April 14th is the unofficial “day of good death” in Japan. The date 4-1-4 can be pronounced yo-i-shi, or good death, making today the perfect day to kick-off the Death Fes, an event aimed at encouraging people to think and talk about their inevitable end.
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all images © Takumi Ota courtesy of Kousou Inc.
Welcome to Oyane-san, affectionately known as “Honorable Roof,” standing proudly at the foot of Mount Yashima on Shikoku Island. This new addition serves as the entrance to the Shikoku Mura, an outdoor architectural park showcasing historic buildings from the Edo to the Taishō periods.
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Space cats in astronaut suits, ultraman figurines reenacting the beginning of the universe, and a tribute to Taro Okamoto’s iconic Statue of the Sun sculpture. There’s a lot to love about artist Kenji Yanobe’s new installation, BIG CAT BANG, and it’s now on view to the public inside the Ginza Six shopping complex.
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“Morning will come and my feelings will ease a little” (2024), Oil on linen mounted on panel
Kyoto-based artist Tomona Matsukawa creates realistic and somewhat dramatic oil paintings that are each inspired by conversations with other women of her generation, often strangers. The artist imbues her work with arresting narratives, both in the form of subject matter, as well as title, which are both derived from striking phrases or memorable moments during the conversation.
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image courtesy Mainichi Shimbun
Despite today’s date, this is not an April Fool’s prank. At a press conference in Tokyo last weekend, professor Hiroshi Yoshida from the Tohoku University Research Center for Aged Economy and Society, sounded the alarm bell for a looming crisis. By the year 2531, everyone in Japan will have the surname Sato.
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Early civilizations had it all figured out. At least according to the Kokuyo Design Awards, arguably Japan’s most-influential stationery design award, which this year asked designers to look to the past. “If we return to the idea of ‘primitive’ in order to create the future,” they proposed, “what form of evolution can we imagine?” This year, the awards received nearly 1500 entries for proposed stationery products, each inspired by materials and methods of the past. Earlier this month, one grand prize and three runner-ups were selected.
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The Day I Couldn’t Write a Poem is a short, playable game in which the reader moves a character through text, interacting with obstacles and making their way through a narrative. It’s the work of Zennyan (Zeni Tainaka), a Japanese pixel artist who has been experimenting with digital art mediums.
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Located in the wilderness of of Hanno City (Saitama), about an hour outside of Tokyo, is Saturday Factory, a design studio founded by Satoshi Odagiri in 2015. Inspired by the surrounding forests, rivers and wildflowers, Odagiri creates balancing mobiles that incorporate materials that he finds near his studio and along walks in the forest.
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photos by Kenta Hasegawa courtesy Suppose Design Office
Walk south from Shibuya station and within 10 minutes you’ll come across a glass dome-shaped building sandwiched between several nondescript buildings. Hidden in plain sight is the Shibuya City Botanical Garden, Japan’s smallest indoor arboretum.
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images courtesy of Yukihiro Akama
Artist Yukihiro Akama is set to unveil his largest exhibition to date, ‘Basho no Kankaku – A Sense of Place,’ at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP). The display will feature 52 wooden houses, each crafted from a single piece of wood, ranging from a mere 4cm to a grand 105cm and accompanied by architectural drawings and mini prints.
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