Yoshitaka Amano, master of fantasy
Weekly Profile: Tomoko Sawada’s many faces
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設計 s e k k e i your number one resource of japanese arts & design.
The treasures from Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI # 15 pg2
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1 eico hanamura’s girly & retro! pg2
2 crafting minimal from hasami pg3
3 when games & fashion meets! Ganbatte Japan!
Arquitecture of Ginza
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Tokyo boasts an inexhaustible appetite for luxury, and for the past eight years Ginza has pg 3 been building itself up again to rival the fashionable west side of town.
october 26 2011
Rediscovering the neglected master of Japan’s avant-garde pg1
drawings and thoghts from Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy
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Ei Q’s Art
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Illustration & Manga
Quick notes
Cute and Pop! 60s Girls Comics by Eico Hanamura Manga is familiar to all Japanese, and it has also become a part of their culture they are proud of sharing. Eico Hanamura started her career as a manga artist in 1958 and is much loved as a pioneer of girls comics in manga
Yoshitaka Amano
Master Yoshitaka Amano reveals he’s more a traditional illustrator rather than a digital one: “No, I draw on paper using my fingers,. I would like to try using computers, but I just don’t have the time for it.”
This was made for the Arslan Senki novels, in pure ink and watercolors.
M any of you will remember from your childhood seeing the painting of a girl with
Dick Bruna Dick Bruna, the creator of the Miffy rabbit children’s book character that has many fans in Japan, has drawn a special illustration especially to comfort children who have been frightened by the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant accidents.
big bright eyes and long eyelashes. Eico has been working as a manga artist for half a century and is still energetic about exhibiting her works in France, or collaborating with crafts people. Today, PingMag will mainly cover her early period of works, and reveal Eico’s childlike cute self by interviewing her. Did you always want to become a manga artist? Originally, I went to Joshibi University of Art and Design, as I admired melancholic and expressive art by the likes of Takehisa Yumeji and Junichi Nakahara, but did not think of becoming a manga artist at all.
then draw illustrations for the stories with my own explanations. When I read interesting stories, I’d try to imagine the characters’ reaction or their facial expression depending on the scene, and the pictures just came up. What do you keep in mind when you remake masterpieces into manga? I always try to make it interesting and tempting for kids who are reading it for the first time, more than just following the original story.
Could you leave us with a message for all of our readers who are seeing your illustrations for the first time? It is very important for kids in Japan, as they sometimes learn history through manga. By the way, you have been popular in France recently. How did you come to exhibit your works in France?
How was it to add illustrations to stories that originally didn’t have any? written by Gabriela Carrera
During my school days, there were not so many books with colorful illustrations, so I loved reading my parents’ literary works, and
When I was presented a prize by The Japan Cartoonists Association, a guest from the French Embassy saw my original drawings on display and asked me about buying them. I could not sell it, as it was an original copy, but my friends and acquaintances said to me, “foreigners like French people seem to be interested in your illustrations.” That’s why I have been hoping to have opportunities for showing my works abroad.
Everything that happened in Paris this past summer hasn’t hit me yet, but I am very grateful if you enjoy my illustrations. I would love to have the opportunity to keep showing both adorable illustrations of children and lyrical paintings in different countries. Thank you, Ms. Eico Hanamura! We hope you will keep attracting people all over the world with your beautiful works!
Written by Chiemi Translated by Yuki Sakai
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Arts & Crafts
Minimalist Ceramics From Traditional Hasami Hasami is a traditional pottery town in Nagasaki. The local porcelain is fine, of the purest white and made by highly skilled craftsmen. There, the Hakusan Porcelain company has been making porcelain tableware for eight generations, but their modern forms and minimalist styles employed in their work seem to be clearly very different from the other kilns. PingMag MAKE spoke to president Keiichi Matsuo about his design-based approach to traditional crafts. Hakusan Porcelain is certainly a departure from the work made by other ceramic manufacturers in this region. The late designer Masahiro Mori was on staff here and he pulled along ever since he joined in the 1950s. That is something of a legacy for them now.
Redescovering a master from Urawa City.
The Avant Garde Talent of artist Ei Q. Like Okamoto, who was born in the same By C.B LIDDELL Special to The Japan Times The fickle hand of artistic fate is seen not so much in whom it plucks from the depths of obscurity, but in how high those chosen are raised up. A case in point is the multidisciplinary avant-garde artist Hideo Sugita, better known by his alias Ei Q (1911-60). Thanks to 100 years having accrued since his birth, this important artist, who has largely been out of the limelight since his death, is now enjoying a major retrospective at two of Saitama Prefecture’s larger museums: Urawa Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama. The location choice for this joint exhibition reflects the fact that Ei Q, who was born in Miyazaki Prefecture, spent the last 10 years of his life in Urawa City, which was merged in 2001 into Saitama City. A visit to either one or both of these venues reveals that Ei Q is a neglected giant of Japanese modern art. If the big names of 20th-century avant-garde in Japan, such as Taro Okamoto and Yayoi Kusama, were on display you could be sure that these museums would be busy; but, as it is, this show is so poorly attended that visitors are likely to be outnumbered by the museum attendants. Yet on the basis of the art presented here, the argument could easily be made that Ei Q was more talented, more original and more significant to Japanese art than his rivals.
year as him, Ei Q served as a conduit for foreign avant-garde influences, employed different styles, explored various artistic mediums and even wrote art criticism. But whereas Okamoto’s art often seems forced and overly self-conscious, Ei Q’s various expressions are characterized by a natural organic quality that makes them seem not only more enchanting but also more original. The two shows include oil paintings, etchings, drawings and various kinds of photo art, including photograms, made by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photographic plate that is then exposed to light. Many of Ei Q’s works, in whichever medium, have a dreamy quality. This is not surprising as his chief initial influence was Surrealism, then very much in vogue. His photograms owe an obvious debt to Man Ray, but while the Paris-based artist’s work was often clinical, ironic and comedic, Ei Q developed his photograms in a more lyrical direction, using stencils and cutouts, as well as drawing directly onto the photographic plates to create images that work better as art. The results of this work were published in 1936 in his poetically titled “Nemuri no Riyu” (“The Reason for Sleep”), his artistic debut. This marks the change from his earlier career as an art critic, with articles published under his real name, to being an artist under that enigmatic moniker Ei Q. The keen understanding of the latest developments in avant-garde art, which he had developed as a precocious writer for art magazines Muzue, Atelier and Miyazaki Kensue Hyoron, soon
that’s what era it is. But, what is design? If Konosuke Matsushita says it’s the Design Era, then it must be so. OK then, let’s hire a designer. I wonder where we find one of those?” Back then there certainly weren’t any designers out here in the backwoods of Nagasaki. But when my father asked the director at the Ceramic Research Center of Nagasaki, he said they had one oddball designer on their staff, says Keiichi Matsuo. I used to think, “I’ll do something even bigger and better than what my father and Mr. Mori did!” but now I feel that it’s my job to keep things going.
As the story goes, the famous industrialist Konosuke Matsushita was disembarking from an airplane after a trip around the world when he said “This is the beginning of the Design Era.” My father heard that filtered through into his diverse artistic output. “He knew every movement in world art,” Hajime Morita, the chief curator of Urawa Art Museum explains, “but he himself had never been abroad. He had a very tall and wide antenna.” If Ei Q had merely been a hack copier of foreign artistic trends then there would be good reason for his relative obscurity. But, while his antenna was attuned to international trends, his art has its own voice, which also expresses a subtle Japanese sensibility that contrasts favorably with the often cartoonish art of his more famous contemporary, Okamoto. Why, then, does his reputation lag behind the likes of Kusama and Okamoto? Morita explains this conundrum by citing two factors rooted in Japanese culture: veneration of specialization and respect for seniority. “One of the traditions of Japanese culture is that Japanese people don’t esteem multi-disciplinary artists,” he points out. “Also one of the reasons for the greater success of Okamoto is that Ei Q died very young, at the age of 48. If he could have lived longer, many people would have found his talen
Chiyogami: A Kaleidoscope Of Patterns Chiyogami is brightly patterned Japanese paper — or Washi as you, might be familiar with by now — on which all kinds of beautiful flowers, characters or family seals are printed.
Chiyogami Crafts Other than wrapping paper, Chiyogami can also be used to make little boxes, paper cranes, dolls, bookmarks, and so much more. The possibilities are many, so it’s up to your own creativity to see how this paper really comes to life…
Favorites from Murakami’s GEISAI # 15 By Jhonny
As an extension to the art exhibition picks we are doing this week, we thought we’d round up some artwork in a slightly different vein. Since 2002, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has been organizing a one-day art extravaganza known as GEISAI that takes place twice a year. Already in its 15th iteration, the latest event for young and budding artists across Japan was cancelled 2 days ahead of its scheduled opening – yet another consequence of the devastating disaster on March 11.
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“motsu motsu” (2011) by Shinri
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a lovely piece by Koji Doi
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Yuta Nohara’s garbage fashion
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Photography & Urbanism
Ginza top buildings a review from Jessica Niles DeHoff
Japan, will soon get ready for this new world wide magazine
Amusement: Spreading the fashion stravaganza in the Gaming world To begin with, many of Ginza’s buildings When is a videogame magazine more than just a videogame fall into the category of clean and glossy design. Beautiful and innovative curtainwall systems line the main streets of this part of town, all perfectly finished thanks to Japan’s peerless construction techniques.
1. The Peninsula Tokyo
magazine? That’s what you get with “Amusement,” a French “lifestyle” magazine that has been mixing game coverage with a stylish mix of art, fashion, and digital culture.
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Amusement” is the first lifestyle magazine on interactive entertainment. “Lifestyle” magazine doesn’t mean a lot in itself, but it’s a word we’ve chosen to characterize a type of magazine. They focus on working with photographers and illustrators ,creative people who usually work for magazines with a strong emphasis on images — fashion, photo, or design magazines — which has never been done before for a technology magazine. Then also is chosen specific topics from special angles on topics, different from the usual videogame magazine, like interviewing the assistant of Ralph Baer, who invented the first videogame console for example.
Though The Peninsula’s exterior is unassuming, its interior features a dramatic atrium reaching all the way up to the 24th floor bar, which commands a dramatic view of the central city. Architect Kazukiyo Sato may have intended this as a nod to the Peninsula in Hong Kong.
2. Maison Hermès
And last but not least they really want to work with high-level contributors, like world renowned academics (Hans Ulrich Obrist), journalists (Clive Thompson of “The New York Times”), or designers (Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Q Entertainment, ex-Sega). In a nutshell, “Amusement” tries to gather people from very different horizons, in order to reveal the extreme variety found in videogames and digital entertainment.
Amusement’s editor-in-chief Abdel Bounane talks about the many difficulties the had launching the project, specially with advertisement. “Gathering people around a very new project is always difficult, but the most difficult was to convince advertisers about the potential for such a project. Simply put, they couldn’t understand who the target audience was. But thankfully, they finally understood
that there was a whole generation of people who always lived with videogames and interactive entertainment, and who wanted a higher level magazine covering their passion.” And that’s quite all, enjoy Amusement in Japanese launching in November 24, 20011.
The Many Facets Of Tomoko Sawada
The Maison Hermès Tokyo was built by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in 2001. The slender tower is built entirely of translucent glass blocks, but approach its flank at street level and you’ll be treated to a few clever windows that are like peepholes displaying luxury watches and scarves.
3. Armani
written by Verena
In the Western world you have artists such as Cindy Sherman, who is reflecting gender stereotypes and the Western image of women by acting out women’s fantasies, embodying celebrity wannabes, desperate housewives, or posing in film stills of imaginary movies. Now, as with fellow Japanese artists Yasumasa Morimura, Tomoko Sawada has her own approach, using Japanese subjects and her unique conduct in the photo sessions: The Kobe native playfully poses in uniforms of everyday Japanese life, incorporating office ladies, giggling highschool girls, or trying to make a good impression in omiai photos. For these formal portraits of women seeking an arranged marriage, she repeatedly went to a professional photographer, each time taking on the guise of a different person: neatly dressed worker in a business suit, Stepford wife-a-like or kimono-clad lady.
Designed by Italian Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, its façade uses bamboo-like forms to create a pattern that evokes traditional Japanese fabrics while at the same time creating a privacy screen for the interior.
For another project, she disguised herself as a ganguro, the uber-tanned Shibuya girls who idolised pop starlet Namie Amuro and drew from her neon chic to resemble mutant Californian beach girls.
In her photo works, Kobe-based Tomoko Sawada shows us shifting aspects of her personality. By disguising herself as multiple women of Japanese society, she is playing with social norms and gender roles without judgment but simply imitating them with humour. Her work has been displayed as part of female art exhibitions such as last year’s global feminism at the Brooklyn Museum. Strikingly, Tomoko explains the making of “ID400” in her statement for accepting the Canon - New Cosmos of Photography award in 2000: I was bound by an inferiority complex. When I started to take pictures, I loved my image taken in photos, which looked attractive and cute. I could make myself look like a model or an actress in pictures. As I looked at my pictures again and again, the gap between my real image and my image in a picture widened. In other words, my appearance could be changed easily, but my personality did not change. An ID picture proves the identity or the existence of a person in the picture. That is, even if someone does not exist in this world, if he or she appears in an ID picture, that person can prove his or her existence. One’s personality is said to show in one’s appearance. However, even if one’s appearance changes, the essence does not change. Such a contradiction motivated me to create my work. Anyone in these ID pictures could be myself.
I was bound by an inferiority complex.