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May 01, 2024
 

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JAPANESE ART

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 12, 2017
Asia in the wings of Japan's art scene
"Tis the season to be jolly ... circumspect. As regards art, despite suggestions from some art professionals that biennials and other recurring art festivals are an exhausted format, 2017 offered up an embarrassment of riches, some more embarrassing than others as it turned out.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 12, 2017
Bohemia along the Sumida: In search of cultural capital
On paper, the Japanese government supports the arts, which are considered important vehicles for promoting Japanese culture globally, enhancing the country's image as a tourist destination and stimulating declining regional economies. But, where does the content for Japan's increasing number of art festivals actually come from? There are no national mechanisms for supporting individual artists, with funding programs primarily aimed at institutions and community initiatives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 5, 2017
Hokusai's great wave that swept Europe
Innovative, creative, and immensely prolific, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was celebrated during his lifetime in his native Japan. His works were among the first major examples of Japanese art to be widely appreciated overseas in the second half of the 19th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 28, 2017
The beginning, end and rebirth of sculpture
The subtitle given to the retrospective of the 60-year career of Osaka-based Michio Fukuoka is oxymoronic: "A Sculptor Who No Longer Sculpts." He used to, but became frustrated and filled with doubt about creativity and so he made sculpture anyway, often about "doing nothing."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 14, 2017
Sachiko Kodama's laws of attraction
Entering the tatami-mat tearoom-style exhibition spaces at the back of Kyoto's specialist pewter art craft gallery, Seikado, spectators are apprised that the magnetism of the pieces on display might interfere with the strips on their credit cards. Those fitted with pacemakers are also asked to stand 50 centimeters back from artworks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2017
What makes a National Treasure?
Together, Japan's National Treasures provide a cacophonous ode to the nation and its heritage for its historical, cultural, geographical and stylistic dissonances. Yet, this is the first time in 41 years that 210 such works (or sets) have been displayed en masse.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2017
Motonobu: The father of Kano styles
A family-run enterprise, the Kano school of painting was a consistent force in Japan's art world for more than 300 years, from the Muromachi Period (1336-1573) up until its fortune waned in the 19th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 21, 2017
'Okinawa': Remembering Takuma Nakahira in a different light
A figure stood on Zushi Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture one night in 1973, silhouetted against a fire as he fed piles of prints and negatives — the bulk of his photographic work so far — into the flames.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2017
In the right light, every detail counts
At the tail end of an unexpectedly long conversation, the last question I ask photographer Keizo Kitajima is why it's important for him to have even lighting across the image. The photographs he is showing at the Photographers' Gallery in Shinjuku are part of his long-running "Untitled Records" series of unpopulated urban and semi-rural landscapes. As the gallery is a small space, there are only a handful of exhibits, but the precision with which they have been made is mesmeric.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 5, 2017
A somber prelude to riots of color
Koji Kinutani's entire career — from his student work to his metaphysical portraiture, which inaugurated a manga trend in contemporary art; his Styrofoam sculptures; the "Goddess of the Silvery Peak" (the basis for the official 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games poster); and his sometimes frightening Kyoto landscapes — is up for review at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. All this led to his appointment to The Japan Art Academy in 2001 and recognition as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2014.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 8, 2017
Buddhist hells are frighteningly human
Popularly known as Genshin (942-1017), the high-ranking Buddhist prelate Eshin Sozu was said to have been born following his devout mother's prayers to the Kannon of Takaoji Temple in Taima, Nara Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2017
Straddling East and West in art
Hybridity and eclecticism may be key concepts in much contemporary art, yet they are not new phenomena. In the Taisho Era (1912-1926), Tetsugoro Yorozu virtually personified the idea of hybrid art: As Japan rushed toward modernization, he not only experimented with the very latest forms of Western art then flooding in, but re-examined aspects of Asian art being neglected.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 16, 2017
A tribute to the women of '70s Okinawa
Photographer Mao Ishikawa, whose work frequently depicts personal, political and racial intersections in her native Okinawa, has published a new volume revisiting her 1970s portraits of Japanese bar hostesses and U.S. servicemen near the Kadena Air Base.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2017
Painting between the lines
The pairing of Hideki Kimura's prints with the seemingly sculptural assemblages of Sadaharu Horio is perhaps unexpected. What draws them together, however, are conceptions of their practices as painting. Both veterans of Japan's contemporary art scene, they pursue painting by other means, working within self-imposed limitations that engage conventions across art genres in alluring small-scale works.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2017
The scope of cultural displacement
Mercedes Benz Art Scope is an exchange program that allows Japanese artists to spend time in Germany and German artists to visit Japan. The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art has been a partner in this project since 2003, and in this year's group show, Stuttgart-based artist Menja Stevenson and Tama Art University 2002 MA graduate Taro Izumi are joined by guest artist Tokihiro Sato, a luminary of Japanese art photography.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 18, 2017
Japan’s 'kanban' are still hanging in there
Little information remains about the personal life of the artisan Kojiro Shimizu. His personality and interests, his passions and motivations — all are shrouded in mystery. What we know is that he worked in Kyoto in the late 19th and early 20th century and that he appeared to be on good terms with members of the business community. He also happened to be a master carver of kanban, the traditional shop signs of Japan, and on rare occasions, when he produced a particularly elaborate piece, he marked it with his seal, perhaps succumbing to a brief moment of pride. Had he not done so, he would likely be completely unknown to us.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 28, 2017
When too many things 'spark joy,' it's a Wonderwall life
Masamichi Katayama, founder of interior design firm Wonderwall, describes the importance of accumulating and keeping objects and artworks in life — even if you have more than 500 of them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 27, 2017
'The Stakes of Exposure: Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art': Unpacking politics, protest and gender
Namiko Kunimoto's new book, "The Stakes of Exposure," interweaves artist practices and works with key events in postwar Japan. As such, the reader will learn about events that were critical in shaping postwar politics and protest that have previously been treated separately in the English literature: the Minamata Disaster, the Lucky Dragon Incident, and the ANPO protests.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2017
Kaikei: the name behind the gods
Kamakura Period (1185-1333) Buddhist sculptures often come down to us under the individual names of makers (when known) though they were often fashioned in workshops by multiple hands. A significant 13th-century work would employ a dozen or so team members and assistants and draw on multiple specialists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 2, 2017
'Amigo Koike Exhibition: From Higashi-Nihon to Kumamoto — Still 3.11 2011'
April 29-July 17
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Golden Week crowds greeted with high temperatures as holiday period kicks off
The departure lobby for domestic flights is crowded with travelers at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, the first day of this year's Golden Week holidays.
India seen overtaking Japan in nominal GDP in 2025
The skyline of central Mumbai's financial district
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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