This exhibition brings together more than 40 of Kitagawa Utamaro’s (circa 1753-1806) most celebrated works, all drawn from the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection. While his subject, beautiful women, had been a mainstay in ukiyo-e from its beginning, Utamaro invested… Continue reading
Two exhibitions on early Japanese photography, one in the US and one in the Netherlands, explore how Japan was documented with in images in the 19th century. Looking for Japan at the Dayton Art Institute shows how photography recorded and… Continue reading
Tokyo National Museum loaned over 80 objects to a travelling exhibition devoted to the art of the samurai warriors in 2009, which explored the art and aesthetics of samurai culture in Japan. The collection in focus dates primarily to the… Continue reading
Paul Jacoulet (1896-1960) was born in Paris, but spent most of his life in Japan. There is confusion around his birthdate as official public records state 1896, but it is recorded on his tombstone as 1902. He moved to Japan… Continue reading
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale is currently showing Textured Stories: The Chirimen Books of Modern Japan, The exhibition explores Japanese crêpe-paper books, known as chirimen-bon, which feature handmade pages filled with stories drawn chiefly from Japanese fairy… Continue reading
Tea is nothing but the following: first boil the water. Then add the tea. And drink it. That is everything you have to know.’ These seemingly simple instructions by tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522–1591) refer to both the formalised… Continue reading
Surimono are a distinctive form of Japanese colour woodblock prints that emerged between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries. Surimono literally translates to ‘printed things’ or ‘something rubbed’ (referring to the way a Japanese print is made by rubbing paper… Continue reading
The world of contemporary Japanese ceramics is brimming with dynamic approaches to the medium of clay with the use of vibrant colours, textured surfaces, and gravity-defying shapes. The current exhibition of new Japanese ceramics at the Asian Art Museum in… Continue reading
Opening last October after more than a decade of preparation, the Enoura Observatory is an installation of gallery spaces, performance stages, a traditional teahouse, two ancient gates and many, yet-more ancient stones, constructed in the words of the founder ‘as… Continue reading
Unfortunately, eccentrics are ofttimes underrated – or overlooked. Socially, they can be considered unstable and therefore, somehow, unacceptable – that is if one is under the thumb of bourgeois morality. In the American South, however, family eccentrics are a point… Continue reading