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Today my friend Yeka and I went to see the Yoshitomo Nara exhibition at Takashi Murakami's gallery Kai Kai Tiki in Motoazabu, Tokyo.
The show spans the 30 years of his career from 1998 to present. The change in Nara's style is most singularly present in the first 5 years (1988-1993) with the Nara's early work on show being heavily influenced by Jean Michael Basquiat's style. I guess Nara saw in Basquiat's works what would also become central to his own works for the rest of his artistic career - lone heroic figures who hold within them something darker and animal in their nature. This show is great for any Yoshitomo Nara fan, the collection is sizeable and the span of 30 years is really great as it enables the visitor to view single (famous) pieces within the time frame of their creation and while the emphasis from the gallery and Murakami is that this is a non commercial show their are still pieces in the show that are for sale, you just need to know who to ask...... 
Little Thunder has a Tokyo show starting today. The venue (POPOTAME) is about a 10 minute walk from Ikebukuro
(try and check out the Frank Loyd designed Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan school, it's a 1 minute detour). The show has most (not all) of the original art pieces taken from the pages of Little Thunders latest book (see my instagram embed below). I managed to get quite a long chat in with Little Thunder and the lady responsible for bringing LT over from Hong Kong for this show. Their relationship goes back 20 years and is really sweet. Make sure you check out the selection on comics that Little Thunder has created over the years, it'll give you more of an understanding of how hard she's worked to get where she is today. The originals are available for sale as well as originals from her tomb of a book on pole dancers that came out last year. Check the website >>POPOTAME<< for times and stuff. The store also has a good selection of comics. books & gallery POPOTAME 2-15-17,Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku,Tokyo 03-5952-0114 
Volume 3 of Koike Kazuo and Yoshitani Keiji’s High School Student Ruffian (1971-73). Seinen manga’s favorite teenage rapist finds himself in the countryside privy to the shooting of a porn film. At first he waxes poetic about the chase scene he witnesses: “The contrast of black and white upon the snowy wilderness . . . the aesthetics of a fashion-conscious rape!” But when the male lead falters, this phony rape play fills him (a seasoned vet of the real thing) with disdain. He convinces the director to hire him instead. Take one: he tears off the woman’s clothing too quickly for the camera. When the director reprimands him, he retorts with a detailed explanation about how getting a woman’s panties off quickly is rule one for a successful assault. Take two: his perfect choreography and blocking make it clear to the directors that he is no amateur. The female lead cries desperately when he tries to penetrate her – crossing the line from performance to reality. He’s surprised to find her vagina blocked with a rubber strip. After all, he might be a pro, but he’s not an actor. After the director pays him for a job well done and sends him on his way, he privately complains about his manhood being used like a commodity and disses the woman’s lack of authentic humanity. Requiring satisfaction, he dupes the woman into giving him a ride back to the city under the ruse of wanting to discuss the “logic and aesthetics of rape” with an intelligent creature like herself. Citing Plato, he convinces her that rape is only the natural extension of a man’s right to decide when and with whom he will have sex, his right to rectify a reality that doesn’t match with his desires. “Rape is the only way for a man to regain his subjectivity from a woman,” he explains in conclusion, before doing just that to her in the driver’s seat of her car. Well done, Koike Kazuo! Happy to see you are putting your knowledge of Western philosophy and (as in volume 2) radical leftwing political discourse to constructive use. Our hero shrugs his shoulders at the end, because for a good ole boy like him it’s all just a joke. Follow Ryan's Instagram and view the original text and further photographs over at >>> @mangaberg <<<  I will be going to this show on Friday. Expect further photographs if I can get away with it. Below are the details from the gallery website. The two photographs below are from (Yoshitomo's twitter feed.)   A Message from Takashi MurakamiKaikai Kiki Gallery is pleased to announce the representation of Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959), one of the finest artists representing contemporary Japan. We will be presenting two solo exhibitions of his work in 2018 at our gallery space in Motoazabu, Tokyo, as well as featuring his work at our special solo exhibition booth at Art Basel Hong Kong. (Incidentally, 2018 is Kaikai Kiki Gallery’s tenth anniversary milestone!)
Although our artistic expressions manifest themselves differently, Nara and I agree that we share spirituality as artists. At Kaikai Kiki Gallery, then, we plan to present his work in a way the artist finds unique among his commercial galleries; one in which Nara looks back on his own trajectory so far and reaffirms his core values as an artist. For the past thirty-odd years since his debut in 1984, Nara has been standing firm in the art scene with his unique position, carrying on his dialogues with people all over the world using his distinctive grammar. While it is his work’s proximity to Japanese manga and kawaii culture that is often noted, he has in fact been cultivating empathy with people from all walks of life through his profound knowledge of music and its grammar, East and West alike. As a result, he has a wide fan base that includes those who are not particularly familiar with art in addition to hard core art aficionados. His popularity in Asia is especially tremendous, and its powerful effect can be observed in heated auction results. As though finding the overheated market distasteful, however, in the past few years Nara has avoided public appearances and his recent style indicates his increasing withdrawal into his own world. Having said that, in November 2017 he opened N’s YARD, a space that showcases, among other things, his own work as well as his cherished collections and records, in Nasushiobara, a resort area in central Japan, and is starting to explore a newly distinctive style of communication. Our task in representing Nara at Kaikai Kiki Gallery, we believe, is to assist him realize his complex thoughts and wishes in a tangible manner in the market. To be specific, we hope to divert his attention away from his repulsion toward resellers and allow him to once again freely communicate with his true fans. Our hope, that is, for Nara to spread his wings of imagination to their absolute fullest. Such is our aspiration as Kaikai Kiki Gallery starts to represent Yoshitomo Nara. Takashi Murakami A Message from the ArtistOkay then, let me write a bit about drawing. Looking back to when I was little, I recall myself preferring to draw with a single pencil. I think I was able to draw whatever I wanted with a pencil. Maybe all children are like that. It didn’t matter where I drew. I did it during classes, on the side of a street on my way home from school, and of course at home. Drawing, for me, was different from other things like watercolor we were made to paint at school in that I drew things I thought of or wanted to say as though I were putting them in words or letters. Sometimes I did add some words as well, but they weren’t exactly what you’d call a picture diary, either. In any case, for me, these turned out to be the point of origin for my drawing, the practice that I continue to this day. In this show, I am going to survey the panoramic view of my past thirty years, from when I was a student up to the present, contemplating the relationship between drawing and myself, or how I have been getting along with it over time. There are pieces that capture my feelings and thoughts at a given time or momentary ideas I’ve had. Some are accumulations of drawings accompanied by words, and others are simply traces of my hand’s motion holding a pencil. These drawings are done with a pencil or a ball point pen that happened to be there in that moment, in varying techniques, as casually as breathing itself. This is a little, no, quite a bit different from the modes of expressions you learn at art schools; it’s an artistic expression that is an extension of what I have been doing since childhood. Perhaps I wasn’t able to adequately express myself in words. But no, these drawings are filled with smug confidence that a drawing can better convey my feelings than any words can. This exhibition presents such drawings made in the span of thirty years. What kind of place will I end up occupying in art history, I wonder? Perhaps I may leave no mark in history, or maybe my drawings are what I create somewhere removed from such concerns. They are so matter-of-factly private, an “idiotic discharge of emotion” as a certain famous critic once pointed out (what’s wrong with that, anyway?), yet at times they unflappably capture what I had intended to. Yes, that is it. I have been drawing as though I were breathing. Or taking notes. Or thinking. That’s been my past thirty years. And I assume I will continue to do the same on the thirty-first year, thirty-second year, and so forth… yet actually, I also feel that perhaps I am walking, taking photos, or writing increasingly more than drawing these days. That’s why this exhibition, which exposes my thirty years’ worth of sighs and forces me to acknowledge them myself, is extremely meaningful. Whether it’s a sigh or a gasp, a scream, or a yawn, I think I’ll greet my various selves in these drawings as though encountering them on a time machine. “Been a while, my frozen feelings! But I’m not defrosting you guys! I’m just going to keep adding to your buddies!” Yoshitomo Nara  The Spectator Vol. 41 " tsuge yoshiharu " Special Edition of " tsuge yoshiharu "
In Commemoration of "tsuge yoshiharu" (released on February 20), a talk event will be held on the 4th floor of Shinjuku Beams Japan. His performance was "the hot spring research institute" by kaoru iwamoto. Yuichi Chì Tián, a book of books, served as listeners. The "hot spring research laboratory" is a research group that tries to make a tour of hot springs across the country. The first book in which the activities of approximately 10 years have been collected home! The Hot Spring Paradise, which is a hot spring, is now on sale. What kind of organization is the " Hina " which yoshiharu tsuge has drawn on the manga, " the hot spring " that he wrote on the manga, and his book is called " Hina I'm going to tell you about the charm of " Tsuge works," The Tsuge fans will enjoy the hot spring and sento. I'm looking forward to your participation. Talk Guest ● Iwamoto Kaoru (Hina) In 1963, he was born in Tokyo. While he was a copywriter in his profession, he ran the "hot spring research laboratory" on the web magazine. They are interviewed over the hina onsen hot springs throughout Japan. ひなびた温泉研究所ホームページ:http://hina-ken.com Listener: Yuichi Yuichi (the spectator editor) The Spectator Vol. 41 "tsuge yoshiharu" is the main author of the special edition. Endo's politics (Animation Director), Shinzo Takano (the National Art Critic), yuzo tsubouchi (Literary Critic), YAMAGUCHI YAMAGUCHI (a literary critic), sugano yamaguchi (Manga), Kawai Kawai (manga family), bake kawai (Manga), and mullet (net). . "Tsuge Special Edition" Supervisor: Asakawa Asakawa (Gekiga (graphic novel) Researcher / Vintage Audio Import Sales) ＊＊ Event Title: Spectator Vol. 41 " tsuge yoshiharu " Special Edition of " tsuge yoshiharu " (a collection of hot spring and hot springs) Date: February 27, 2018 (Tues) Opening time: 18 o'clock Showtime: 18-thirty End Time: 19 会場：新宿 BEAMS JAPAN 4階 TOKYO CULTUART by BEAMS Shinjuku 3-32-6 4 F, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo Tel ： 03-5368-7328 HP ： http://www.beams.co.jp/beams_japan/ Participation cost: FREE Capacity: 20 people Booking method: I'll accept your reservation on the phone. * Reception time (11 to 20 pm) Phone: 03-5368-7328 "Wow. Koike Kazuo and Yoshitani Keiji’s High School Student Ruffian (1971-73) only gets worse. Volume 2 opens with the hero, Muramasa, successfully infiltrating a radicalized student organization by showing up uninvited to a rumble with the riot police naked but for a fundoshi and a stocking over his head. He needs deeper access to find his brother (a comrade on the lam), so he rapes one of the women in the organization to get her to fall in love with him. The student radicals plan to lynch him for his crime, but he bullshits his way to respect by appropriating their philosophical justifications of violence against the state to argue for the merits of sexual assault. They buy it of course, because years of committed study and struggle are no match for the sophistries of a cocky teenager. And of course she falls for him, because she is a stupid female virgin, and becomes convinced of his phony profession of true love after humiliating himself for her by walking naked with a fish in his mouth through Shinjuku (described as something Buddhist monks once used to do to repent, but clearly a parody of avant-garde street performance). Later chapters have Muramasa ogling low teen gymnasts and fantasizing about them naked, after which he reminisces about the many broken-hearted lovers (rape victims) left in the wake of his adventures. He seduces a graphic designer, a bank teller, and a kendo teacher with lies, faked injuries, mean pranks, and by exposing his genitals. The last image here shows our hero telling readers that if you trap a girl in the snow with her skies on, you’re in for sure, because there’s no way she can move. Mind you: not an ounce of irony or compunction anywhere in the manga. My copy of volume 2 is the 59th printing from 1978 of a book first published in 1972 — a reprinting every six weeks for seven years. Now that’s popularity! When Koike Kazuo was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame, I wonder if the judges knew he was a best-selling advocate of misogyny and rape." Follow Ryan's Instagram and view the original text and further photographs over at >>> @mangaberg <<<  Localisation of Foreign Books - 'GO' - By Chip Kidd - English & Korean publication Comparison Video.2/6/2018 Being a publisher who prints for both The World and Japan I am very interested in the localisation of books for different markets. Today I spotted the book Go by Chip Kidd (Korean edition) so I thought I'd compare the two. The Korean publisher did a pretty good job but can you spot the differences ?  |
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