A few weeks ago Bristol saw another fantastic Upfest street art festival take place. Upfest is Europe’s largest free street art and graffiti festival, and the event sees artists travelling from all over the world to take part. There was lots of great artwork there, but today I’d like to highlight a few Japan-inspired pieces … Continue reading
Most lovers of Japan will at some point talk about the amazing contrasts the country provides. The modern versus the traditional, the cities versus the rural areas – Japan is a country made of the very oldest and very newest elements, and it’s fascinating. It was with this thought in mind that I arrived into … Continue reading
As some of you will know, one of my other hobbies is taking photographs of street art. It’s always interesting to look at the influences in street art, and often I notice Japanese influences. A while ago I was in London and I spotted this manga-esque paste-up in Shoreditch by Tian: Tian is a French … Continue reading
If you follow my other blog, Picturing England, you’ll know I’m a big fan of street art and often photograph the art I find here in the UK. Last weekend there was a street art festival called Upfest here in Bristol, and I was delighted to find a number of Japanese-inspired pieces of street art! … Continue reading
I don’t usually cross-post on my blogs, but I absolutely have to share this Picturing England post with Haikugirl‘s Japan readers! I found this wonderful graffiti version of Hokusai‘s (葛飾 北斎) Great Wave on Hillgrove Street in bristol the other day. Isn’t it cool?
To be honest, I’m not missing many things about London, but of all the Japanese-related things I had access to in London the one I do find myself missing is the ICN gallery. I don’t just miss the gallery because they have wonderful exhibitions, I also miss it because the people working there are so friendly … Continue reading
I’ve been a fan of Dan Kitchener’s street art for a while now, after having seen a couple of pieces around the Brick Lane area in London. This one caught my eye last year: The woman looked Japanese, and I wondered if she was supposed to be some kind of punk geisha. I saw another … Continue reading
I’m not a huge gamer, but when I stumbled upon Kumo Lumo this evening I was curious because, of course, it has some kind of Japanese connection… ‘Kumo’ (雲) is Japanese for ‘cloud’ (also for ‘spider’, but spelt differently – クモ). Interestingly, the Japanese below ‘Kumo Lumo’ in the picture above says「クラウド光輝」(kurawudo (cloud) kouki), which … Continue reading
Back in January (crikey, has it really been that long?!) I visited the British Museum to see an iconic piece of art: Hokusai‘s Great Wave. The Great Wave off Kanagawa (to give it its full title), also known as Under the Wave, off Kanagawa (a literal translation of its Japanese title: 神奈川沖浪裏 / Kanagawa Oki Nami … Continue reading
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