on the ground floor of Hollywood Beauty Plaza.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2025

Artist Ari Bayuaji materializes monsters from ocean plastic

From his series “Weaving the Ocean,” the demon Rangda is on display at Go for Kogei 2025, while the more benevolent Barong sits in a glass case in Roppongi.
One of the unreleased pencil sketches believed to have been written by Osamu Tezuka that were recently discovered in Niiza, Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2025

'God of manga' Osamu Tezuka's unknown storyboards discovered

The storyboards are "arguably the biggest discovery" since Tezuka's death in 1989, said Hajime Tanaka, head of materials management at Tezuka Productions.

Longform

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