The 13th TARO Award was just announced yesterday! The annual awards, whose inception took place after Taro Okamoto passed away in 1996, are given to contemporary Japanese artists carving a path for their generation, or as Taro would say, creating “explosive” art. A record 758 entries were received and 22 head-nods later we had 4 winners.
* denotes titles arbitrarily translated by yours truly.

image © kodama gallery. all other images © taro okamoto museum

The first place (the Taro Award) went to Toshihiko Mitsuya for his large-scale work “The Indignant,” which includes  quite a few soldiers sculpted from aluminum foil.

Second Place (the Toshiko Award) went to Makiko Tsuji for her fossilized every-day objects.

There were 2 honorable mentions. One which went to Takahiro Nagasawa for his large-scale print titled “Professional Baseball Report*”. Inspired by Nomura Kantoku, perhaps Japan’s most well-known manager of a baseball team, the work is an example of excessive fandom in which Nagasawa has etched the results of all 9 innings of all 150 games played during the season, onto a 6-meter wide scroll.

The second honorable mention went to Manabu Hasegawa for his sculpture, “Dust Before the Wind*,” which is a Japanese phrases that is suggestive of ephemeral qualities but can also signify imminent danger. I will now stop as any further contemplation will lead too easily to predictable interpretations of male identity.

Masahiro Minami, while he is not designing furniture modeled after pizzly bears or tasty delights modeled after hair, also finds the time to teach a design seminar at the University of Shiga Prefecture. Occasionally he shares some of the work that his students create. A byproduct of his latest seminar, which just wrapped up last month, was this awesome kids dresser, table and chair. I can’t believe that was done by a student. I would buy that!