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November 22, 2024
 

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ART

Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin,” once the victim of high waves that dragged it into the sea, sits at the end of a pier on the south side of Naoshima.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 6, 2024
The sweaty pleasure of Japan’s inconvenient art
This week, writer Thu-Huong Ha is our tour guide into the world of Japan’s inconvenient art movement.
This untitled work was completed and installed in 1994 by a prominent Nigerian artist named Sunday Jack Akpan.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Jun 3, 2024
How a cache of African art found a home in western Tokyo
When I first encountered these statues, I was just minding my business headed for Tachikawa Station. I was struck dumb, paralyzed damn near mid-step.
Art OnO, which took place from April 19 to 21 in Seoul, featured a modest number of 36 participating galleries from 15 countries.
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2024
Seoul's eclectic Art OnO shines light on Japan's artists and galleries
Japanese contributions accounted for almost a third of the non-Seoul based booths at the art fair's inaugural event, which featured artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Hisao Domoto.
The eighth edition of the Yokohama Triennale, held at the Yokohama Museum of Art, opened in March this year with the theme “Wild Grass: Our Lives."
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2024
Yokohama Triennale's eighth edition makes room for context
Curators Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu's dynamic and vital show positions art at the vanguard of social change.
A view of Matazo Kayama’s folding screen paintings reproduced on ceramic panels by Otsuka Ohmi Ceramics, displayed at Simose Art Museum.
CULTURE / Art
May 11, 2024
Art and architecture come together at Simose Art Museum
Tradition and innovation converge at Shimose Art Museum. For it first anniversary, the venue is spotlighting trailblazer nihonga artist Matazo Kayama.
While the visual cues of cartoonishness, color and bounciness suggest fun and innocence, Saeborg’s “Saedog” performance nudges the audience toward contemplating captivity and confinement.
CULTURE / Art
May 2, 2024
Art award show offers trippy scenes of seeing and being seen
The two winners of the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award offer provocatively contrasting work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
Diane Severin Nguyen’s film, “In Her Time (Iris’s Version),” 2023-24, about a young actress struggling with her role in a (fictional) movie about the Nanjing Massacre, is on display at the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Artificial intelligence and the "rhetoric around gender and authenticity” were themes in this year's show.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 2, 2024
The winner-take-all economy is ruining art, too
The value of art is not just a matter of taste. To appeal to collectors, artists require the approval of the establishment.
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.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 27, 2024
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
The largest solo show ever of a Black artist in Japan is an absorbing history lesson that draws a line between Chicago and Aichi.
A portrait of the 13th Ryukyu King Sho Kei, which was returned to the Okinawa Prefectural Government from the United States
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 22, 2024
Artifacts missing after Battle of Okinawa returned from U.S.
Items that include portraits of kings from the Ryukyu Kingdom have returned after going missing in 1945.
An audio work by Saga University's Art Works to Listen and Imagine project is available on the internet.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 8, 2024
Experiencing art exhibitions through listening
Events and exhibitions are being held to encourage visitors to appreciate artworks with their ears and imagination.
Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin,” once the victim of high waves that dragged it into the sea, sits at the end of a pier on the south side of Naoshima.
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Apr 6, 2024
Why is the most exciting art in Japan so hard to get to?
Japan has a unique movement of public art projects and festivals that are a slog to get to — by design. A writer examines the country's “inconvenient art."
An installation titled "Ukiyo-e" by Atsushi Kaga is displayed at Art Basel in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
Art Basel Hong Kong’s full-scale return tests city’s events appeal
The art fair will serve as a test of the city’s ability to stage major events, in the wake of several big-name controversies and cancellations.
Retired management professor and trekker Jitendra V. Singh completed his goal of collecting all 46 prints in the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” in 2023.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2024
One collector’s high mountain road to Hokusai
A professor’s 30-year dream of assembling a complete set of “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” the pinnacle of the artist’s career, leads to an auction.
“True View of Mount Asama” by Ike Taiga
CULTURE
Mar 1, 2024
Ike Taiga's revolutionary act of capturing natural beauty
Idemitsu Museum of Arts showcases the Edo Period painter's realistic landscapes at the first retrospective of his work in Tokyo in 13 years.
Eleven portraits of Ainu chieftains, completed in 1790, are now held by the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besancon, France. There were originally 12 paintings in the original set, collectively known as the “Ishu Retsuzo,” but one has disappeared.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Feb 26, 2024
The ongoing mystery of the Ainu portraits in France
A former Hokkaido journalist is hoping to find out how portraits of Ainu chieftains from 1790 made it to Europe.
“Transfer to my Account” shows dozens of "furikomi" stubs from deposits that Yasuko Toyoshima made to her own bank accounts
CULTURE / Art
Jan 14, 2024
Yasuko Toyoshima creates delight from the quotidian
A new Tokyo exhibit of the conceptual artist’s works presents a cohesive worldview about the interaction between a life of rules and deviation.
Watanabe has made shapes of (from left) a monkey, an elephant and a giraffe by folding oak leaves with his hands.
CULTURE / Art / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jan 8, 2024
Kumamoto artist embodies re-evaluation of 'outsider art’ in Japan
Dubbed a "genius autistic paper cutout artist," Yoshihiro Watanabe's works are now being alongside those by trained artists.
A colorful coral reef made out of wool to raise awareness about climate change, at a museum in Baden-Baden, Germany, in January 2022
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Dec 31, 2023
The art world's big planetary problem
Over the last five years, it’s become increasingly clear to major art institutions in Japan and around the world that the sector has a sustainability issue.
The Dvorak Dreams project leveraged AI to retrieve, synthesize and extend the legacy of an earlier cultural pioneer.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 28, 2023
The AI question we should be asking
Artists working with AI can map out a path for the technology’s role across society more broadly.
A participant writes during a New Year calligraphy contest in Tokyo on Jan. 5, 2023.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2023
Japan to propose nation's calligraphy for UNESCO heritage list
In response to a Cultural Affairs Council recommendation, the government will submit a proposal to the U.N. body by next March.
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.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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