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November 22, 2024
 

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Matthew Larking
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2008
Detached or mundane?
The fame that Yosa Buson (1716-1783) enjoyed as a painter and haiku poet in his own lifetime quickly eroded in the years following his death. And while his poetic reputation was restored as early as the 19th century, it was only in the years following World War II that his paintings once again became...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 28, 2008
The time before the 'starchitects'
A brief respite from the 21st century's relentless demand for "starchitects" — exemplified by Rem Koolhaas, Tadao Ando and Frank Gehry — can be found at the Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, in "100 Years of W. M. Vories' Works."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2008
Sculpting the sacred and the profane
Given the boom in all things Edo in recent years — perhaps best exemplified by the explosion of interest in last year's The Price Collection's tour of Japan, featuring the artists Ito Jakuchu, Maruyama Okyo and Nagasawa Rosetsu — it is surprising that there hasn't been equal attention paid to the...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2008
"Takayasu Itoh: From Painting to Environment"
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 24, 2008
Quixotic quest of a 'revolutionary'
Breaking away from the herd, exploring new artistic directions and assuming time itself will bring the ultimate vindication is one of the great romantic ideas of avant-garde painting in the 20th century. But rather than defining the field for generations ahead, such an artist risks simply becoming obscure,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2007
The printer who wished to paint
Masuo Ikeda's polymath abilities in the arts — ranging from printmaking to writing and ceramics — is mirrored in his diverse depictions of feminine eroticism. Posed provocatively in Ikeda's works are his versions of Venus, virgins, brides, generic types and femme fatales, the Madonna of the Annunciation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2007
Skin goes only so deep
Nothing has changed since Aristotle noted a couple of thousand years ago that "it is not possible without considerable disgust to look upon the blood, flesh and similar parts of which the human body is constructed." Much here in "Skin of/in Contemporary Art," at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, until...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2007
Traditional China popped
After the end of the Opium War in China in 1842, Shanghai opened itself to trade with the outside world. A little after that, the Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64, which took place in southern China and Nanjing, funneled into the metropolis artists and scholars seeking refuge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2007
Late to the art party in the 1980s
"Place" and "presence" were two of the core concerns of Minimalism, the last thread of Modernism before it collapsed into Postmodernism's stylistic confusion in the 1970s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2007
Obsessed with the super-real
Regardless of one's own relationship to religion, many of us are disposed to believe we can transcend the present world, rising above it to another super-reality, to a surreal world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 19, 2007
Sounds of smallness
Settling down into Yukio Fujimoto's "Ears with Chair" (1990) and adjusting the two long tubes on either side to your ears, the drone of the electronic organs on the surrounding walls both intensifies and hollows out. The hushed voices of mingling spectators magnify, as do passing footsteps. You cannot...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2007
Creating atmospheres
An array of recent exhibitions in Kyoto and Osaka offers an engaging cross section of contemporary art practice in western Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2007
Breakthrough women
In 18th- and 19th-century Japan, the presence of female artists in painting circles slowly increased until in the 20th century, social reforms allowed them access to secondary education and vocational schools as well as art training, patronage and chances to compete in national exhibitions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 15, 2007
Testing nihonga's limits
Finding their personal voice, something an artist can call their own, is a sublime achievement. The nihonga (Japanese-style) painter Insho Domoto (1891-1975) channeled the voices of at least a dozen others to forge his own unique one and create an exhaustive and encyclopedic body of work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 1, 2007
Storm clouds over an artist's life cut short
In the summer of 1924, fresh out of art school in Japan and settling into the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, Yuzo Saeki (1898-1928) was taken by his classmate Katsuzo Satomi to have his work critiqued by the Fauvist painter, anarchist and journalist Maurice de Vlaminck. Just when he was getting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 25, 2007
Modernizers of Japanese art tended toward tradition
In the drive to modernize Japanese art in the 19th century, artists frequently attempted to create a fusion of Eastern and Western styles of painting. But what at first sight seemed to be radical combinations of the two, now actually appear to be more happily at home within pre-existing Japanese traditions....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 18, 2007
"The World of Immortals"
Kyoto National Museum Closes in 11 days
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 7, 2006
Teasing out new meanings from old works
'Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art," quipped the playwright Tom Stoppard in an essay in 2000.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2006
A realist and an eccentric
'If you want a real painting, you must come to see me. If it's only a drawing you're after, you should try Okyo," the artist Soga Shohaku famously joked about Maruyama Okyo (1733-95), a renowned practitioner of Western modes of representation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2006
Qi Baishi updated literati painting with new subjects
'Too much likeness flatters the vulgar taste," said Qi Baishi, "too much unlikeness deceives the world." In the Chinese literati tradition, whose many intellectual ideals were developed by Su Shi, a satirical 11th-century Northern Song Dynasty poet, calligrapher and statesman, realism was considered...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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