art (Page 63)

Anthropomorphized characters amaze, frighten us, leave us wanting more

Anthropomorphized characters are both incredibly popular and prevalent in Japan, as you’re probably already very aware. From battleships to Japanese companies and municipalities, there’s seemingly nothing that can’t be made human–and probably cute as well! And, perhaps as a challenge to what we assume must be Rule 38 of the Internet–anything can be anthropomorphized and if it hasn’t been anthropomorphized yet, someone will do it–one Japanese Internet user took to 2Chan to request, simply enough, “Images of anthropomorphization, please.”

And the Internet gave him exactly what he wanted, with everything from Lipton Ice tea and Doraemon in sexy/creepy human form to an anthropomorphized version of Monday itself. Click below to see what was on display! (Note: Not all of these images are entirely safe for work.)

Read More

Massive Warhol exhibit visits Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, over 600 works on display

Even before his first visit in 1956, Andy Warhol had been largely well-received by people in Japan. Pieces like “Campbell’s Soup I” are just as easily recognized here as anywhere along with other pieces of the artist’s highly prolific and vast range of work. But with this massive collection stored far away in The Andy Warhol Museum in America it’s been hard for his Japanese fans to experience it all until now.

The museum is taking its collection on a tour of Asia including a three-month stay at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. The exhibit titled Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal boasts nearly 700 pieces of art and film as well as some other exhibits designed to take visitors deep into his world as it existed decades ago.

Read More

Lego brick creations that look good enough to eat

With the right amount of creativity, Lego bricks are the keys to other realms and the building blocks of otherworldly creations. But put in the hands of a spatially challenged, uninspired Lego novice, those little bricks continue to resemble the little pieces of plastic they really are. That’s why it’s so impressive when someone masters the art of building with Lego. Artist, Sachiko Akinaga, is one of those Lego masters and she’s managed to create plastic food that will make you want to take a bite.

Read More

Square Enix announces new Romancing Saga project! Don’t fire up your PS4 just yet though

Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest may be video game developer Square Enix’s two biggest series, but the Saga franchise could make a solid case for the company’s third-most important intellectual property. While the initial title in the series was the Game Boy’s Makai Toshi Saga, or Devil World Tower Saga, the more eloquently named Super NES follow-up, Romancing Saga, is where the series really took off, and 10 games are now counted as part of the Saga saga.

2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the Saga franchise, and in celebration Square Enix is collaborating with a partner that’s at once completely unexpected and totally obvious: Saga Prefecture.

Read More

18 different makeovers for China’s prominent poet

Nothing says fun like defacing one of your country’s beloved historical figures. Queen Elizabeth with a lightning bolt across her face à la glam rock band Kiss, George Washington with a Hilter mustache, and whatever it is that’s going on up in here are just a few examples of the lengths people will go to have a little fun with history.

Even Du Fu, often called the greatest Chinese poet of all time, isn’t immune to the idle hands of creative doodlers. Let’s take a look at 18 different Du Fu makeovers by Chinese artists.

Read More

Artists use SD cards and Febreeze to create Japanese crests for the modern age

There’s a lot of art enmeshed in everyday Japanese life. From the pictographs of the kanji writing system to the aesthetics of traditional practices, it’s easy to take for granted the visual symbolism on which a lot of the culture is based. One of the most striking examples of Japanese design is the kamon, or family crest, used for centuries to signify a family name or clan and often seen on the sleeves of formal kimonos and ceramic roof tiles of traditional homes. It’s estimated that there are as many as 30,000 family crests in Japan, and while many Japanese would struggle to identify a large number of them, some crests, such as the chrysanthemum Imperial crest and the Tokugawa shogunate hollyhock design, are easy to identify.

Artists are now using the digital medium to create a number of new kamon to the delight of netizens nationwide. What makes these unique is the fact that the images inside the crest are not flowers or scenes of nature but more modern logos and tools familiar to us through advertising and the digital age. The crest above, for example, might look like a cross design made up of four stylised rectangles, but if you look closely you’ll see something more commonly used in digital cameras: SD memory cards. Featuring everything from Twitter logos to Febreeze bottles, these unique crests are perfect for the tribes of today.

Read More

00

The 2014 Sapporo Snow Festival【Photo Gallery】

Last year we brought you a firsthand account of the 2013 Sapporo Snow Festival, with more images of snow and ice sculptures than you can get your tongue stuck to. This year, we’re sad to say we couldn’t make it out to the annual event up in Japan’s northernmost prefecture, so we’ve been living vicariously through Twitter users. Some of the images we’ve seen are too good not to share, so we decided to give you a little taste of the snow festival through the following gallery of images from Twitter.

Read More

Beautiful website catalogues some of Japan’s most ornate manhole covers

In most countries, you’d never give a manhole cover a second glance. But in Japan, the designs on those metal disks encircled by cement are surprisingly ornate. Most are so beautiful, you’ll have to be careful not to spend the entire day looking at the ground. Now people all over the world can enjoy Japan’s stompable artwork thanks to Hirake! Manhole, a brand new website showcasing manhole cover art across Japan.

Read More

Unusual flat-pack daruma voted Japan’s most fascinating souvenir

If you’re looking for a unique Japanese gift that’s light in your luggage but heavy in tradition, then this is the item for you. It’s called the KD Daruma (Knock-Down Daruma) and it’s modelled on the centuries-old, round, good-luck talisman which symbolises Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. This modern take on the daruma features a flat-pack design and clever assembly so unusual it’s just been awarded first prize as Japan’s most fascinating souvenir in a competition held by the Japan Tourism Agency. We take a closer look at the details to see what makes this little novelty so charming.

Read More

00

Plastic surgery clinic in Seoul makes art out of patients’ jaw bones

You like sausage, right? Of course you do. But no one ever wants to see how the sausage is made. So why did this plastic surgery clinic in Seoul think it was a good idea to display two towering columns filled with the jaw bones of their past patients? It’s enough to make you rethink your pursuit of the perfect chin.

Read More

Dogo Onsen to exhibit works by famous artists in Japan, let you spend the night in them

At Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, 2014 marks the 120th anniversary of the spa’s main building which stands as a notable landmark of the area. It’s a majestic and traditional building that some say was the inspiration for the bathhouse in Spirited Away.

To celebrate, the surrounding area will be hosting a large scale art exhibition in which the Onsen’s main building and at least ten other hotels and inns will be transformed into works by various modern artists. The actual event will run from 10 April to 31 December of this year, but a sneak peak was held from December of last year involving five prominent Japanese artists: Fujio Ishimoto, Yayoi Kusama, Shuntaro Tanikawa, Akira Minagawa, and Araki Nobuyoshi.

Read More

00

Japanese culture is filled with gift giving, and no gift is more common than the omiyage. Usually translated as “souvenir,” omiyage is a bit broader in usage, encompassing all sorts of travel gift situations. Taking a trip somewhere? Make sure to bring back omiyage for your coworkers. Have friends coming from overseas? You might want to give them some omiyage to remember their trip by. And of course, if those same friends offer to show you around their country, it’s only polite to bring them an omiyage as a show of thanks, if you take them up on their offer.

But what kind of Japanese omiyage from Japan is most likely to be a hit with foreigners? Japanese Internet users offered the following suggestions.

Read More

Talented artist imagines what Game of Thrones would look like in feudal Japan

Having learned the hard way that some TV series exist simply to keep viewers hanging for years (yes, Lost, I am looking at you), I have to admit that I gave the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones a wide berth for quite some time after it first aired. A few months and the contraction of a very nasty cold later, I found myself in bed with a heap of medication, a DVD box-set and little else to do. By the time I was back on my feet, I was a huge fan of the series (and may have run “Game of Thrones blonde girl” through Google a couple of times) and swallowed, along with the last of the medicine, my usual stubborn pride by telling friends that I was ready to join in their nerdy conversations and even read the books that they had all finished with years ago.

Little did I know, though, that the TV show could be made all the more awesome by recreating some of its more memorable scenes in the style of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, with all of my favourite characters looking like they reside in feudal Japan rather than Westeros.

Read More

Fan makes detailed clay figure of Hayao Miyazaki, even his cigarettes look life-like

Hayao Miyazaki has created some of anime’s more memorable characters, winning legions of fans all around the world. As such you would imagine that along with the thousands of pieces of fan art, an aspiring sculptor somewhere would pick up the gauntlet and recreate some of them in three dimensions.

One sculptor answered that call, and set out to make the ultimate Ghibli character from clay: Mr. Miyazaki himself… We hear his friends say he’s “a real character.”

Read More

Cappucino art that’s out of this world: Twitter cappuccino artist shows off his extraterrestrial skills

We’ve seen some pretty cool latte art over the years, but this might be the most, um, unusual we’ve spotted. It’s not exactly cute, but it certainly is out of this world!

From aliens to bunnies to Ghibli’s Catbus, this guy does it all in 3-D foam sculptures atop cups of coffee!

Read More

Ugoita fashions musical umbrellas and game cartridges for your low-fi pleasure

A white Christmas in Osaka is a rare thing and this year was no exception. All week has been back-to-back rainy days – par for the course in this neck of the world. If you happen to live in a similar climate, then these cold and damp days might have you feeling a little bummed out.

To help turn your mood around is a cute little invention by Ugoita. This umbrella has sensors attached that convert the impact of raindrops into tones. However, that’s just one of many unique electronic creations that worked.

Read More

00

Mind-blowing customized PC impossible to use, beautiful to behold

In modding communities of all kinds, there has always been the age-old debate of whether form or function carries more importance. There are plenty of car enthusiasts, for example, who are happy to mod their ride with dozens of cosmetic upgrades that do nothing for performance.

PC modder and artist Hirohito Ikeuchi is happy, apparently, to ignore function altogether, as this steampunk military-themed customized PC proves. The attention to detail in the modded PC is astounding, with life-like figures in fighting poses among steampunk mechs, tanks and even palm trees.

Read More

Offstage: Take a peek into the real lives of cosplayers! 【Photos】

Cosplay is arguably the most popular subculture in Japan. While the costume play community has seen an explosive growth across the globe in recent years, many “normal” people still tend to look at those engaging in the activity with judging eyes; some even think that they’re “weird” for wanting to dress up like their heroes. But the truth is, beneath the elaborate costumes, cosplayers are just as normal as any one of us.

We’ve seen cosplayers without their costumes, but photographer Ching Yee Tan takes a step further by showing us a glimpse of their private lives. If you’ve ever wondered what a hardcore cosplayer’s room looks like, this is your chance to take a peek into one!

Read More

We wish Pokemon trees were real

Just image hundreds of tiny Pikachu leaves raining down on a breezy fall afternoon. Wouldn’t it be awesome? Although science hasn’t come anywhere close to bringing us the tree of our dreams, we can still admire the work of user jakeacarter who posted six different “natural Pokemon” made out of leaves.

Read More

  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 60
  4. 61
  5. 62
  6. 63
  7. 64
  8. 65
  9. 66
  10. 67
  11. 68