The 2016 Good Design Award results were announced recently with awards going to over 1000 entries in several different categories. But the coveted Grand Award of Japan’s most well-known design award, given to just 1 entry, was announced today. Last year the winner was a personal mobility chair and the year before that it was a robotic arm. This year, the grand prize went to a world map.
My Dad likes to say he began the Halloween tradition of costuming in Japan. When we first moved there in the early 80s hardly anyone had heard of Halloween. My Dad though, being the prankster that he is, found pleasure in dressing up in a white cloak with a Tengu mask and walking around our neighborhood. And at 6 ft 4 I’m surprised no one ever called the police on him.
We would also host small Halloween parties for the local kids, teaching them about jack-o-lanterns and the joys of trick-or-treating. These small gestures, combined over the years, may very well have helped contribute to the spread of Halloween consciousness in our small community.
If you ever have a chance to see the work of Japanese artist Rima Fujita in New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, or some other major city around the world, do yourself a favor: get off the internet, switch off the TV and go have a look. It’s the perfect antidote to the hate-filled vitriol that seems to dominate the airwaves and megabytes these days.
Your latest chance is at a show in Tokyo that just opened.
Three years ago the illustrator Shinji Tsuchimochi embarked on an ambitious project. Following in the footsteps of ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige who, 160 years ago, created One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, Tsuchimochi began illustrating 100 views of Tokyo. This summer he finished his project and the entire body of work (plus a few extras) are being turned into a book.
Hitotsuyama’s first animal sculpture created in 2011, inspired by her encounter with a rhino in Africa
In 2007, artist Chie Hitotsuyama took an illustration job with an NGO and traveled to Africa. There she encountered a rhino that had been rescued from poachers who prey on the beautiful animal only for its tusk, which to this day, are bought and sold for high prices. “I still remember the kindness in that Rhino’s eyes,” she says, speaking about the encounter, which inspired her to begin making animal-themed artwork.
MUJI’s 1st newspaper ad in 1980: “Cheap for a reason.” The ad lists all 40 products and why they are more affordable.
Kenya Hara is the current art director at minimal lifestyle retailer MUJI, and is largely credited with the brand’s current image. But before Hara there was Ikko Tanaka, who steered the company’s “no brand” philosophy from its onset in 1980 up until 2000. He passed away in 2002. Now, a new exhibition in London and Milan is celebrating his work to commemorate 25 years of MUJI in Europe.
The German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold spent 6 years stationed in Japan in the 1820s and is largely credited with introducing Japan to Western medicine. Siebold was also a botanist and art enthusiast and part of his collection eventually ended up in the National Museum of Ethnology in the Netherlands. However, the artist behind six paintings, created in Western styles, remained unknown. Until a group of researchers took a closer look at records kept by Siebold’s descendants.
The palm-sized 360-degree book tells a story in a very traditional way. But it also opens up like a fan, creating an entirely 3-dimensional world. Each page is a finely crafted work of art that draws the viewer in from scene to scene.
Motoi Yamamoto refers to himself as a “Salt Installation Artist.” Working with a tool that resembles a baster loaded with salt, he “paints” intricate, three-dimensional labyrinths of salt. And he’s been doing so ever since his sister passed away from a brain tumor at the age of 24.
Kyoto can represent many things, depending on who you ask. For some it’s the ancient capital of Japan. For others it’s a paradise of tasty delicacies. For Yasuhiro Ogawa, Kyoto is all about color. The deep, rich and vibrant colors that fill the city. “And it changes constantly,” says the Tokyo based photographer, whose collection of photographs “Lost in Kyoto” is currently on display.
OrySnack: The Bar Where Bartenders Work From Home
Winners of Japan’s 2027 Packaging Design Awards
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There’s an English Version.
Tokyo is Gearing Up for an Art-Filled Fall. And the Entire City is Here for It
Japanese Craftsmanship Meets Pokemon at Kanazawa’s National Crafts Museum
