Category — Text and Books

Our recent nighttime routine, aside from me telling odd Japanese fairy tales to the kids, is to read Yorukuma (Night Bear), an absolute favorite of both the kids and myself.

[Spoiler Alert] It’s an enchanting tale about a child who is visited in the middle of the night by a little bear. The little bear had awoken to find its mommy gone so the child goes on a search with the bear. They look in honey stores, in parks, under tables and even in the sky. In the end they find the mommy fishing for star-eyed fish in order to feed the little one.

The beautiful, soft-spoken illustrations set the tone for this oh-so common story that so often goes untold. It strikes a cord with kids, who always want to be with their mommy and daddy, but also with working parents, who must, on a daily basis, deal with the pain of explaining to their child why they must leave them to go out and work.

(sorry about the glare in these pictures)

It was written and illustrated by Komako Sakai. One of her later works, Snow Day (2005), was published in English and went on to be named by the New York Times as one of the best children’s books of 2009.

When the 33-year old art & culture magazine STUDIO VOICE announced last year that that they were discontinuing their print version, they were not alone in their financial woes and I was not alone in my grieving woes. Well the time has come to rejoice because they just announced the release of their iPhone app! Plus, there is an iPad version in the works. The best part? It’s FREE.

I just downloaded the app and its stock full of content including music videos, interviews, articles, all beautifully laid out thanks to Tokyo Pistol, who is in charge of the art direction. My commute just got a little bit better.

Related:

• Honbachi by Tokyo Pistol

Architecture office STAD, led by up and coming architect Toru Shimokawa, has some great ideas for organizing books. In the past I’ve seen a lot of ideas for furniture that incorporates book storage (such as the magtable, bibliochaise and bookshelf coffee table). But STAD’s Plywood Table for Books (2010) is perhaps my all-time favorite.

click images to enlarge

Not only is it adept in storage but its structure is inherently space-conscious in that it completely collapses. Fantastic!

Massive (2008) is a very simple yet infinitely customizable series of bookend. They come in 3 different sizes and by turning them upside down they can essentially adapt to any number or size of books.

click images to enlarge

If you happen to have your hands on the August 2010 issue of Wallpaper, there is a special present inside for you – a totally modernist paper cut-out house by one of our favorite architects, Ryuji Nakamura. Need. Want. Must have.

Related:

• Ryuji Nakamura’s Hechima Chair & Insect Cage
• Blossom by Ryuji Nakamura
• Ryuji Nakamura

click to enlarge

16A Architects recently designed a new bar called Tsumamiya. It’s a cozy little izakaya that combines 2 of my favorite things eating/drinking and reading. The store is lined with bookshelves with all sorts of books to keep you company while you eat. You can put them back when you are done, or, if you feel the inclination to, you are welcome to purchase any of the books when you pay for your meal.

The door to the bathroom is even a sliding bookshelf so you can browse while you wait. And yes, the bathroom is certainly equipped with reading material, which is kind of gross if you ask me.

Tsumamiya 7.14
Suzuki Bldg 1st FL
Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya

Related:

• SQY Complex by 16A
• Free style candle by 16A

Hideo Kanbara of Barakan Design has embarked on an interesting thought experiment. What if hiragana were 3-dimensional? His website provides an example using the first character of the table, あ (a).

Front view  | click images to enlarge

Top view

Side view (screenshot of an animated rotation)

Craig Mod and Ashley Rawlings have repurchased the rights to their lovely book, Art Space Tokyo, and are trying to fund a republishing via kickstarter. I own a copy of this book and can therefore speak from experience by saying, it is a must-have for anyone interested in Tokyo’s art scene. You can participate HERE!

cover for Zoo, the hit single by Tsuji’s band Echoes

Hitonari Tsuji is a writer, musician and film director. His career got started in music but he really began to shine in ’97 when he was awarded an Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards. He went on to be the first Japanese awarded with the French Prix Femina prize in ’99. Although he had retired his instruments in ’91, his band, Echoes, made a huge comeback in 2000 when one of their songs was used in a TV series.

The multi-talented artist created a twitter account at the beginning of this month. Ten days later and 82 “chapters,” or tweets, later, he has written a substantial beginning to his twitter novel about an author who decides to write a twitter novel. You can follow him here (Japanese only).

“The Light from the Strait,” Tsuji’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel

photo via Futatsumata-san’s blog

I would love to get my hands on School Road, a new photo book published by Plancton. The idea was to photograph paths and roads all across the country that children use to commute to school. Some of the fondest memories I have of growing up in the outskirts of Tokyo were the walks and bicycle rides to school. There were huge slopes and odd tunnels and I still murkily recall some common faces I would see each morning.

Although my commute was not quite as lush and rural as the picture above, it wasn’t too far off. Volume 1 covers 13 prefectures with each prefecture receiving the treatment of a photographer who grew up there. Tokyo is covered by Saori Tao.

Tokyo Visualist is a joint collaboration by Satoru Yamashita (+81) and Masako Shinn (Graphis). The book explores the work of 32 “cutting edge” artists and designers through interviews and essays by curators including David Elliot (Mori Art Museum) and Sarah Suzuki (MoMA). It attempts to decipher the current for clues on what lies ahead in the future. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it but if you are in NY on March 2nd they are having an event at the Japan Society that would be worthwhile.

featured artist Tomoko Konoike

featured artist Hideki Inaba

featured artist Kohei Nawa