photos by Hiroki Kawata courtesy Ninkipen | click to enlarge
This month Kyoto Gakuen University welcomed students into their new Uzumasa campus. Amongst the sparkling auditorium, the medical training site and the library, undoubtedly one of the most anticipated facilities is the cafeteria. Because, after all, who can study on an empty stomach?
photos by Giovanni Giannoni courtesy Fairchild Fashion Media
Fashion, according to Takafumi Tsuruta, shouldn’t just be about the runway. Whether you’re in a wheelchair, have only one arm, are on your way to a funeral, or simply going to work on a rainy day, fashion should encompass all walks of life. So in 2013 Tsuruta founded the fashion label HaHa.
a young man delivering soba alond Meguro-dori in Tokyo. Photo courtesy koitaro
Nowadays when we order takeout we open an app, push a few buttons and 30 minutes later someone shows up on a motorcycle with your food. But in the olden days in Japan it was obviously a bit different. Demae, which literally means “to go in front of” is thought to have originated as early as the mid-Edo period in the 1700s.
“Flame of this world and the other world I” (2015) | all images courtesy Jonathan Levine Gallery
The girls who appear in Tokyo-based artist Fuco Ueda’s paintings are, in a single word, mysterious. They appear in surreal situations and seem to embody complicated emotions like guilt, aggressiveness, independence, and a subtle seductive eroticism.
The girls are often accompanied by colorful flora or fauna. But Ueda’s recent work takes a darker turn.
Photos by Fuminari Yoshitsugu
For the past 10 years a small Furoshiki shop has maintained a quiet presence in the back-streets of vibrant Harajuku. But for their anniversary, Musubi, which sells traditional wrapping cloths known as furoshiki, decided to give themselves a facelift.
Cause and Effect: Painted iPhone 6 Cases That Emerged From Canvases
In a recent series titled Cause and Effect, Brooklyn-based artist Meguru Yamaguchi used his signature style of streaked paint to create a series of artworks that include canvases, as well as iPhone 6 cases.
Photos by Kenta Hasegawa | click to enlarge
You’ll want to run through this new terminal, even if you’re not late for your plane.
Yesterday Tokyo’s Narita Airport opened Terminal 3, a brand new terminal exclusively designed to service low-cost carriers. Much in the same way that UNIQLO has made low-cost fashion new and exciting, the project, an undertaking by 3 different companies over a 3-year period, was to create low-cost terminal without making it dull and boring. The answer? Running tracks used for track and field.
photos courtesy the artist | click to enlarge
Under a microscope, even the most common objects can look like terrifyingly new worlds. But in artist Tomoya Matsuura’s new series titled Withered Plants, he focuses his microscopic lens on dying, decaying plants. The subjects are often individual parts of flowers – petals, filaments, anthers and stigma – that in real life measure between 1 mm and 5 millimeters. That’s around the size of the tip of a pencil.
Genki Sudo and his dance troupe WORLD ORDER throwing the first pitch
Last week Genki Sudo and his dance troupe WORLD ORDER were invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch to kick off the start of Japanese baseball. Sudo is a mixed-martial-artist-turned Buddhist-internet-dancing-sensation that has wowed the world with choreographed robotic moves. For the opening pitch, Sudo decided to borrow a page, or scripture, if you will, from his religious practice and reenact the Senju Kannon, or thousand-armed Buddha.
photographer Yuki Aoyama provides a lift-me-up to businessmen across Japan through the simple action of jumping.
Japanese business men, with their dull suits and carefully orchestrated combovers (also known as barcode hair styles) have been the butt of jokes, both in media and in colloquial chit-chat, for as long as I can remember. Younger generations call them ossan, or boring old man, and ridicule their obedience and lack of independence.
Japanese Aquarium Drops 2026 Version of Flowchart Illustrating Their Penguin Relationships. This Year There’s an English Version.
Gunkanjima from Above: Exploring What Was Once the World’s Most-Densely Populated City
Kirie Artist Carves Playful Narratives Into Tree Leaves
Antiwar Posters by Graphic Designer Shigeo Fukuda
Keisuke Aiso’s Ubume Sculpture that was Missappropriated as the Face of the Momo Hoax
