'Children of the Mist' delves deep into the spiritual allure of Shikoku's Iya Valley
Inspired by the comments of Japanologist Alex Kerr, Shintaro Miyawaki photographs not just the natural beauty of Iya Valley, but people's past and present interaction with it.
A sea change for Japanese sculptors
"Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2020" in Western Australia, brings together eight Japanese sculptural works, including Harayuki Uchida's new 2.5-ton stainless-steel kinetic "Merry Gate."
Bamboo crafts: Woven into Japan's art history
The Abbey Collection takes viewers through a modern history of bamboo crafting, from its late recognition as fine art in the 19th century to the elaborate artistic creations of today.
Japan's postwar aesthetics: compelling if not confusing
The NMAO attempts the difficult task of discerning the "underlying presence of Japanese aesthetics in postwar art.
The battle of ukiyo-e: Hokusai vs. his pupils
Refusing to be bound by tradition or convention, Hokusai bent rules and sought inspiration from all corners — but how did such audacity influence his own students and followers?
'Dumb Type': When actions speak the loudest
Dumb Type's thought-provoking performances and installations explore the influence of technology on humankind.
Art from the silver lining of life's dark clouds
Threatening the precarious peace of everyday life are unforeseen incidents, disease and emotional turbulence. Such are the narrative threads running through "Song to Life, Struggles of the Soul" at Wacoal Studyhall Kyoto.
Creative expression stifled by 'safety concerns' in Japan
As the taboo-busting comic Joan Rivers used to say after pressing her audience's buttons, "Can we talk?" On the evidence of this year's Aichi Triennale, if it's about World War II atrocities, the answer seems to be "no."
Nakamura Hochu: The Osakan Rinpa pioneer
The Rinpa school of painting's initial phase was formed by the superlative talents of Honami Koetsu (1558-1637) and Tawaraya Sotatsu (c. 1570-c. 1630) in late 16th-century Kyoto. The aesthetics resonated with the grand and powerful ornamental inclinations of the Momoyama Period (1573-1603) — gold ...
Ryonosuke Shimomura: An eclectic rule breaker
At school, Ryonosuke Shimomura conceived art techniques that led one teacher to think he was color blind. Yet his unusual approach led him to become a principal of the Pan Real Art Association — Japan's influential avant-garde Japanese-style painting groups.
Yukinori Yanagi: Resurrecting Akitsushima
For Yukinori Yanagi, whose work from the late '80s and '90s featured ants burrowing through national flags made of sand, nature is not synonymous with an anthropomorphically friendly "harmony" or "balance"; it's disruption, chaos, decay and metastasis.
The scrolls that keep immortal poets truly alive
The Kyoto National Museum brings together the largest number of fragments of the 13th-century scrolls "Satake Version, Thirty-Six Immortal Poets," since it was cut up into pieces and dispersed among the wealthy in 1919.
