Tomohito Ushiro’s design features billions of shifting lighting patterns and encourages people to use the restroom without “feeling stress.”
Japan
Posted inFilm
Inu-Oh Infuses a Classical Japanese Tale With Rock ’n’ Roll
Masaaki Yuasa’s latest anime feature embodies a revolutionary spirit in its tale of outcasts breaking ground in medieval Japan.
Posted inFilm
Films to Watch on the 50th Anniversary of Okinawa’s Return to Japanese Rule
From 1968 to 1973, the Nihon Documentarist Union did radical documentary work in Japan. They made two films in Okinawa before, during, and after its reversion.
Posted inFilm
Panda! Go Panda! Classics Make a Delightful Comeback
You don’t have to be an anime-head to appreciate these early-career shorts by the founders of Studio Ghibli.
Posted inNews
A Former Japanese Princess Is Volunteering at the Met
Mako Komuro, who shed her noble title in 2017, is working on a show of Japanese hanging-scroll paintings at the New York museum.
Posted inNews
Tokyo’s World-Renowned Capsule Tower Will Be Demolished
After years of disrepair, architect Kisho Kurokawa’s iconic building will be disassembled one capsule at a time.
Posted inBooks
The Magnificent History of Japanese Screens
An exquisitely illustrated and enlightening new book reveals the screen’s unique role in Japanese history and culture from its origins to the 20th century.
Posted inComics
The Story of Kunihiko Moriguchi, a Master Kimono Painter
Moriguchi, who studied in Japan and Paris, took the influence of Op art and applied it to the traditional art of kimono painting.
Posted inFilm
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Unusual Approach to Filmmaking
The Japanese filmmaker’s international profile has skyrocketed over the past year thanks to his new films Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, both of which are now hitting theaters.
Posted inFilm
In 1940s Japan, a Trophy Wife Becomes a Spy
In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a woman becomes embroiled in exposing Japanese war crimes in Manchuria.
Posted inArt
In Japan, Enormous Straw Sculptures Pop Up After Annual Rice Harvest
The Wara Art Festival was founded as a solution to the Niigata farming community’s excess of unused rice straw.
Posted inNews
A Typhoon Swept This Yayoi Kusama Sculpture Away to Sea
The artwork was installed on a pier on the shore of Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture.