Featured Image

Tokyo takes art to the wall

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

 On a side street just off the main shopping arcade in Koenji, a residential neighborhood west of central Tokyo, a giant eagle spreads its wings over lush trees and a sparkling stream. The larger-than-life eagle, in a soft shade of pink, is the centerpiece of a massive mural that covers the side wall of a privately-owned five story building. Painted by WHOLE9, a two-person artist unit based in Osaka, the mural, titled “SYNC,” depicts the people of Koenji in the… Read more »

Featured Image

Peter Tasker’s Favorite Things

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Where do you live and why do you live there? For the last 15 years, I’ve been living in Nakameguro in central Tokyo. It’s outside the Yamanote Line belt, yet amazingly convenient. When the weather allows, I walk to my office near Aoyama Gakuin University (in Shibuya) in about 40 minutes. The Hibiya Line gives easy access to Ginza and the business district. The Toyoko Line express takes you in two stops to Shinjuku 3-chome and entertainment districts, which would… Read more »

Featured Image

Annual Show Celebrates Japan's Print-Making Tradition.

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Of all forms of artistic expression, ukiyo-e woodblock prints depicting life in the “floating world” of Edo Japan (1603-1868) have probably done the most to popularize Japanese art beyond its borders. Ever since they were discovered by western travelers when Japan opened its doors to trade and diplomatic relations after more than two centuries of an isolationist policy, Japanese woodblock prints, with their stylized, unapologetically two dimensional portrayals of a pleasure-seeking lifestyle, have been valued and beloved worldwide for their… Read more »

Featured Image

Akito Katsumura's Ceramic Art Marries Tradition with Contemporary Cool

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Japan is a ceramic lover’s paradise, where there are countless talented artists working in clay to create a vast and varied range of goods, from everyday dinnerware and tea ceremony utensils to sculptures and decorative objets. Yet, many of these works, despite commanding a high level of technical expertise and aesthetic sensibility, can only be found at some random pottery fair or a small specialist shop in a remote provincial town. So, it was a delight to receive a postcard… Read more »

Featured Image

DASK -Hidden Treasures in Vibrant Sangenjaya

Posted by Gwen Robinson

You vaguely think you’ve seen something like this before — a small, cool shop full of arty objects, clothes and pottery. But step in and you will see that DASK is special, from its carefully curated wares to its ever-changing music and enigmatic proprietor. Tucked away in a retro arcade in vibrant Sangenjaya, this shop-cum-gallery is a reminder of the rewards that await the curious wanderer in Tokyo’s urban sprawl. Sangenjaya, just two train stops and a world away from… Read more »

Featured Image

Nakazawa – hand-made cards that say it with feeling and artistry

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

One of the pleasures of walking around local neighborhoods in Tokyo is stumbling upon a store in the most unlikely place that sells one-of-a-kind, beautifully crafted objects. We wrote about Utsuwa Kenshin, a carefully curated ceramics shop in Shibuya, some time back and the treasure house of lacquered leather goods, Indenya, in Aoyama.  A more recent find was Nakazawa, a small shop in the Asakusa area that sells exquisite, hand-made cards. We were on our way to a photo exhibition… Read more »

Featured Image

Goldfish Galore – a Dazzling Exhibition of Japan’s Favorite Ornamental Fish

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Goldfish have been a staple feature of Japanese summers since at least the Edo period (1603-1868) when wealthy merchants and samurai began to keep them in their ponds as pets. Small and easy to handle, unlike carp, to which they are related, wild goldfish are actually olive green but some turn out to be red,  orange or yellow,  due to a natural genetic mutation. People in ancient China began to selectively breed the brightly-colored and multi-patterned fish more than a thousand years… Read more »

Featured Image

Goldfish Galore – a Dazzling Exhibition of Japan's Favorite Ornamental Fish

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Goldfish have been a staple feature of Japanese summers since at least the Edo period (1603-1868) when wealthy merchants and samurai began to keep them in their ponds as pets. Small and easy to handle, unlike carp, to which they are related, wild goldfish are actually olive green but some turn out to be red,  orange or yellow,  due to a natural genetic mutation. People in ancient China began to selectively breed the brightly-colored and multi-patterned fish more than a thousand years… Read more »

Featured Image

“The Aesthetics of Japanese Illumination” – Contemporary Japanese Art in a Traditional Setting

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Traditional Japanese architecture is best known for its extreme minimalism, as exemplified by the austere but elegant simplicity of the classic tea house and perfected at Katsura Rikyu Imperial Villa in Kyoto, which is considered the quintessence of Japanese taste. But the Japanese architectural aesthetic is certainly not all about earthen walls, simple bamboo lattices and plain washi paper screens. At the other extreme is an aesthetic that celebrates extravagance, intricacy, even garishness, and reflects the same horror vacui, or… Read more »

Featured Image

"The Aesthetics of Japanese Illumination" – Contemporary Japanese Art in a Traditional Setting

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

Traditional Japanese architecture is best known for its extreme minimalism, as exemplified by the austere but elegant simplicity of the classic tea house and perfected at Katsura Rikyu Imperial Villa in Kyoto, which is considered the quintessence of Japanese taste. But the Japanese architectural aesthetic is certainly not all about earthen walls, simple bamboo lattices and plain washi paper screens. At the other extreme is an aesthetic that celebrates extravagance, intricacy, even garishness, and reflects the same horror vacui, or… Read more »

Featured Image

TeamLab: Borderless at the Mori Building Digital Art Museum

Posted by Roisin Inglesby

“Wander, Explore, Discover” is the invitation — or is it the challenge? — that greets visitors as they cross the threshold of the new Mori Building Digital Art Museum in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. In this brand new venture, the urban development giant Mori Building – which owns the site — has teamed up with teamLab, a tech-art collective, to create teamLab Borderless, a series of immersive art installations that aim to transcend barriers between art and technology, the physical and… Read more »

Featured Image

“Japan in Architecture” – exploring the traditions and transformations of Japanese architecture

Posted by Michiyo Nakamoto

In its ongoing exhibition (until Sept. 17 2018) “Japan in Architecture : Genealogies of its Transformation,” the Mori Art Museum takes on a daunting task – to define the distinguishing features of Japanese architecture and illustrate their influence on the contemporary architectural scene. Curated by Fumio Nanjo, director of MAM, and his team, along with two Japanese architectural historians, the exhibition assembles a vast array of superbly-crafted models and photographs of architectural sites, from the Jomon period (14,000-300 BCE) to… Read more »