Spoon & Tamago

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Boo! Skull Shaped Japanese Sugar Designed by Nobumasa Takahashi

October 6, 2014 / Johnny / Comments Off

These black and white sugar skulls are made from Wasanbon (和三盆), a fine-grained premium Japanese sugar, traditionally made in the Shikoku prefectures of Tokushima and Kagawa.

They were designed by artist Nobumasa Takahashi and come in 18 pieces of black and white (9 each). The black sugar is made all naturally from bamboo charcoal and can be used just like regular sugar. Perfect for a Halloween party, or for just sweetening your tea or coffee when you’re in a ghoulish mood. Looking for that unique gift to bring to a Halloween party? They’re available in our shop!

Yusuke Asai’s Sprawling Mud Mural Comes to Houston, Texas

October 6, 2014 / Johnny / 3 Comments

yusuke asai yamatane at rice gallery | click to enlarge

Photos by Nash Baker courtesy Rice Gallery

Yusuke Asai doesn’t use store bought materials to create his murals. Instead, he sources pigments found in local mud and sand, producing, what could very well be, the truest “site-specific” mural. We’ve followed him around the world – India, Tibet, Japan – where he’s created intricate, nature-inspired murals not only on the walls of galleries but in classrooms too. Now, for the first time, Asai’s work is on display at a gallery in the US: at Rice Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Arata Endo: the architect who carried on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Legacy in Japan

October 2, 2014 / Johnny / 4 Comments

Imperial Hotel Wright frank lloyd wright

the entrance to Wright’s Imperial Hotel (1922) | images courtesy wikimedia commons

Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright discovered Japan through the same method as many in his time: ukiyo-e prints. “I remember when I first met Japanese prints, I’ll never forget it,” Wright once said in a filmed interview. “Japanese art had a great influence on my feeling and thinking.”

Wright first arrived in Japan in 1917 and that same year he met Arata Endo – 27 years old at the time and fresh off the team working on plans to construct Meiji Shrine. Like Wright, Endo had also risen to notoriety after publishing a scathing criticism of architect Kingo Tatsuno.

Strata: Aiko Miyanaga Designs the Process of Constant Change

October 1, 2014 / Johnny / Comments Off

Aiko Miyanaga is a young Japanese artist who often works with the chemical compound Napthalene, which she uses to model everyday objects. The properties of the chemical then cause the objects to gradually transition from a solid to a gas, illustrating a fleeting and almost destructive sense of time. We wrote about her back in 2009 but she’s come a long way since and recently landed a site-specific installation at Liverpool Central Library’s Picton Reading Room.

Over the Continents: Chiharu Shiota’s installation of 400 shoes connected with 4 miles of yarn

September 29, 2014 / Johnny / Comments Off

For her latest installation, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota reached out to the public to amass nearly 400 individual shoes accompanied by personal notes of memories associated with those shoes. In a monumental yet intimate installation Shiota uses almost 4 miles of red yarn to tie the shoes together and connect them all at a single point. The notes invite visitors “to consider the life of an object” and “the fundamental ties that connect humans to one another.”

Don Quijote’s Secret Weapon: Pop Signage Artists in Every Store

September 28, 2014 / Johnny / Comments Off

A friend of mine once lamented that if there was hell on earth it would be like Don Quijote. He was, of course, referring to Japan’s discount chain stores – colloquially known as Donki – and not the protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel. But for all its narrow, maze-like pathways and consumer products densely stacked from floor-to-ceiling, Donki has done remarkably well in Japan. One of the reasons, which many point to, are the hand-written signs, created in pop lettering and a dizzying array of fluorescent colors, that point consumers to products the store is trying to push.

How to Crochet Yourself the Perfect Bowl of Ramen

September 27, 2014 / Johnny / 3 Comments

Youtuber betibettin recently created a tutorial on how to make ramen. The final product looks so yummy that you can’t help but feel hunger pains. The only thing is, he’s not a chef and his ramen isn’t edible. Try and you’ll end up with a mouth full of yarn. Betibettin is a power crocheter and his latest creation is a bowl of ramen created entirely from yarn. The only thing that’s not yarn is a thin piece of cellophane place over the noodles for added soup-effect.

BCTION: Over 70 Artists Turn a Tokyo Office Building Slated for Demolition Into Massive Art Gallery

September 26, 2014 / Johnny / 3 Comments

Tokyo is currently undergoing tremendous change. The 2011 earthquake has put even more urgency on city planners and developers to ensure their buildings are quake-proof. In addition, the government is making way for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and all its accompanying facilities. That means many old buildings are being torn down and the face of Tokyo is changing at a dizzying rate.

As a statement of simply existing – being alive and witnessing these turbulent times – a group of over 70 artists have banded together and taken over an office building slated for demolition. Titled BCTION, for roughly a month and a half artists have staged installations on all 9 floors, repurposing the “dead space of the city” into a splendid art gallery.

A New English Language School in Osaka Incorporates 400 years of History

September 25, 2014 / Johnny / Comments Off

For the last 46 years the Shirobara Nursery School has been providing day care services to the little tikes of Osaka. But this year they are upping their game and embracing an increasingly globalized environment by establishing a standalone English language school. The White Rose English School will offer English lessons to preschoolers and elementary schoolers.