Can I just start this post by saying I adore Kurashiki (倉敷)! Kurashiki is somewhere I had wanted to go for quite a long time, and I was so please to have the chance to squeeze it in to my holiday last year. I visited as a day trip between a night in Okayama and … Continue reading
How do you follow a visit to the Kawaii Monster Cafe? Difficult, but we decided to head to the Mori Art Museum to see the latest exhibition by slightly bonkers contemporary artist Takashi Murakami (村上 隆). I had hoped to post this before the exhibition ended, but unfortunately I just wasn’t fast enough – the … Continue reading
When I lived in London the ICN Gallery in Shoreditch was hands-down my favourite gallery. Around the same time I left London, the gallery closed down. It felt like the end of an era in many respects, but in a way I was glad that I wouldn’t have to miss out on all of their … Continue reading
昔々あるところに Mukashi mukashi, aru tokoro ni… Once upon a time, in a certain place… I woke up in a land full of fairytales – Tono (遠野) in Iwate Prefecture. My guide, Matsumoto-san, came to pick me up from my hotel around 10:30am, and she brought with her a fantastic taxi driver, Suzuki-san, who was tasked with … Continue reading
After reading The Legends of Tono by Kunio Yanagita and Tales from a Mountain Cave by Hisashi Inoue I knew I simply had to visit Tono (遠野) in Iwate Prefecture. So, on Friday 30th May I continued my Tohoku adventure and headed towards Tono. After quite a bit of hanging around due to local line trains … Continue reading
I’ve been spending the bank holiday weekend here in the UK trying to catch up with life. I still have hundreds of photos to edit and upload, but I’m making progress. Today I’ve reached 16th May, which was the day I left my tour group behind and made my way to Takayama (高山) by myself. It … Continue reading
From April until October this year, there was a special item on display in the Japanese Galleries at the British Museum – the Perry Scroll. I apologise for not posting about this event sooner, but perhaps it’s still interesting to those of you who missed it. As part of Japan 400, a year of events … Continue reading
A year ago I went to see an exhibition in London by the wonderful Tom Lewis, called Megan and the Beasts of Kaimei. Since then, I’ve followed Tom Lewis’s super kawaii work online, and was delighted when he announced another exhibition. Megan and the Burobbu Boutique is being held in BOXPARK in Shoreditch, and will … Continue reading
Did you ever wonder what happened to skateboards after they die? Tokyo based artist, Haroshi, has been resurrecting used decks for over a decade. This self-taught artist uses the discarded remains of broken down skateboard decks to create beautiful wooden sculptures, adapting the DIY ethos of skate culture into creating works of art. With intricate mosaic patterns … Continue reading
When I went to see Shunga – Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art at the British Museum recently, I also stopped by to see a small, related temporary exhibition. For a short period Room 3 was home to a screen called ‘Courtesans of the Tamaya House’ attributed to Utagawa Toyoharu (1735–1815), painted in the 1770s … Continue reading
