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July 16, 2024
 

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Matthew Larking
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 26, 2012
Mavo, the movement that rocked Japan's art scene
In an Aug. 31, 1923, edition of the Shin-aichi newspaper, a clipping shows a photo of artists milling around paintings propped up against a tree in Tokyo's Ueno Park. Another image in the previous day's Asahi Graph shows a girl looking over an apparently abstract painting, above which is a label that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2012
Ceramics as a blossoming form of art
In 1981, Etsuko Tashima (b.1959) completed the postgraduate ceramic course of Osaka University of Arts, where she is now professor. Her graduation work, "Censored" (1981), was a series of legs cast from her own body and arranged so that they appeared to grow out of the ground. Attaching breasts to cups...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2012
Rich tales of Inka Essenhigh
Inka Essenhigh's earlier body of work fused a personal take on Surrealism with motifs that seem borrowed from animation. Works such as "Mob + Minotaur" (2002), with such strong anime and manga characteristics, had some critics refer to it as a kind of pop-Surrealism or Japanimation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2012
Rich tales of Inka Essenhigh
Inka Essenhigh's earlier body of work fused a personal take on Surrealism with motifs that seem borrowed from animation. Works such as "Mob + Minotaur" (2002), with such strong anime and manga characteristics, had some critics refer to it as a kind of pop-Surrealism or Japanimation.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2012
Illustrators draw from pop culture for 3/11 exhibition
"March 11 seen through the eyes of comic artists from all over the world: Magnitude Zero" at the Kyoto International Manga Museum is a commemorative tribute to the ways the world and the Japanese dealt with the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe last year. It puts forth positive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2012
Illustrators draw from pop culture for 3/11 exhibition
"March 11 seen through the eyes of comic artists from all over the world: Magnitude Zero" at the Kyoto International Manga Museum is a commemorative tribute to the ways the world and the Japanese dealt with the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe last year. It puts forth positive...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2012
Finding a piece of mind in contemporary art
"Yayoi Kusama: Eternity of Eternal Eternity" at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, presents the "late" style of the internationally renowned artist.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2012
Finding a piece of mind in contemporary art
"Yayoi Kusama: Eternity of Eternal Eternity" at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, presents the "late" style of the internationally renowned artist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2012
A contemporary mix of nihonga and manga
Nobuya Hoki's work oscillates between two of the major trends in Japanese contemporary art since the 1990s: manga-inspired themes and the revival of nihonga (Japanese-style painting). His own painting practice is termed "double-line painting" — which in Japanese also reads as "ni-hon ga" —...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2012
A contemporary mix of nihonga and manga
Nobuya Hoki's work oscillates between two of the major trends in Japanese contemporary art since the 1990s: manga-inspired themes and the revival of nihonga (Japanese-style painting). His own painting practice is termed "double-line painting" — which in Japanese also reads as "ni-hon ga" —...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012
Japan's role in the 19th-century modernization of Chinese art
Last year was an excellent one for engaging Chinese art in western Japan. A series of exhibitions got underway with the airing of the Ueno Collection at the Kyoto National Museum in January, the superlative holdings of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and the Sumitomo Collection housed at Sen-oku Hakuko-kan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012
Japan's role in the 19th-century modernization of Chinese art
Last year was an excellent one for engaging Chinese art in western Japan. A series of exhibitions got underway with the airing of the Ueno Collection at the Kyoto National Museum in January, the superlative holdings of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and the Sumitomo Collection housed at Sen-oku Hakuko-kan...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 12, 2012
From picnic cups to vessels of the future
In the immediate decades after World War II, part of what it meant to be a contemporary artist in Japan was to belong to some kind of regular exhibiting institution. These organizations were different from the prewar institutions that continued, such as the government-sponsored Bunten/Nitten or Tokyo-based...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 12, 2012
From picnic cups to vessels of the future
In the immediate decades after World War II, part of what it meant to be a contemporary artist in Japan was to belong to some kind of regular exhibiting institution. These organizations were different from the prewar institutions that continued, such as the government-sponsored Bunten/Nitten or Tokyo-based...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 29, 2011
Kaori Watanabe: Preparing for the trials of adulthood
"Tradition," and how one might relate to it, is often met with censure in contemporary art. It implies inheritance and repetition and is occasionally thought of as uncreative. None of this has to be true, but the tension between the tradition of nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and the desire to be...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 15, 2011
Painting a picture of Yumeji Takehisa
A persistent and lingering myth is that Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934), who forwent conventional art training at a sanctioned institution and earned widespread popular appeal for all the things the arts were supposedly not, was unimportant to the fine arts.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 17, 2011
The embodiment of Buddha Shakyamuni through art
"What is national treasure?" wrote Saicho (767-822), the founding monk of Tendai Buddhism, in his 818 "The Essential Teachings for Tendai Lotus Sect Priests," which he presented to Emperor Saga to bolster the standing of his esoteric order. His answer was pursuing the Buddhist path, and that "shining...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 13, 2011
Wonderlands of the artists' making
With a show titled "Ways of Worldmaking," you expect something big and with plenty of diversity — and The National Museum of Art, Osaka, mostly achieves this. Six individuals and three artist groups — all young and up-and-coming — have been brought together and given large, immersive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2011
Bringing Western-style painting back to the East
Ryusei Kishida (1891-1929) remains a giant of modern yōga (Western-style Japanese painting), though his idea of "modernism" would mostly have been unrecognizable to his Western counterparts.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 22, 2011
Tradition that hides in abstraction
Abstraction came into vogue during a reinvigorated period of the 1950s and '60s, following on from its introduction by experimental Japanese artists of the 1910s, who were influenced by European importations of Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
Amid same-sex marriage ban, LGBTQ couples opt for 'photo weddings'
A lesbian couple, consisting of a 35-year-old woman (left) and 40-year-old woman, cover their faces with bouquets as they pose for wedding photos in Yokohama on Nov. 1.
China and Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol
The Russian corvette Gromkiy enters the Chinese port of Zhanjiang as part of a joint China-Russia naval exercise on Saturday.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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