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Tag: Fumihiko Maki

World Trade Center Tower 4 by Fumihiko Maki

TRENDING RIGHT NOW

An Exhibition of Plushie, Small Disappointments
Japan’s Jimi ‘Mundane’ Halloween Costumes of 2023
In an Appeal to Young Workers, a Manufacturing Company Steps Away from Obscurity

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The Latest Posts

Tomohiro Inaba Invites Viewers to Complete the Story of His Sculptures
August 4, 2024
Manga Artist Hirohiko Araki Pays Tribute to Osaka Station’s History and Culture with New Public Art Sculpture
August 3, 2024
New Rent-Free Apartments Aspire to Support Budding Manga Artists
July 25, 2024
An Ethereal Bubble Emerges from a Japanese Townhouse in New Art Installation by MAD Architects
July 18, 2024
Tenohira Hanabi Let’s You Enjoy Sparklers in the Palm of Your Hand
July 18, 2024
Tamiya’s New Plamodel Factory in Tokyo is a Model Maker’s Paradise
July 11, 2024
Forest Crayons Derived Solely From a Different Species of Tree Native to Japan
July 9, 2024
Kirie Artist Lito Celebrates Tanabata with Handcut Leaves
July 7, 2024
Hyper Realistic Pencil Drawings of Metallic Objects by Kohei Ohmori
July 1, 2024
Keep Cool This Summer With the Komorebi Uchiwa
June 22, 2024

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TRENDING RIGHT NOW

An Exhibition of Plushie, Small Disappointments
Japan’s Jimi ‘Mundane’ Halloween Costumes of 2023
In an Appeal to Young Workers, a Manufacturing Company Steps Away from Obscurity
This Halloween, a Zombie Shinkansen Will Travel Between Tokyo and Osaka
Artists Summon Mythical Creatures of the Echigo Region for the 2024 Wara Art Festival

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There’s an exhibition of plushie, small disappoi

There’s an exhibition of plushie, small disappointments going on in Tokyo this weekend.

① onigiri crushed at the bottom of a bag
② water splashing off a spoon
③ burnt toast and spilled coffee
④ wallet with too many receipts
⑤ messed up soft serve

They’re all the creations of @makosun3939 who makes “strange plushies” and are on display this weekend at @gallery_piazza_3

For decades, Japanese manufacturers have worked in

For decades, Japanese manufacturers have worked in obscurity, churning out parts for the world’s biggest automakers and smartphone brands. And for the most part—largely owing to the confidential nature of their work—they have remained behind the curtain, neither seeking credit nor publicity for their work. One of those companies is Furukawa Manufacturing, which has been creating tailor-made production systems for automobile companies since 1940.

But an existential crisis—the challenge of attracting young workers—is pushing them to change.

Today on the blog we go inside their new headquarters and factory: the core of the company’s rebranding initiative to appeal to a new generation of workers.

More: spoon-tamago.com

This year’s Wara Art Festival features gigantic

This year’s Wara Art Festival features gigantic sculptures of mythical creatures with ties to the Echigo region, all made by art students using local rice straw.

Autumn is officially upon us. It’s the season of shorter days, brighter moons and bountiful harvests. Niigata prefecture, in Northern Japan, is known for its rice paddies and rice production. Around this time of year the rice harvest becomes a big deal, as well as the tons of rice straw, or wara, that is leftover. It can be plowed down as soil improver, fed to livestock, or even woven into decorative ornaments.

But before any of that, for the past 10 years Uwasekigata Park has hosted a Wara Art Festival by teaming up with art students to create creatures, both real and mythical, from rice straw.

More on S&T today: spoon-tamago.com

October 1 marks the 60th anniversary of the Tokaid

October 1 marks the 60th anniversary of the Tokaido Shinkansen opening. Dubbed the “Dream Super Express,” the bullet train connected Tokyo and Osaka, supporting Japan’s explosive growth in the 60s. At the time, it took 4 hours to travel between Tokyo and Osaka, which has since been condensed to 2 hours 20 min.

Here’s a gallery of photos from October 1964 when the high speed rail first opened:

① Shinkansen running through Ginza with Imperial Hotel in back. Streets were still empty enough that people could stop their cars and get out to watch

② Passing through Tamachi after departing Tokyo

③ the Tokaido Shinkansen and Tokyo monorail near kanasugibashi

④ departing Shin-Osaka station

⑤ passing through Higashi-Yodogawa, Osaka heading for Tokyo

Our Big Book, designed by Mao Fujimoto, is sadly g

Our Big Book, designed by Mao Fujimoto, is sadly going out of print. We have a few final copies but once they’re gone, that’s it 🥲

We’ve carried the Big Book—a children’s story that unfolds into a gigantic single sheet—for 7 years. The redesigned children’s fairytale adds another dimension of interactivity to storytelling, allowing kids read a story with their eyes, ears and whole body.

Hokusai is perhaps best known for his depiction of

Hokusai is perhaps best known for his depiction of The Great Wave but he was also an admirer of smaller botanicals like chrysanthemums, grass and even crops.

And his illustrations of plants encompass a variety of expressive styles ranging from simple one-line renderings to finely detailed depictions using multiple layers of line and color.

Hokusai portrayed a great many plants in his work—easily over 100 varieties—which have now filled the galleries of The Hokusai-kan Museum in Nagano. The works are up now through November 10, 2024.

Founded in 1870, Hanaju is a florist that has serv

Founded in 1870, Hanaju is a florist that has served Tokyo’s Yanaka neighborhood for over 150 years. Last year, they reopened after a stunning renovation that preserved the historic structures and added a contemporary cafe.

Read more about the space on the blog today: spoon-tamago.con

Since Grave of the Fireflies is now on Netflix…d

Since Grave of the Fireflies is now on Netflix…did you know that hidden in the background of the main visual is a B29 bomber?

The Japanese title for Grave of the Fireflies is 火垂るの墓 except “fireflies” is written as 火垂る instead of 蛍.

Both are pronounced hotaru but 蛍 is the insect whereas 火垂る means “fire falling”

32 varieties of Hello Kitty algae will be on displ

32 varieties of Hello Kitty algae will be on display next year at the Osaka @worldexpo.2025

It will be part of the National Museum of Nature & Science’s exhibition to promote a circular economy.

Hello Kitty really out there saying yes to every job that comes their way 🤣🦠

Thar she blows 🐳 Our Whale Butter Dish is back

Thar she blows 🐳 Our Whale Butter Dish is back in stock! Designed in New York and crafted in Toyama, this whimsical butter dish is sure to bring a sea of change to any table setting.

Designed by @akirayoshimura_ Yoshimura and lovingly produced by the metal artisans of Takaoka-based @sanomasa_seisakusyo, the Whale Butter Dish is made in the likeness of a whale that has swallowed a stick of butter in one huge gulp.

We’re loving these handmade leather accessories

We’re loving these handmade leather accessories based on our tentacled underwater sea creatures.

They’re designed and made by Cokeco, a Fukuoka-based design duo who create leather accessories inspired by the natural curiosities of the world around them.

If you’re in Tokyo, definitely head to @8ookami_com in Kichijoji, where they’ll be having an exhibition from 9/20 - 9/23/2024.

Read more about them on our blog today!

Craft your own salt from over 600 varieties at thi

Craft your own salt from over 600 varieties at this salt specialty store in Tokyo 🧂

@guruguru_shakashaka just opened this summer! They let you explore 600 varieties of salt and then blend your own.

The taste testing is accompanied by beautiful, blue kanten (agar jelly), which helps accentuate the flavors, and black bean tea, which helps cleanse the palate.

More on our blog today: spoon-tamago.com

“Morning Dew” by Hyakusui Hirafuku. As the sto

“Morning Dew” by Hyakusui Hirafuku. As the story goes, Hyakusui Hirafuku observed the morning dew on the grass of Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park for two years before painting this work—a meadow at dawn—in 1915.

Japan’s current microseason is 草露白 (kusa no tsuyu shiroshi), the time of year when you will notice white beads of dew in the early mornings. Dew appears during seasonal changes (like between summer and fall) when the temperatures drop during the night and moisture in the air solidifies.

——seasonal poetry——

Dew is a symbol of autumn in Japanese poetry but its transient nature of quickly burning off with the sun also allows it to take on other meanings. It’s often been used as a symbol of tears that are wiped dry in the morning, as well as representing fleeting life itself.

The Heian poetess Izumi Shikibu (976 - 1030 AD), left a collection of over fifteen hundred tanka poems that are remembered for their passion and free expression. The following is an example of dew in all its glorious symbolism:

疾うを来よ咲くと見る間に散りぬべし露と花とのなかぞ世の中
tou wo koyo saku to mirumani chirinubeshi tsuyu to hana tono nakazo yononaka

Come quickly — as soon as
these flowers open
they fall
this world exists
as a sheen of dew on flowers

——Japan’s 72 microseasons——

Want weekly seasonal art, poetry and recipes? Become a member, either on Instagram where you’ll receive them in your feed, or on our website where you’ll receive them as newsletters in your inbox.

https://www.spoon-tamago.com/membership/

We looove baum kuchen and have taste-tested close

We looove baum kuchen and have taste-tested close to 100 from all across Japan, from cheap combini baum kuchen to high-end. But we keep coming back to Nenrinya.

Their flagship store is in Ginza but they have an additional 7 outposts scattered around Tokyo and even 1 in Osaka.

Baum kuchen is originally a German pastry (the name means “tree cake” in German) but entered Japan over a century ago and has been perfected ever since.

*oh this is not a sponsored post! We genuinely just love Nenrinya so much

Once storm season is over, book yourself a tour an

Once storm season is over, book yourself a tour and go inside Tokyo’s “Underground Temple.”

Officially named The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, it’s the largest storm drain in the world. Completed in 2006, the anti-flood system lies 165 feet below Kasukabe City, is made up of a network of five silos connected by four miles of tunnels, and cost $2 billion to construct.

This is what investing in infrastructure looks like.

You can read more on our blog: https://www.spoon-tamago.com/go-inside-tokyos-massive-underground-storm-drain/

Summer in Japan is a vibe

Summer in Japan is a vibe

Still plenty of time to see one of Tokyo’s coole

Still plenty of time to see one of Tokyo’s coolest public art installations. On view at Ginza Six department store through the summer of 2025.

Over 400 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 installation, BIG CAT BANG.

The changing face of Harajuku. Also, we didn’t h

The changing face of Harajuku. Also, we didn’t hear a single word of Japanese while we were there 😂

Dashin Soan (@dashinsoan) is a tranquil soba shop

Dashin Soan (@dashinsoan) is a tranquil soba shop in a residential part of Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighborhood. The perfect lunch on a hot, August afternoon.

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