Spoon & Tamago

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Setsumasa Kobayashi’s Mountain Camp Site

October 5, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

In the early 2000s, Japanese fashion designer and entrepreneur Setsumasa Kobayashi attended a Phish Festival in Limestone, Maine. It was one of the largest Phish concerts ever and Kobayashi remembers the music, the campground and the roughly 60,000 attendees who seemed to be living an alternative lifestyle, removed from the everyday hustle and bustle of the city. This, he says in an interview, became his inspiration for creating a secretive mountain getaway where he could use and test his outdoor-themed goods that he built his company on.

Drawing the Streets of Tokyo on Coffee Cups with Mariya Suzuki

October 3, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

“When I was still in school, I used to hang out at local coffee shops with my friends. One day I noticed how plain the paper cup was.” That’s Mariya Suzuki, an illustrator who went to school in California but is now based in Tokyo. “Naturally, I was inspired to draw what was in front of me,” she says, explaining the modest beginnings of her “Drawing to Go” initiative. Now, Suzuki is inspiring others to create their own paper cup art by hosting a workshop and staging exhibitions.

Kotobuki: An Exhibition Celebrating Japanese Design

October 2, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

a selection of designs that will be on display during the Kotobuki exhibition

Saido is a Japanese design collective based in Kansai. Made up of roughly 15 members, the team is comprised of product designers, engineers and craftsmen who individually work in a range of fields – electronics, advertising, interior, sportswear and interface design – but also come together to experiment and push each other’s boundaries of design.

Roughly once a year the collective puts on display some of their most creative work. And the tradition is continuing this year as well with an exhibition that will travel from Kyoto to Tokyo.

House Cut: A Tokyo Home Designed to Make Way For a Road Expansion

October 1, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

all photos by Satoshi Asakawa courtesy the architects

What do you do if you own a plot of land that may or may not get partially seized by the government for a road expansion? Simple: you build a home that can get cut up yet still survive. At least that’s what this young family decided to do.

A 120-Year Old Kyoto Machiya Transformed Into a Wonderland of Recycled Goods

September 30, 2015 / Johnny / 3 Comments

a 120-year old machiya converted into recycle shop

“Appreciate what already exists, and create new value.” That’s the motto of Pass The Baton, a modern-day Japanese recycle shop where you’ll find a treasure trove of consignments, antiques, used and upcycled items. And in keeping with their motto, the store has converted a 120-year old traditional home in Kyoto, known as a machiya, into what represents their first foray out of Tokyo.

A Surrealist Film Shot Entirely With A Droplet of Water on an iPhone

September 30, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

What would it be like to view the world as a dewdrop on a leaf, or a droplet of water from a faucet? That’s the idea behind a new surrealist short film shot using an iPhone. The dreamy, watery state was achieved by just that: water. The team used a drop of water inside the hole of a 5 yen coin, held in place by surface tension, and affixing the coin over the camera lens.

Photographer Kosuke Okahara collects fragments from Fukushima

September 29, 2015 / Johnny / Comments Off

Sea in Iwaki city. Normally here people can swim. The fishermen’s society decided no to fish since the result of examination of sea water and seafood is very much contaminated by the radioactive substances. One of the chair said “Do not eat any seafood up north from Chiba prefecture” He said some seafood had 14,000 bq /kg contamination level .

The photographer Kosuke Okahara first set foot in a town near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant almost immediately after the disaster in March of 2011. In August he began visiting more periodically and for the next 4 years Okahara continued to visit Fukushima almost every month.

“Little by little,” he says, “I began collecting fragments from the Fukushima disaster. Now, at a time when most media coverage has faded, the 35-year old photographer is releasing a photobook of “scenes that would linger in time, just like the radiation that lingered in Fukushima.”

Mizuhikiband: the art of Japanese packaging incorporated into a rubber band

September 28, 2015 / Johnny / 3 Comments

When it comes to beautiful packaging it’s hard to beat the thoughtful, multi-layered Japanese presentation. And one of it’s most essential components is the mizuhiki, a decorative knot made from cords and used to tie gifts together.

Although the knot comes in a variety of complexities, the shoelace knot is one of the most basic and therefor embodies celebratory sentiments and hopes for more good times. Incorporating this tradition into what he calls “the simplest of all cords,” designer Yu Aso has created a rubber band with a mizuhiki knot. It’s the mizuhikiband.

A Set of Nameless Paints Wants to Change the Way Kids Learn About Color

September 25, 2015 / Johnny / 19 Comments

the original presentation for “Nameless Paints”

The names we assign to colors are restrictive and only serve to impede our minds. The water that comes out of a faucet isn’t “blue.” Leaves on the trees can be “green” but they can be so much more. In Japan there’s even the absurd hada-iro (skin color), a peachy color that’s so wrong I’m not even going to begin. But now a young designer duo wants to change the way kids learn about color. They’ve created a set of “Nameless Paints” whose colors are simply identified by just that – their color.

A Spoon & Tamago Guide to the Setouchi Art Islands

September 23, 2015 / Johnny / 6 Comments

all photos by spoon & tamago (taken with iPhone 5)

Over the summer Spoon & Tamago planned a retreat to Naoshima and its neighboring islands in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Over the past 20 years the unlikely location has emerged as one of Japan’s most prominent sites for cutting edge architecture, art and installations that all seamlessly merge with nature. And on the blog we’ve devoted several articles to the 12 islands and their 200+ works of art so we were excited to finally visit.

We decided to share our itinerary with you because the multiple islands and ferries are certainly not easy to navigate. We spent a lot of time planning and thought that by sharing our notes with you it would make the islands more accessible.