BOOK REVIEW: LOVE HOTELS - PHOTOGRAPHS BY MISTY KEASLER

If you want to get a handle on Japanese society, you can always waste your time going to the nearest tourist office and picking up a loa...

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Japonisme: Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West

Japonisme: Cultural Crossings Between Japan and the West by Lionel Lambourne Phaidon $44.07 on Amazon The great English potte...

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Book Review: "Japan-ness in Architecture" by Arata Isozaki

Modern Japanese architecture seems to be rooted somewhere in the Space Age, but this informative book by Arata Isozaki, an important ar...

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Book Review: "A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics" by Donald Richie

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF FOREIGNERS: The one who visits the holiest zen garden and sees nothing but a dirty pond, a bit of gravel, and some s...

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Exhibition: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Hiroshi Teshigahara, who died in 2001, is chiefly remembered as the avant-garde film director who gave celluloid form to author Kobo Abe...

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Interview: Wakiro Sumi

Evidence, 2006 Wakiro Sumi's works invite quiet contemplation Maybe it's just as well that the Kamakura Museum of Moder...

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Exhibition: Ikuo Hirayama

Touch of silk: Ikuo Hirayama sought solace on the road Ikuo Hirayama clearly represents how the Japanese like to see and project them...

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Interview: Toyo Ito

Japanese architect Toyo Ito is credited with influencing a generation of younger architects with his ideas about contemporary urban forms. ...

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Book Review: "Urayasu Tekkin Kazuko" by Kenji Hamaoka

Japan gets a lot of praise around the World for its manga, but the stark truth is that most of this is turgid drivel. You know the sort of ...

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Exhibition: Shinto Gods and Buddhist Deities

One aspect of the Orient that Occidentals often find baffling is the ability of most Orientals to believe in several gods and religions at...

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Exhibition: Hiroshi Sugimoto

Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto made his name photographing stuffed animals and waxworks. OK, this sounds like a dumb thing to do, but th...

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Exhibition: Iwami Furusawa

The Awakening, 1968 We've been hearing all the hype about the new Roppongi Art Triangle. What a load of b*ll*cks! While the ...

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Pinpricks in the Darkness: The Beautiful and Disturbing art of Fuyuko Matsui

Art, despite all its complexities and convolutions, is and always has been simply a mirror of humanity. While one artist expresses hope, a...

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Book Review: "A Diplomat in Japan" by Sir Ernest Satow

When Edo Japan was forced to open its doors to the outside World in 1854, it set off a train of events that destabilized the feudal orde...

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