Style & Design Apr 29, 2018
Architect Fumihiko Maki: Finding intimacy in the city
by Greg Logan
Fumi Maki talks about a landmark book of Japanese architecture, "City with a Hidden Past," and the virtues of Tokyo's inner havens.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Apr 28, 2018
'Japanese Architecture as a Collaborative Process': A must-read to understand Japanese architecture
by Don O'Keefe
Dana Buntrock's fieldwork highlights the collaborative nature of architecture, manufacturing and construction in Japan.
Style & Design Jul 30, 2016
New inn style: Tokyo's first luxury ryokan
by Danielle Demetriou
There are seasonal ikebana arrangements, tatami-mat flooring, kimono-style outfits for guests and a steaming hot onsen spring water bath. So far, so ryokan, the traditional-style Japanese inns that dot the country. Until a screen slides open in one of the guestrooms, and 11th-floor views of ...
Art Jan 12, 2016
Gabriel Orozco: always ahead of the game
by Calum Sutherland
Gabriel Orozco has returned to Tokyo. Following his retrospective "Inner Circles" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in early 2015, "Visible Labor" at Rat Hole Gallery is a collection of new works that explore Orozco's classic themes of the city, transportation and games, ...
Art / Openings In Tokyo Nov 17, 2015
'Gabriel Orozco: Visible Labor'
by Daisuke Kikuchi
This show runs concurrent with Gabriel Orozco's solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, his first large-scale exhibition in Japan. During his recent stay here, Orozco created a new series of works titled "Visible Labor," featuring pieces inspired by Japanese architecture and ...
Travel Nov 7, 2015
Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales
by Daisuke Kikuchi
Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only. This year is that 100th year, and from Sept. 20 to 27, more than 3,200 travelers gathered ...
Art / Openings Outside Tokyo Nov 3, 2015
by Daisuke Kikuchi
Nov. 7-Jan. 31 The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami left its mark on all who live in or are connected to Japan, including many of the country's architects. The destruction it caused made many realize that there are times when, no matter how ...
Travel Oct 10, 2015
Saitama's 'Little Edo' is big on Japan's colorful history
by Melynie Yoneda
As my smartphone clock flashes from 11:59 a.m. to 12 p.m., I watch the visitors to Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture wipe the sweat from their foreheads and direct their attention toward a more primitive form of time keeping — the Toki no Kane (Bell ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Oct 3, 2015
Don't be green about the charm of tatami
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
When we were thinking of buying a condominium, we visited several old danchi — apartments built by Japan's former public housing corporation — because they were cheap and, we thought, easy to renovate. One of the units we inspected had bedroom floors made of ...
Style & Design Aug 29, 2015
Keith Haring's urban art finds apt lodgings in Japan's countryside
by Daisuke Kikuchi
If someone were to tell you that the largest private collection of New York street and pop artist Keith Haring's work is stashed in some of Japan's lushest mountainous countryside, and if you went to visit it, you could stay in a Keith Haring-inspired ...
Style & Design Aug 29, 2015
Kitagawara shapes a new Kobuchizawa Station
by Daisuke Kikuchi
Since 2011, Tokyo University of the Arts and the city of Hokuto in Yamanashi Prefecture have been working together to redesign its Kobuchizawa Station building as part of an initiative to breathe new life into the rural area. Local citizens were involved through numerous workshops ...
Style & Design Aug 22, 2015
Kaoru Mende's bright ideas on darkness
by Yuki Hayashi
'Whenever I see the alcove of a tastefully built Japanese room, I marvel at our comprehension of the secrets of shadows, our sensitive use of shadow and light," wrote the prominent modern novelist Junichiro Tanizaki in his 1933 essay on Japanese aesthetics, "In Praise ...