Spoon & Tamago

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Miniature, Ornate Wooden ‘Danjiri’ Floats Carved Entirely by Hand

One of Japan’s most-rowdiest festivals is the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival, which takes place in Osaka during the month of September. The 300-year old festival features thirty four large, elaborate floats known as danjiri. Each float represents a different neighborhood and teams of hundreds compete to pull their floats at high speeds through the narrow streets of Kishiwada.

But for one individual, spectating the event was not enough. Armed with carving tools, they are on a mission to carve miniature replicas of every single danjiri.

Viscous Slime Covers the Faces of Portraits Painted by Kotao Tomozawa

December 10, 2021 / Johnny / Comments Off

Kotao Tomozawa with her large paintings | all images courtesy the artist

Kotao Tomozawa is a Tokyo-based painter currently attending Tokyo University of the Arts. Using her masterful grasp of texture, translucency and softness, she creates large, unique portraits that feature highly viscous slime-like substances covering the faces of her models. They are simultaneously disturbing yet gentle.

Kotatsu Have Been Around Longer Than We Imagine. And Art History Has the Proof.

December 9, 2021 / Johnny / Comments Off

As temperatures continue to drop, households around Japan will begin setting up their kotatsu: low tables covered with a heavy blanket whose underbelly holds an electric heater. Central heating is uncommon in Japan, where the preferred method of keeping warm are site-specific heating solutions like this one. And we often think of the kotatsu as a modern-day luxury but they’ve actually been around for hundreds of years, way before electricity was harnessed for household usage.

Nature and Engineering Intertwine in Toshio Shibata’s Photographs of Japan’s Landscape

December 4, 2021 / Johnny / Comments Off

Kitashiobara Village, Fukushima, 2016

Depending on where you stand on the spectrum of environmental engineering, Japan’s monolithic yet ubiquitous cement structures are either pork-barrel politics suffocating the landscape, or engineering marvels that sustain life. The photographer Toshio Shibata offers a third, more neutral stance. A poetic and abstract look at nature being intertwined with man-made structures.

Spoon & Tamago Member Event: Virtual Kyoto Tea Ceremony

December 2, 2021 / Johnny / 2 Comments

Join us next weekend on December 11, 2021 (EST) as we virtually step inside a traditional Kyoto machiya to experience the refined world of matcha. The Camellia Tea House will guide us through an intimate and authentic tea ceremony!

In the tea world, this time of year is very much considered the new year of tea. Two exciting things happen: the tea that was picked, processed, and put into storage to settle in the spring is unveiled and turned into Matcha. Also, the hearth upon which the water is boiled for making tea in the Japanese tearoom goes from resting above ground for the warmer months, to being in the ground for the winter, a tradition known as robiraki (炉開き), or the unveiling of the sunken hearth.

The online event will be available to Spoon & Tamago members. Already a member? Awesome! Members will automatically be receiving a link by email to join. Not a member? Consider joining us and getting access to this talk, as well as many other perks!

Online Member Lecture Series with Camellia Tea House
WHEN: December 11, 2021 (EST) | 8:00 – 9:00 PM
WHERE: Zoom Meeting
HOW TO JOIN: All members will be receiving an email with a link to join the meeting.

Archived footage is now available. Members who are signed in can view the video below:

An Undulating Glass Facade Defines this Renovated Kimono Showroom in Kyoto

December 1, 2021 / Johnny / Comments Off

all photographs: RuRi Photo Studio

For the last several decades the market for kimono, Japan’s traditionally worn garments, has been in decline. Recently, thanks to the the efforts of many, kimono have been undergoing a renaissance but kimono makers still need to stay relevant in order to survive. For Kyoto-based kimono maker Souhee, that meant creating their latest showroom in a renovated machiya that blends elements of tradition and modernity.

Illuminated Paintings of Tokyo After Dark by Keita Morimoto

November 27, 2021 / Johnny / 2 Comments

After Dark, 2021, acrylic and oil on linen, 4860×2273 mm | all images courtesy the artist

The element of light has fascinated us for centuries. Artists from the classical and baroque periods used light to imbue their paintings with grandeur, dramatism and sometime the sacred. For contemporary artist Keita Morimoto, light illuminates his nondescript street scenes of Tokyo, except his sources of light are vending machines, fast food restaurants, electric signs in parking lots and other symbols of consumerist society.

Setouchi Jozojo’s New Brewery and Retail Shop

November 26, 2021 / Johnny / 1 Comment

all photos by Tomoyuki Kusunose + Daici Ano | courtesy Sugawara Daisuke Architects

Earlier this year we gave you a glimpse of the branding from Setouchi Jozojo, a new wine and cider maker that has laid down roots in the Setouchi region of Japan. Now the brewery, which exclusively uses local ingredients to create beverages that are inspired by the region’s unique climate and history, has unveiled their brewery and restaurant, as well as their retail shop: two distinct locations that create a “micro public network.”