MetaFilter posts tagged with Japanese and art

Baseball Bromides (Japanese baseball cards)

OmieWise — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:09:05 -0800

Besuboru Bromides (Japanese Baseball Cards) from the collection of John Gall, as featured at A Journey Round My Skull. Here is an earlier essay by Gall about Japanese baseball cards.

Morisawa Fontpark

rollbiz — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:16:17 -0800

Morisawa Fontpark : View or create amazing art with Japanese characters.

HARUKU SMASH!

Artw — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:26:51 -0800

The Incredible Hulk, as told by Koike Kazuo, of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, and Yoshihiro Morifuji. More scans here.

Mono-Ha

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:01:28 -0800

Phase — Mother Earth, a piece created by Mono-ha artist Nobuo Sekine in 1968, has been re-created:

Consisting of a hole dug into the ground, 2.7 metres deep and 2.2 metres in diameter, with the excavated earth compacted into a cylinder of exactly the same dimensions, Phase — Mother Earth was instrumental in the early development of work by the Mono-ha artist group, and has been considered a landmark work in Japanese postwar art history.

More about Mono-ha inside. What is Mono-ha?

‘Mono-ha’ refers to a group of artists who were active from the late sixties to early seventies, using both natural and man-made materials in their work. Their aim was simply to bring ‘things’ together, as far as possible in an unaltered state, allowing the juxtaposed materials to speak for themselves. Hence, the artists no longer ‘created’ but ‘rearranged’ ‘things’ into artworks, drawing attention to the interdependent relationships between these ‘things’ and the space surrounding them. The aim was to challenge pre-existing perceptions of such materials and relate to them on a new level.

Other Mono-ha artists: Kishio Suga Lee U-Fan Koji Enokura Noboru Takayama Noriyuki Haraguchi Narita Katsuhiko Katsuro Yoshida Koshimizu Hayao

Thus did the sons of the Heike vanish forever from the face of the earth.

ersatz — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:29:47 -0800

The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) is a medieval Japanese account of the rise and fall of the Taira clan and has inspired many other works of art. Click on the chapters and scroll down to see Heike illustrations (or start here), see more art or figures inspired by the Heike. Would you rather read? You can read two chapters of Helen Craig McCullough's translation or read a Michael Watson translation of the nô (Noh) play Kogô (illustration), inspired by the tale. (.doc file, link doesn't point directly to it.) The story was performed by biwa hôshi, "lute monks", and its most popular version was compiled by the blind* monk Kakuichi in 1371. The events recounted occur during the Genpei War (short version). The Genpei War took place in the 12th century between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was the end of the Heian era depicted in the famous Japanese text, The Tale of Genji. Heike means "House of Taira" and Genji "Minamoto clan". John Wallace (first link) isn't one for web design, but seems to have a penchant for collecting. *cf. Homer, Milton, Joyce, Borges.

A blog about Japanese photography seen from abroad.

chunking express — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:38:20 -0800

A blog about Japanese photography seen from abroad. The site hasn't been updated in quite some time, but it is still full of a lot of interesting stuff.

Rice paddy art.

dersins — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:32:21 -0800

"Pimp my rice paddy." Crop art for aliens, instead of by them.

Mice! Mice from my hair! Aieee!

ewagoner — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:41:35 -0800

"Paths are made by walking" as these artists prove by walking in the park for five days. Other projects include knitting a sweater for a giraffe, slowing down a shooting star (to allow for a lengthy wish), sprouting a seed in their hands, globes drawn by memory, and more.

savoring the everyday

nickyskye — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:37:33 -0800

Ukiyo-e, a collection of dreamy, mostly charming, flash animations of Edo period Japanese paintings. Pictures of the floating world (everyday life) by Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro. Encyclopedic list of floating world images on the web. Hokusai sketches in flash. [related]

Illustrated Ise Monogatari

languagehat — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:59:00 -0800

An illustrated edition of the Ise Monogatari (Wikipedia, review of translation). Yeah, yeah, it's in Japanese, but just keep hitting the forward button (the leftmost of the two on the right, red/brown rather than blue/green) and you'll find lots of pretty pictures. I can't improve on the descriptions by Matt of No-sword, where I found it, so I'll just quote him: "Behold our hero maxin' and relaxin' at his writing-desk, looking like he just got hired as a middle manager at his dad's lighter-flint concern! Thrill to the famous scene where he is visited by the Pineapple of Golden Week Past! Laugh as he is mistaken for a member of Aerosmith! Wonder why everyone is just sitting around smiling contentedly when the building is obviously on fire!"

exquisite living works of art

madamjujujive — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 16:33:27 -0800

Geiko of Kyoto is a stunning photo gallery of Kyotos's Geisha - both the mature Geiko and the apprentice Maiko. Melissa Chasse annotates many photos with fascinating details and offers an account of her tea party with Mamechika, a lovely Maiko. For more, this lovely Geisha site offers a brief history from the era of the floating world, more photos, Ukiyo-e art, and links. Also see y2karls' prior definitive post on ukiyo-e.

Land of the Rising Experimental Art Show

boo_radley — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 23:19:46 -0800

Delaware 7+h Album and 5+h Exhibi+ion: Too Slow to Live Experimental -- ha, excuse me, experimen+al ar+ and visuals by JAPAnese LUNA+ics DELAware. What made me bring this to your attention? Two delicious bites, Monte Blanc and Walk, Don't Learn. The entire album is available to download if you've become enamored or are generally adventurous. [Flash, Audio, embedded gifs, generally odd]

Piranesi, etc.

misteraitch — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 13:56:06 -0800

The Works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: high-resolution scans of all of Piranesi’s etchings. Also, the plates from Les Ruines De Pompei by François Mazois (1812-38), and, the complete 9-volume Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The Antiquities discovered in Herculaneum) published in Naples from 1755-62. Also, at the same site (UT-PICURE: the Center for Research on Pictorial Cultural Resources, at The University of Tokyo), images from the Stibbert Collection of Japanese costume.

We're all living in Murakami's world.

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 08:38:34 -0800

The Murakami Method : hailed as the Japanese Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami (previously discussed here) lives in his factory wherein he "makes art and sleeps." Murakami spans the artistic spectrum as both a proponent of Japanese otaku culture - the "geek" culture of manga and video games and the author of a PhD dissertation of Nihonga - a style of Japanese painting whose name literally translates to "Japanese painting." Further bridging the gap between "high and low culture," Murakami shows his work in museums and in the Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo.

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Ar

matteo — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 12:46:37 -0800

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art. Images from Japanese psychiatric medication advertisements: 1956-2003 (via Absent without leave)

Shibori Japanese Tye-Dye

lobakgo — Fri, 16 Jan 2004 08:50:17 -0800

Shibori is an amazing Japanese textile dying technique--a very sophisticated form of tie-dye, where nubby, lumpy, bizarre things like this are transformed after dying into this fish or these flowers (scroll for detail) or these starbursts. Specifically this odd thing became this (detail). You can find excellent photos and descriptions of the process here, here(scroll down and hold mouse over photo), and here. There is also information at the World Shibori Network . This photo shows partially dyed fabric and here is a video of the preparation for dying. Shibori is very labor intensive (carpal tunnel syndrome-city) and was a one time subject to a sumptuary tax and one form was outlawed by an emperor for being too extravagant. There are many different knots and ties for different patterns--browse here, here(gallery1-7), and here. Shibori can be used to make some striking and detailed images. Diverse examples of shibori --iris, layered squares, waves, kimonos, large bridge banner, subtle black and white winter scene, , a nifty “aerial view” of earth as a tidal pool with hot air balloons (detail of anemones). Don't miss the stunning work of Hiroko Harada (English/Japanese). I especially like Rain In the Forest, There Are Ripples On the Cloth, Seasonal Changes, and this large installation. You can browse more here, but the Japanese page has more.

Posters of Toei Yakuza Movies

hama7 — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 04:12:58 -0800

Posters of Toei Yakuza Movies.

Bixby23 — Wed, 05 Sep 2001 01:42:41 -0800

Rice Ball Guy is my new favorite superhero. He's like, cool an' stuff. (The link is messed up, but have a go anyway. Really. Rice Ball Guy is cool, I'm tellin' ya.)