Japanese Garden

Shrine

Yama

Seiichi Fujimoto

Seiichi Fujimoto is a freelance graphic designer. In 2007 he designed this calculator, which won a Good Design Award in Japan and is now avaible to buy in MoMA. His design beat that of Naoki Fukasawa, head of product design for MUJI.

Camping

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+44 (0) 7713 640 543
www.dannymcneil.com

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DMJAPAN
http://dm--japan.blogspot.com/
-A blog document a trip to Japan
made between April and May 2009
with a focus on visual culture.

Street

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+44 (0) 7713 640 543
www.dannymcneil.com

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DMJAPAN
http://dm--japan.blogspot.com/
-A blog document a trip to Japan
made between April and May 2009
with a focus on visual culture.

Shojin Ryori

Rice

Cafe 8

The tip off from Sunplaza was very useful - www.vegetokyo.com - lists all totally vege or vege-friendly cafe, bars and resturants in Tokyo. From the list we visited Cafe 8, a totally vegetarian restaurant in Naka Meguro. I had (tofu) steak. Very good.

Shinkansen

Gallery of Horyuji Treasures / Tokyo National Museum

Wabi-sabi. Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect

Wabi-sabi is the most characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West." Andrew Juniper claims, "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." Richard R. Powell summarizes by saying "It (wabi-sabi) nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."

This Japanese tea set that I found at the Tokyo National Museum are a good example of Wabi-sabi. In Japanese tea ceremony, cups used are often rustic and simple-looking, with shapes that are not quite symmetrical, and colors or textures that appear to emphasize an unrefined or simple style. In reality, the cups can be quite expensive and in fact, it is up to the knowledge and observational ability of the participant to notice and discern the hidden signs of a truly excellent design or glaze (akin to the appearance of a diamond in the rough). This may be interpreted as a kind of wabi-sabi aesthetic, further confirmed by the way the glaze is known to change in color with time as tea is repeatedly poured into them (sabi) and the fact that the cups are deliberately chipped or nicked at the bottom (wabi).

Festival

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+44 (0) 7713 640 543
www.dannymcneil.com

··
DMJAPAN
http://dm--japan.blogspot.com/
-A blog document a trip to Japan
made between April and May 2009
with a focus on visual culture.

Taisuke Oyama "Entropix"

Considering the changing city environment as equal to all kinds of lifeforms in nature, Koyama takes digital photographs of the superficial details of artificial objects, which seem to materialize a city's metabolic activities. Tokyo Artbeat

Sake

Koi-Nobori - Children's Day

Tokyo Timelapse

Seizi's Birthday

Yesterday was Seigi's birthday. To celebrate Sally arranged a small soiree at his flat, involving beer and (vegetarian) Nabe (a sociable one-pot stew, made to be served at the table). The only small problem being the misspelling of Seigi's name (as Seizi) on the Masison De Takagi cake. He still ate it.

Roppongi Hills / Mori Art Museum / Tomo

Today I caught up with Taka, from LCC Typography and Tomo, a graduate from Design Interactions at the RCA at the Mori Art Museum.

Tomo works for an interactive design studio 4Anchor5La6 in Omotesando, who's work sits somewhere between art and design. While at the RCA he produced a piece called Luminos made up of a chain of light omitting/light reactive cubes.

Currently there are two exhibitons at the Mori; 'The Kaleidoscopic Eye' and 'Made in Cassina', both very interesting and both largely made up of non-Japanese art and design. While the exhibitons were world class, perhaps the best thing about the Mori is it's location, on the 52nd and 53rd floors of the Mori Tower offering specatular panoramic views of Tokyo.