japanese art, design and culture

Ever since our launch in ’07 we’ve pretty much had the same look and feel. And it’s worked out so far but a few things been clawing at me so I finally decided to do something about them.

New banner and column width

One thing I’ve always wanted is a wider content column. Although I love to write, the site is pretty image-heavy so it only made sense to optimize it for better image viewing. As a result, I also re-shot our banner images to match the new width. It feels a bit different but still features our iconic dolls, which were designed by the awesome people at Groovisions.  (oh, and they’re slightly different on each page)

Explore

“Explore” is a new page that I’m pretty excited about. As we state in our manifesto of sorts, one of our objectives is to tell a story – “what’s going on in the Japanese art & design industry and where is it headed.” This page helps shape that story. If you’re interested at all, please do check it out.

There are a few other things that I’ll be tweaking in the coming weeks but I just wanted to let you know what was going on. If you see anything funky, or have any suggestions, please leave me feedback in the comments (be nice…please) or drop me a line.

Although the changes aren’t major, I couldn’t have done it without the help of Michael Miller at AQ in Tokyo!

Late Friday evening in Japan artist Takashi Murakami took to the airwaves of twitter to vent about “Cool Japan” – the government’s campaign to promote modern Japanese culture abroad. And he proceeded to rip apart everyone involved as well, from artists and designers to ad agencies. Below are a selection of tweets, accompanied by Spoon & Tamago translations.

大手広告代理店の皆様！行政の皆様！告知です。村上に「クールジャパン」関連のイベントへの参加、インタヴュー、諸々のオファーはしないでください。村上隆は「クールジャパン」とは一切関係がありません。宜しくお願い致します。

— takashi murakami (@takashipom) January 6, 2012

Dear ad agencies and bureaucrats! Attention please. Stop inviting me to “Cool Japan” events, interviews or sending any kind of offers whatsoever. I have absolutely no connection to “Cool Japan.” Thank you.

「クールジャパン」で一儲けの広告代理店の仕掛けに乗ってく芸術家の気が知れん。（当人達の自由ではありますが、、、）

— takashi murakami (@takashipom) January 6, 2012

I can’t understand why artists get involved with the gimmicks of ad agencies who are simply trying to turn a profit with “Cool Japan” (of course they’re free to do what they like…)

ほんとうに「クールジャパン」予算、広告代理店に吸われるだけだから止めてほしい。どこぞの飯やで数名が乳繰り合う金が赤字の税からで照ると思うと腹が立って仕方が無いが、それを使う広告代理店が肩で風切ってクリエーター気取りなのがコレまた憎らしい。

— takashi murakami (@takashipom) January 6, 2012

I wish they would stop with this nonsense – the ad agencies are just milking the “Cool Japan” budget. It really pisses me off to think that a few individuals are in bed with each other, licking up the money that came out of our country’s deficit. And the ad agencies who strut about pretending to be creative disgusts me.

定期的にツィートしているが、俺は広告代理店が大嫌いです。だから関わらないようにしてください！

— takashi murakami (@takashipom) January 6, 2012

I tweet about this once in a while, but I hate ad agencies. Please don’t get involved with them.

Source: @takashipon

image courtesy hpgrp gallery | click to enlarge

What a fantastic shot by artist and photographer Katsuhiro Saiki. His new show “Resolution” just opened at hpgrp gallery in New York. It runs until January 28th. I know what my first show of the new year is going to be!

image courtesy the artist | click to enlarge

Here’s another great piece by the artist. “Double” is a photograph of a blue sky with a vapor trail of an aircraft. The vapor trail divides the picture into two as if it was a diptych. Below is a closeup shot.

source: @azito_art

I love this new illustrated comic series by Tatsuro Kiuchi (previously). Titled “The Earthling,” the serial comic strip has been running in the quarterly magazine Kangaeru Hito. The quirky comic strips at first seem to have an environmental slant to them, but others are just pure nonsensical. The cast of characters include an earth hugger, tea stalk, fairy of dust (aka “dust angel”), an invisible dog, and a human plant. Love it!

Kiuchi just recently created a website, making his entire series available for free in both Japanese and English. I think my favorites are Fur Coat, Chance Encounter and Pop-in Book. (below is Way Back, another one of my favorites)

It’s 2012 and that means the biannual CS Design Design Awards are back for their… 30th year! They’re accepting applications now so I won’t be posting about results until later this year. If you’re interested, you can read about the 2010 awards.

But today I wanted to focus on a different aspect of the event: the posters. Except for the first 4 years, the CS Design Award posters have been illustrated by legendary graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai. Currently in his 80s, Nagai is responsible for such iconic corporate logos as (click to view) Japan Railways, Nissin, Mitsubishi UFJ and the now notorious TEPCO (which is unfortunate, to say the least, but that’s a different story).

When it came to poster design, Nagai had a penchant for using animals and patterns to create unique, timeless and visually dynamic imagery. Take a look at the posters he did for the CS Design Awards, including the latest for 2012. It’s fascinating to see how they started off dark and exotic – some are almost sinister – and progressed to what can currently be described as minimal and cute. If you like Nagai’s work there’s a great collection of posters over on Pink Tentacle.

5th 1998

all images courtesy CS Design Awards

[Read more →]

I’ve been looking around for business cards and this one certainly struck a chord with me.  Graphic designer Ken Miki created this 3D business card based on his precise coordinates on planet earth: latitude 34° 41’ 23” and longitude 135° 30’ 44”. The card starts off as a 2D piece of paper but then easily folds together to become a 3D cubic model of the world. It’s a subtle way of kicking off the conversation. Nice!

click to enlarge

Source: Ken Miki’s website

photos by matsubacyoku | click to enlarge

What a great campaign for rice, the quintessential staple of the Japanese diet. With over a 100-year history, the Tokyo-based rice merchant Sumidaya recently underwent a major facelift with art direction courtesy of Eding:Post. The minimal design manages to capture the essence of rice, a symbol of purity, that also plays a major (yet subdued) role on the dining table.

One important characteristic of Sumidaya rice is that each year, depending on the type of crop that is produced, a specific blend is created that best emphasizes the distinct tones of the rice that was harvested. The new rice goes on sale March 2012.

Just looking at these images makes me hungry! Check out our other stories on Eding:Post

Source: Eding:Post

This absurdly fantastic shot by photographer Yumiko Utsu is a great way to start the new year! And from the looks of it, 2012 is going to be a bright year for the eccentric artist who’s known for her kitschy use of food photography, combined with portraiture of humans and animals. With a book deal and several solo shows – both domestic and abroad – already behind her, she’ll be showing at Saatchi Gallery during 2012.

Here’s a look at some of her past work to get a sense of what we might expect from the show:

“Ricky” | hercules beetle larva and  coral

“Mold Dive” (2008) | toy bear and molded tea

“Cat Food Mandala” (2005)

“Shirako Baby” (2005) | fyi – Shirako is basically fish sperm

Source: Saatchi Gallery

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Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, with the help of some little helpers, has taken her iconic dots to a whole new level.

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As part of her exhibition “Look Now, See Forever,” showing at The Queensland Art Gallery (Australia) through March 11, 2012, Yayoi Kusama has created an installation titled The Obliteration Room. After creating what was essentially a blank canvas of white chairs, tables and sofa, the eccentric artist invited children visiting the museum to collaborate with her by giving them thousands of colored dot stickers and granting them artistic freedom to do what they like with them. The results are, well, pretty obliterating.

photos courtesy GOMA, HeyBubbles, Stupie
Source: Colossal

It’s not often that a country and everyone connected to it is tested the way Japan was this year. My family and my wife’s family are doing fine in Tokyo and I wanted to thank everyone who sent along words of thoughtfulness and kindness. Also a big thank you to everyone who read our articles pertaining to the earthquake and tsunami, which made up about 20% of all our writing this year. If you’d like to, you can read them all here.

I’m planning a few changes to the site early in the new year – nothing huge, don’t worry! – that will hopefully enhance your experience. I’m really excited about it and I hope you’ll continue to come back to read, learn and be inspired by all the great arts coming out of Japan. Thanks again and have a great New Year! Now here are the top 5 posts of 2011:

1. Island | Yutaka Sone at David Zwirner

Readers loved artist Yutaka Sone’s Manhattan sculpture painstakingly carved out of marble and weighing in at 2.5 tones. It consists of excruciating detail that was replicated using photographs, Google Earth and several helicopter rides over the city. It was on display at the David Zwirner gallery in New York during September.

2. The Moon by Nosigner

Inspired by the Supermoon – the lunar occurrence on March 19th in which the moon appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter – Nosigner created this topographically-accurate LED lamp. The project was also in response to the collective force of hope that the Supermoon instilled in the people of Japan who had, just over a week ago, lost 16,000 people in a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

3. Bottle Flower Series by Makoto Azuma

Back in April floral artist Makoto Azuma created a series of stunning yet somewhat disturbing pieces comprised of flowers stuffed into glass bottles like sardines and then filled with water. The flowers, which are shockingly beautiful but also clearly dead, invoke images of laboratory experiments in which body parts are preserved in some sort of embalming fluid. The existential project seeked to isolate beauty in both life and  death.

4. TOTO’s Toilet Motorcycle Will Travel Japan Entirely on Biogas

A Spoon & Tamago exclusive! We broke the news that TOTO was developing a toilet bike that would run on biogas and travel Japan. And because we all love potty stories, the news went viral, getting picked up by Gizmodo, Huffpo, Reuters and more…

5. Polar Ice by Atsuhiro Hayashi

Two silicon cups produce these unique ice cubes that depict a polar bear and 2 penguins standing on a glacier. Once in your drink, they gradually melt away, mimicking a real-life scenario that many arctic animals are currently facing.