RECORDS OF THE RISING SUN

The world's most destructive earthquake.   An examination of Japan’s world-beaters yields a “superlative” understanding of the cou...

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Ito Jakuchu: Quite the rare bird

Cockatoo, 1771 The best time to see Jakuchu was back in 2000 or 2006, when there were two big exhibitions that aimed to re-evaluate th...

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TAKESHI KITANO: PAINTER'S KID

Making movies is great if you want the fame and excitement, but for real artistic fulfillment there’s nothing like becoming an actual p...

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INTERVIEW: HIROSHI SUGIMOTO

What Lies Behind Our Love of Clothes There’s something counter-intuitive about photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. While most a...

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Photo: "Mujin" Store

Click to enlarge In Japan, thanks to monoculturalism, high social trust, and Confucian morality, it is possible to have "mujin...

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The War Art of Saburo Miyamoto

The House of Death (ca. 1945-46) One of the most astounding and, indeed, slightly unnerving pictures in the collection of the Museum o...

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Photo: Momoko Kikuchi "Fire Woman"

Because Japanese cities are overwhelmingly built from wood, they are extremely susceptible to fire, so every spring there is a fire pr...

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The Polymorphous Creativity of Kuniyoshi

Men Join to Form a Man: Looks Fierce But is Really Nice, c.1847 The big ukiyo-e exhibition this year has been the Toshusai Sharaku sho...

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NEIL MUNRO, CHAMPION OF THE AINU

Neil Munro (left) with an Ainu. Perhaps the greatest champion of the Ainu people was the Scottish doctor, Neil Gordon Munro. Born in...

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