EDGY JAPAN - All About Edgy Talents/Products/Locations from Japan

Master of Transforming a Concept into a Matter, Kenichiro Ohara, NIGN

2011-12-19T23:33:01Z

With an extensive knowledge of materials and crafting skills, conceptual words turns into magical outputs.

If a designer's role is to transform a verbal-spoken or text-based concept into some form of a physical matter, Kenichiro Ohara of NIGN is the person to look for. Why this is possible -- because Kenichiro has an extensive knowledge of materials, allowing him to transform a given verbal concept in the best manner with a perfect expression.

"I tend to collect interesting materials that I don't really encounter in my daily life. For instance, a receipt from overseas -- something that is available in some people's daily life. This paper used for the receipt is rarely seem in Japan and that's what makes it special to me. Each sample is carefully stocked in my 'library of materials', and it will ultimately lead to my creations later on."

Kenichiro said.

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Kenichiro's signature works include invitation cards for The Viridi-anne's collections. The Viridi-anne is a fashion brand, initiated and produced by Tomoaki Okaniwa. Just like any other fashion brands, The Viridi-anne holds two collections in Paris annually and Kenichiro is the one behind the creation of the invitation cards. One of the early works was 2009-10 Autumn/Winter Collection. The theme of the collection was "chrysalis" and this was Kenichiro's answer.

"I was looking for a metaphor for the theme. Chrysalis is light, fluffy and the content is somewhat visible from the external skin. What I did was to incorporate these elements into the card. My interest was not to transform the concept into the shape directly. As a designer, it's more like perceiving a concept with my understanding, and output with my filter.

In this case, Kenichiro utilized a waxed sheet. Once folded, the sheet creates visible dents on and they are the constituents of chrysalis. And what's more -- the content, the card, is visible from the envelope.

Ecdysis was 2010 Spring and Summer Collection's theme. Again, in here, Kenichiro didn't try to imitate a shape of insect to a card. He took the essence of ecdysis and transformed it like this:

One of the latest piece, 2012 Spring-Summer Collection's theme was "incomplete" and here's Kenichiro's definition of incomplete.

Every single elements are the constituents of incomplete.

"A sheet of paper is folded unevenly and all the characters were hand written by French, who works for the brand. The typography is the work of me and reflected the incomplete concept."

One amazing fact on all these creations is that most of the production process employs DIY style -- meaning Kenichiro and his colleague from the brand actually hold each paper and shrink the package.

"Since the maximum volume for these type of cards is around 2000, we can get everything done by our hands. But considering what I want to express, this DIY method is the best and only way to accomplish the desired output. It can't be automated with a machine."

For instance, this particular invitation card for DEVOA (another fashion brand based in Tokyo) uses different color on a front and back. Plus, all the letters are printed with gilt. When packaging, Kenichiro wanted the final package to show an essence of gilt, so he folded each piece manually so the external composition can be controlled with his intension.

"It surely is time consuming but this is the ultimate and best solution to produce what the client and I want."

In some way, his creation is like modernized traditional Japanese craftsmanship.

"Many companies are switching their paper-based released to pdf format to minimize the overhead. But with my creations, I want to seek for the expressions that can only be achieved with a feel of material."

If you want the best out of a materialistic expression, now you know who to count on.

Official Website of NIGN, Kenichiro Ohara's design firm: http://www.nign.co.jp/

Redefining Japanese Farming, Yusuke Miyaji

2011-12-04T22:39:37Z

Attempts to connect and rebrand Japanese farming and farmers with multi-facets.

By Og Mori

He was sitting on a bench of open-air part of a restaurant in Roppongi with his brand new Macbook Air. Considering the location and his appearance -- people may deduce that he is a creative director of a nearby creative agency. This person, Yusuke Miyaji, is in fact a farmer and owner of pig farm, "Miyaji Pork".

A pig farmer in Roppongi -- note that Roppongi is a synonym for East Village in New York City and Lan Kai Fong in Hong Kong -- where the actions are taking place every night until the wee hours. What's is a farmer up to this part of the town?

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"Making Tokyo somewhat better place to live -- less congested and people are living more harmoniously -- ideally speaking, an allocation of a farmland in the center Tokyo wouldn't be a bad idea. But from an economical perspective, it won't be a good thing. As an alternative, I can try creating a connection between a big city and a village. This will be a key to revive shrinking Japanese farming system."

Like many other developed countries, Japan has been facing issues like rural city's depopulation, high-aging and dwindling birthrate in the recent years. Most of the farmers are living in rural cities and there is a lack of successors to keep the farming sustainable.

A motivated and a college-educated farmer, Yusuke Miyaji--who also happens to be a son of farmer-- stood up, and decided to tackle the issue. His idea was to make a comprehensive network of young Japanese farmers and utilize each farmer's power to address that farming is cool, vibrant, and high income earning industry. His ultimate goal is to diminish a stereotype of a farmer (hard and low-pay labor, industry with no future) and create a new attitude for agriculture. To initiate such move, Yusuke founded a non-profit organization, "Farmer's sons Network".

"If all the farmer's sons and daughters that are working as a business persons in a city successfully return to their hometown and become a farmer, two problems, depopulation of rural villages and farmer, can be solved simultaneously."

Yusuke calls this initiative "re-farm".

After he has established a network, his next step was to gather all the resources, both manpower and harvests, and run a stylish restaurant. Roppongi-noen (Translates into Roppongi Farmland)" was founded in 2009 and this restaurant acts as a gateway to connect farmers and urban dwellers. In another words, it is acting like a commando center for Farmer's sons Network.

Roppogi Noen Restaurant, in the heart of Roppongi

"In Roppongi Noen, we organize events where farmers and consumers can meet together and share their passions and courage on farming. In recent years, a number of so-called organic restaurants has been increasing in Tokyo, but you can't get to talk to the producers. The harvests and the farmers shouldn't be divided. They should be connected."

Event at Roppongi Noen, where farmers and diners have opportunities to mingle.

Yuskuke passionately speaks about the restaurant.

"Roppogi is also known to accommodate many expats and that makes this part of the town the farthest place from a farming village. But by providing farmers an opportunity to present their harvests through the restaurant, the expats will gain an opportunity to interact with them through what they consume. This is what I call Roppongi's new food culture, where rich and the city" and "fresh harvests and farming village" are merging and coexisting harmoniously."

His re-farming project also extends to the internet. My Farmer is an e-commese site, where customers can purchase the harvests through the internet. What distinguish My Farmer from the rest is that its emphasis is put on the communication between two parties -- seller and buyer.

"Each customer can check and comment on a farmer's blog, just like you do on Facebook. Through this interaction, I believe a sense of trust building occurs. In Japan, many of organically produced vegetables in supermarkets tend to be labeled with each farmer's name. But what can you deduce from the name? Can it be an evidence to proof that it is authentically organic? The answer is, of course, no. My Farmer is a gateway to create a semi-face-to-face communication, which ultimately leads to a trust between consumers and producers."

Yusuke's passion for the farming continues from many perspectives.

Miyaji Pork Official Website: http://www.miyajibuta.com/

Sense of "Greatness" over "Coolness", Shunsuke Umiyama, microWorks

2011-11-06T23:00:44Z

Products you literally want to buy them keep them.

Place yourself in a supermarket, furniture store, or any other retail outlet. What factors are contributing you to actually "buy" something? Is it design? Is it price? Or is it conformity with a product, which naturally emerges from you?

A product designer, Shunsuke Umiyama of microworks, is the one, who is so good at producing products that belong to the latter reason to purchase -- a conformity factor.

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Shunsuke revels his inner thoughts, and continues.

"If you are a decent designer, I don't think it's that hard to create products that people perceive 'cool' or 'interesting'. When I am to create something, my focus is always on its practicality -- do I want to have it and use it. A sense of down to earth-ness is important to judge whether a creation is really required in our lives."

A product, 4° is a bookshelf. What's so 4° about it -- the shelves are inclined by 4 degrees.

If you look at a so-called perfect bookshelf, which you can witness on a magazine, all the books are perfectly aligned, and are perpendicular to the shelf. But where in the world do you find such shelf in an ordinary life?

Ideal Bookshelf

Bookshelf in Reality

To incorporate this gap of reality and ideal into design, Shunsuke produced 4°, a shelf that is designed to accommodate the reality of how the books are stored, and yet, the books are all stored in a great manner.

"4 degrees was an optimum angle to make it look natural and yet, you don't need any book end to keep the books up straight."

Shunsuke grins.

A similar principle was applied to Book Box, where the books are designed to look in the most natural form. They are stored in many angles, just like you see on many shelves.

Here's another product that shows Shunsuke's unique perspective as a designer. Designing something that people tend to ignore. Who could have thought of designing a string that ties an umbrella together? Shunsuke has come up with a design of the string -- mimicking a string as a flying squeal. Take a look at a product, Tail.

"An animal needed to have a long body so the umbrella can be tied together. After going through a number of ideal animals, a flying squeal was the one that qualified the requirement."

The blockbuster of this summer was a Fanhat, a hat that combines a design of traditional Japanese fan and hat.

"I've witnessed many people waving himself with a hat on a street, so I decided to make a hat that is more functional to such situation."

All of Shunsuke's unique and smart products are derived from his meticulous observations. As he claims, "It's so fun to overhear people's conversation and watch people on the street, because you can acquire so much information and realizations. In that sense, I usually come up with unique ideas when I am out, rather than sitting in front of my desk. I simply love to add a ''spice of design' to routine and mundane acts."

His design philosophy is condensed into this prototype product -- a wine glass. This wine glass, titled Flamingo, is a collaborative model with a glass craftsman in Toyama.

"A wine glass is consisted from 3 parts -- bowl, stem, and plate. In order to implant a 'story' on this structure, I've extrapolated the glass to a flamingo." Stem is her foot and plate is ripple on a pond.

What will Shunsuke be designing next? It will surely be something that surrounds us and put you a grin on your face.

microworks Official Website: http://www.microworks.jp/

Library of Creative Expressions, Baku Maeda

2011-10-26T23:08:25Z

Baku Maeda is much more than an illustrator.

Though people call him or define his profession as an illustrator, his outputs extend well beyond its definition. Baku Maeda, a Sapporo-based illustrator and beyond, is a man with a full of wicked expressions.

Speaking solely on his illustrations -- his touches and tones are extremely diverse -- as if each piece is drawn by different illustrators.

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As Baku claims, "I simply love to move my hands and seek for expressions." Daily fiddling with fingers and hands is consistently pushing the envelope of his creative expressions.

To site a few examples -- this particular work, Baku attempted to use a glue gun to express a character's tear. A great incorporation of his illustration and an external tool.

Also, this piece is a utilization of two windows and two illustrations. Two separate illustrations were drawn on each window and when the windows, or the illustrations, are superimposed, a whole new expression emerges.

Within the definition of "fiddling with hands", Baku also creates psuedo-illustration works.

Shadow of a bottle = King

Pine cone x Eyes

As Baku says, "All the fiddling and random illustration works are the source of new expressions in the future. When I have something in my mind I just make one -- create and visualize."

This trait ultimately lead to RIBBONESIA, a ribbon-made accessories. (featured on EDGY JAPAN)

More and more Baku's creative expressions to come in the future.

Baku Maeda's Website: http://www.bakumaeda.com
Baku Maeda's Tumblr: http://bakumaeda.tumblr.com/

Make Music Like Cooking, Miyauchi Yuri

2011-10-18T01:00:09Z

Process of Music Creation, Revealed.

Though a composer is not intended, it just makes its listeners so damn happy and cheering. Also, it surely is a good pump-up music for work out and treadmill running at a gym. Yuri Miyauchi (Yuri is his first name and Miyauchi is his last name. As a musician, he is credited as Miyauchi Yuri, but for the convenience, EDGY JAPAN refers him as Yuri), a man behind the creation of such tone, simply admits, "This trait of composition is something that I can't explain logically. I have this habit for creating such tones. Plus, I'm not good at creating dark-doomed songs and I simply don't like them."

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What's more interesting is that Yuri's composition and the world behind its creation is so original, and there is no distinct music category that classifies his genre. It seems this fact is coherent with his composition processes.

"When I compose I tend not to use music instruments that add flavor to the composition. For instance, if you play a steel pan, no matter how you play, its composition will end up with a flavor of Carribian. Same for shamisen -- the composition will represent orient, or Japan."

if that's the case, in order to maintain "neutral-ness" of his tones, what does he play?

"I like the sounds, created in our daily activities -- sound of dishes hitting each other, whistling, etc.."

You'll notice these tones on his compositions and live performances.

宮内優里 / miyauchi yûri (acostic set) @ 札幌 FURNITURE DESIGN AGRA 2010.11.7 #2

What is more interesting about Yuri is that you get to witness his process of music making -- just like Yan Can Cook in cooking. Yuri broadcasts Honjitsu no Onngaku "Today's Music", a 1.5 to 2 hours long USTREAM live broadcast that attempts to create/improvise a song from scratch within this time frame.

"This attempt began when my friend was giving me a hair cut at my house. The sound, created by his scissors, was somewhat rhythmical and I created a little sound note with this. My friend loved this process and I realized that this act can be made public -- that's how Minna no Ongaku gave birth."

Scissors x Yuri Miyauchi

With amusing and interesting approach to his music, Yuri characterizes his music like this.

"People sometimes refer my music as 'a laboratory of music'. I think this is an interesting expression of my world and I tend to agree. "

Wait up for more of his neutral yet distinctive world of Yuri.

Yuri Miyauchi's Official Website: http://www.miyauchiyuri.com/

The interview clip in Japanese by LiFETONES.
Featured article of LiFETONES on EDGY JAPAN.

Designing from Daily Deeds, fift

2011-10-12T21:50:12Z

All ideas from what we do and how we behave naturally.

Conceptualizing and materializing ideas from our daily deeds. There aren't many creators that are skilled enough to produce such output, but fift, a husband-wife-Okayama-based design studio, considers themselves that it's their expertise.

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Katsunari Igarashi, the husband, said.

Let's site visual examples to understand the philosophy of fift.

If you are wearing eye-glasses, you must have wiped dirty surface of glasses on the bottom-edge of your shirt in the past. When this conventional deed is in a hand of fift, it turns out to be like these:

Shirts, above titled "wipe shirt", and bottom titled "wipe T shirt", are designed in a way that they also accommodate the wiping function of your glasses.

The black part, the wiping part, is made with a felt-like microfiber and this surface is an ideal material for wiping glass/plastic surfaces. As for the wipe T shirts, three curved stripes, which signify its design, as well as the wiping function, are designed to align with a movement of a car wiper.

"These shirts may be considered or categorized as a 'unique' product -- something that makes people laugh. But as a designer, we meticulously designed each element so that our natural deeds are naturally translated into a product."

Asami Igarashi, the other half of the fift, said.

fift's other line up, "pick a jewel", is definitely worth noting to understand the design studio's style further.

"There are tons of flower-based accessories in the market. Each flower is given some sort of treatment -coating is one example - to shape it as a product. But I came to realize that the virgin-form of flower itself is beautiful, and I thought about a way to utilize natural flower as a wearable accessory. This is the starting point o pick a jewel."

Asami said.

Its answer -- a hook. On the hook, one can pick "a flower du jour" -- then, clip it and wear it. Just like you pick a flower on your routine walk to a garden everyday.

Aside from the design approach, what distinguishes between fift and the others is that fift actually manages the production and sales of each product. As Katsunari admits, "We are not only designers -- we are more like a small manufacturer." fift is capable of putting their ideas into the final products.

"Though each lot in not a large sum, this system allows us to create exactly what we want."

Katsunari added, and continues with fift's future vision.

"As mentioned earlier, all of our works are based on our daily life, and so far, most of the outputs happened to be in a form of product. Ever since we've relocated to Okayama in July (fift was based in Tokyo before.) we felt a strong sense of community -- people, town, and society. With this regard, our output in the future may not be restrained to product -- it could be infrastructure."

fift's products are available from novelax online store.

fift's official website: http://fift.jp/

Expressionist of Reality, Yoi Kawakubo

2011-10-05T14:30:32Z

Purification of the world through lens of camera.

Ever questioned what you are seeing right in front is not reality, or what you are assuming as a common sense is not regarded as it is ---- all is regarded as a representation of contradiction? (The idea, similar to the one proposed on a movie, The Matrix.) In some way, an artistic work, sometimes referred as an expression of imaginative and extrapolation of our daily life, provides this new insight, or an alternative view of the world.

Yoi Kawakubo, a philosophy/psychology-backed photographer, creates a photographic world that allows people to witness the core of, somewhat purified, world of ours.

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"Why restaurant chains, Denny's and Wendy's are pronounced as it is (dennys and wendys), but Jonathan's is pronounced as Jonathan in Japanese?"

"When you cook a slice of beacon for a while, it will eventually cooks itself by its own fat. I think this is ironic."

If you don't pay attention or even realize these negligible deeds -- well, the life goes on and it won't affect your life substantially. But once you begin to notice these glitches, you may also wonder the validity of what you are seeing and capturing with your eyes -- are they really representing the real aspect of the world? Or not?

Yoi's photographic works somewhat provide an alternative perspective to our daily life, allowing people to perceive the world with a different manner. Once you are exposed to such world, you may begin to wonder that the world you are witnessing with your eyes is merely one of many perspectives.

Take a look at two work series, Between Heaven and Hell, and Waterfront. Between Heaven and Hell was captured at Mt. Fuji and Osorezan (located in Aomori, known as a holy mountain). Waterfront was captured in New York City. Though two series were captured at two distinctively different locations, these two possess similar impressions -- providing Yoi-led alternative perspective.

From Heaven and Hell

From Heaven and Hell

From Heaven and Hell

Waterfront

Waterfront

Waterfront

Both images are eliminating so-called "noise" of the world -- purifying the objects that are captured within the frame.

When questioned his philosophy behind his photographic works, "I personally like meta-structure. I studied philosophy back in university and the reason for liking this subject is that it's a 'study of study'. My the other interest, brain science, is also about 'study of brain by using brain'. To me, photography lies on these analogy. I considering photography as a way of living. and I continue to live, because there exists a way of living -- photography.

Yoi said.

When asked about his future works, Yoi said, "Ive' been capturing images that eliminates the existence of human being. But now I feel like capturing a humane being now. Though its release to the public won't be any soon, I do have some ideas."

Fingers crossed for Yoi's human approach, which surely be as amusing as the current ones.

Yoi Kawakubo Official Website: http://www.yoikawakubo.com/

New Definition of Japanese Aesthetics, wabisabi

2011-09-27T14:11:06Z

Wabisabi with New Interpretation

According to Wikipedia, an aesthetic term, "wabi-sabi", is defined as, "one of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence specifically impermanence, the other two being suffering and emptiness or absence of self-nature."

Surely, it sounds so much like a typical representation of Japanese aesthetics.

Today, let EDGY JAPAN introduce you a new definition of this term.

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"For me, all the great influences -- whether it is fashion or coolness or design -- came from music." Ryohei "wabi" Kudo, one of the founders of wabisabi said.

This music root --so called a source of dynamism in their creations-- is surely taken into an account of their creations. This dynamism of wabisabi is perfected with obsession of details. Kazushi "sabi" Nakanishi, the other half of the founder, is a man of detail -- conducting an extensive research on each object that the duo is going to tackle with.

With this background of wabisabi on your mind, let's explore their world of creations.

Each guitar, expressed on a drawing, is based on the possession of famous professional Japanese guitarists, Char, Tamio Okuda, and Masayoshi Yamazaki. The fluidic lines, which consist the drawing, seem to be "audible" when you put your ear right next the drawing.

"We actually visited a dressing room of each guitarist, and made measurements of each guitar comprehensively -- this is literally everything. From the length of neck to pickup, width of each string, etc. If you are to make measurements with a printed image, the proportion of the guitar will be inaccurate because of the lens of a camera is convex."

Kazushi "sabi" Nakanishi said.

This fluidic-line-and-detail-technique is also utilized on another poster. This piece was created for Nike -- with a conjunction of Beijing Olympic in 2008.

An advertisement work for AIR DO, Hokkaido-based airline company, also illustrates wabisabi's dynamism and meticulousness.

During the summer season, Hokkaido attracts many music festivals, and hence, many youngsters. In order to brand AIR DO to such audience, Wabisabi's creative solution was to mock a plane into a guitar -- Flying V. (Also known as a signature model of Michael Schenker.)

The other piece, AIR DO with a speaker set, is an art of wabisabi.

"Since AIR DO utilizes the maximum flying time out of its operation, we were only given 30 minutes to get the shoot done. Though we brought all the equipments in, we simply measured the size ratio of the plane and equipments, and utilized CG-works to put these two together."

Ryohei "wabi" said. Such meticulous work can't be achieved without an extensive background of the detail.

The other renowned work by Wabisabi includes, hormone type face. Pretty rocking.

This typeface led to a collaboration with Hello Kitty. The work was exhibited in Hong Kong.

"wabisabi's creations are all emerged from non-client work. In another words,they are all the product of our fun activities. But sometimes, clients see these fun-oriented creations and employ them as a client-led project. In order to maintain these freshness and edginess, I think maintaing the idea of "work is fun and fun is work" is important in our creation."

Ryohei "wabi" said.

Left: Ryohei "wabi" Kudo / Right: Kazushi "sabi" Nakanishi

wabisabi Official website: http://www.deza-in.jp/wabisabi.html

Real Animal World, Futaba.

2011-08-13T02:41:01Z

Futaba. + 2-D animal expressions = Vivid, lively animals, emerging from a sheet of paper.

As a design unit, an annual pass to Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo is an essential tool to get their work done. They make a stop to the zoo once a week for their "observations".

Futaba., a Sapporo-based creative unit, consisting of Miyako Kodama, a deisgner/illustrator and Hirotoshi Fukuda, an art director/planner, falls into this rather unprecedented category.

Futaba. is known for producing vivid and lively animal-related creative outputs -- as if each animal is about to move or emerge from a sheet of paper. Why such expression is capable -- that's all because Futaba. is meticulously observing the objects -- animals/insects.

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"When we brainstorm to build up a concept of each 2-D work, we tend to use movies as reference materials. In another words, the object --in many cases, animals--- are moving in our mind, and we're trimming a segment of it and applying into 2-D expression. It's a matter of which "scene" we are going to "extract" for our 2-D work."

Hirotoshi said, and Miyako continues.

"When I actually put very first dot on a plain paper, I employ an idea of creating a motion picture. I tend to imagine "2 frame ahead' of what I am drawing. By doing so, the output of my 2-D works tend to 'move' within a viewer's brain -- giving lively and vivid images."

The reality of Futaba.'s animal expression is also attributed to the way Futaba. observes the world. This is noticeable on a creation of, jogjog.com × art 2009 Calendar. An extensive research --from an animal's perspective-- was conducted behind this creative work.

"When I decided to draw a frog as one of the elements on the calendar, I went around the town and took pictures from frog's eyes -- taking them from the surface of ground. With this attempt, I've also come to realize that the color of ajisai flower's color (hydrangea)" is so diverse and vivid. This is depended on the constituents of minerals within soils, and I tried to include these outputs of the observation in the context of my work."

Miyako said.

This prototype piece, a diary, is an attempt to put our--human being's-- time perspective into an animal's format. An animal is assigned for each month, and its process of life, from the birth to growth, is portrayed.

"Depending on how we look at it -- we tend to perceive that a month is somewhat short, and long. When this time frame is applied to an animal's perspective, we can come to understand its significance."

Hirotoshi said.

Though Futaba.'s works seem so versatile and deliberate, providing many perspectives and new findings, they have more to explore in the coming future.

"Through out works, we'd like to express animal's inner strength and we don't think we've approached that stage yet. Perhaps, a trip to Africa may help to grasp their instincts."

Miyako laughed.

Futaba.'s necessity could be substituted to a plane ticket to the continent of Safari in the near future.

Futaba. Official website: http://www.futabafutaba.org/

All photos, by supernovastudio & minaco: http://minacophoto.blogspot.com/

Human Observing Photographer, Tsubasa Fujikura

2011-08-02T02:30:01Z

With his filter, a scenery somewhat becomes a portrait.

"Anybody can see it. But he's the only one who can capture it."

Tsubasa Fujikura, a Sapporo based photographer, labels himself like this, and how true this is.

What he captures is not just what you see with your eyes, which is a plain scenery. He also captures -- this is where his talent comes in -- existence of human being behind the scenery.

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Each image is beautifully captured and it is extremely impressive. But according to Tsubasa, there is more to it.

"It is true that I like capturing expansive objects, but in fact, what I am capturing is people, spotted at each location. As the theme suggests, it's the grand sum of people's emotions."

Luxury Liner / Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan 2009 (Click to enlarge)

Ski site study 02 / Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan 2008 (Click to enlarge)

Public apartment complex study 03 / Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan 2004 (Click to enlarge)

After coming across with the photographer's intension, each image has a different look now. What it used to be called a "landscape image" is now also defined as a "portrait of the mass". The image is now expressing organic -- humane matters.

This "emerging perspective" is also reflected on Tsubasa's another series of work.

A series, "It actually is a neon-lighting" is capturing one of Japan's scenic symbols, neon-lighting. With his signature magic --"Anybody can see it. But he's the only one who can capture it."-- an ubiquitous neon lighting now emits new perspective -- humanity.

Hotel Story of Shibuya Town (Click to enlarge)

Salon "Pretty Girl" (Click to enlarge)

Lotte Chewing Gum (Click to enlarge)

Coca-Cola (Click to enlarge)

"The biggest finding through capturing a neon lighting was that each piece is hand-made -- just like a meticulously made craftwork. When each piece is observed carefully, one can understand that each light tube is also hand-made and the way tubes are connected to create each letter differs distinctively by each lighting. Through this observation and finding, each craftsman's taste and personality emerges." Tsubasa said.

This trait is noticable on Ozeki piece. Ozeki is a Japanese sake brand and when this piece was captured from Tsubasa's eyes and hands -- one can come to realize the masterpiece of its detail -- as if it is a work of calligraphy. "I believe that this particular craftsman has some sort of knowledge on calligraphy." Tsubasa added.

Ozeki (Click to enlarge)

After all, no matter what he captures, Tsuasa's artistic works lead to humanity.

"One of the philosophies that I have been raising on my photographic work is to capture humane feeling and a sense of human breath. I also value a sense of "indirectness" -- afterglow. When someone is to feel something its vividness is enhanced when interacted indirectly -- say, a scent of someone's perfume or warmth of a seat after she has left -- this invisible trait is more striking than actually interacting with the object. I value these senses.

Tsubasa said, and continues.

"I've traveled domestically to capture neon lightings from other cities. I'd love to travel to Hong Kong to extend my neon series. I'm extremely curious to find out how Hong Kong-made lighting are structured and what kind of humanity will it emerge through my photography. "

Tsubasa' Fujikura's Official Website: http://www.airbags.jp/photo/index.html

Art Aid Action Charity Exhibition by Shinseido, Tokyo Art Fair (07/29-07/31)

2011-07-26T09:24:53Z

Shinseido Art Gallery, one of the regulars at Art Fair Tokyo, is hosting a fund raising exhibition at the fair.

Art Fair Tokyo, one the biggest art trade shows in Japan, will be held from July 29 to 31. 133 art galleries around the world will congregate at Tokyo International Forum for the annual show.

]]> Osamu Watanabe, Yoi Kawakubo) and traditional (Hiroshi Senju) art pieces, will hold Art Aid Action - charity exhibition to raise fund for the great quake victims.

17 renowned artists, Yutaka Abe , Suzu Ishii, Kyoko Imagawa , Yoshihiro Iwasako, Takeshi Uchibayashi, Akio Omori, Yuji Kanamaru, Yoi Kawakubo, Kaoru Kan, Maso Sai, Tokuro Sakamoto, Sota Sato, Momoka Sugahara, Kazuyuki Takishita, Yoshuya Hakuta, Aki Yamamoto, and Osamu Watanabe contributed her/his piece for this memorable venue.

100% of the profit from this auction proceeds to the victims through a thirty party organization.

Yoi Kawakubo

Akio Omori

Tokuro Sakamoto

Yoshihiro Iwasako

Sota Sato

Yuji Kanamaru

Art Fair Tokyo Official Website

Associating Memory of Teens, School Girl Complex

2011-07-21T03:52:50Z

Adolescent Memories, Revisited.

Call it an edgy expression of female sexuality without nudity. School Girl Complex is a work of Yuki Aoyama, also famously known as the creator of Solaryman. Though both works employ "an unique icon of Japan" as a photographic object (Solaryman: Japanese salaryman with his suit on. School Girl Complex: female high school/middle school student with her uniform on.) the philosophy behind these two creations differs distinctively.

"In Solaryman series, I tried to capture each salaryman without putting any emphasis on his body part. This method allows a viewer to grasp each salaryman's individual character from a macroscopic perspective. Whereas, in School Girl Complex series, I challenged to wash away the photo object's individual character, and attempted to focus on iconic body parts -- say, leg, thigh, neck, etc."

Yuki said.

As far as the focus of each body part goes, all the School Girl Complex pieces have no face.

"By eliminating the face--creating an anonymous figure, a viewer can associate each photo piece with his/her memory. A delusion is a keyword in here -- creating a flashback of the bittersweet days back in his/her teens. A void -- in someways, the missing face, is filled with the delusion or the memory."

The School Girl Complex is also popular among the female audiences. It seems that they tend to perceive Yuki's cutting-edge composition as "kawaii" or "cute."

This is no pornography, but an unique expression of feminine with an edgy twist.

EDGY JAPAN's Article on Solaryman

Yuki Aoyama's Website http://yukiao.jp/

Resonance with Our Daily Deed, FROLICFON

2011-07-14T04:00:45Z

His sound creation = Coherent with our life.

Whatever you're doing, his creation -- sound -- synchronizes harmoniously with you. Whether you're driving, cooking, eating, or commuting, the sound flows along with your deed. Why -- it's because his sound, which is a collective of multiple sound sources, reflects what you see and do at any given moment.

This synchronic sound is created by a sound artist, Keiichi Sugimoto. Keiichi is also known as Frolicfon, and Frolicfon mainly leads 2 separate sound projects, FourColor and FilFla.

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"I've been always thinking what it takes to create a flow of sound from each note. FourColor is a journey to seek and extend possibility of its expression."

Keiichi says.

Keiichi uses a guitar when creating sound as FourColor. But it's not all about plucking 6 strings.

"Plucking is one of the ways to produce sound. What I do is to extend the possibility of a guitar as a sound source -- for instance, hitting a guitar's body like a drum, knocking pickups, and plugging on and off a cable from a guitar."

Keiichi adds.

Bleach Black, FourColor

FilFla, the other sound project, puts emphasis on a composition of live sound, employing an extensive usage of a guitar, sound track, drum, and horns. In this project, human voice --vocal part-- is also treated as a part of sound.

"Human voice is employed on some of the songs, but I treat it more of a sound expression instead of a meaningful verbal message. My usage of vocal on FilFla can also be described as scat singing -- the vocal is treated as melody, instead of voice. I like to compile a wide variety of sound sources, and put them into a sound composition."

Ungrid, FilFla

When hearing Keiichi's creations with both eyes closed, many scenes emerges internally from the listener. Such moment is often described as, "A world that coexists quietness and saltation / softness and strongness / ups and downs." In some way, it's a mirror image of our daily lives. After realizing this uniqueness of his sound and the same sound is heard while walking down a street, the sound and scenery synchronize -- each step on the street is in sync with a beat -- sometimes, even amplifying and softening what you see and feel.

"Some people claim that when its raining my sounds are really in-tune with the surrounding."

Keiichi says. But whether it's sunny, or cloudy, or snowy, or windy -- there will surely be new surprises in the world with his sounds on. Now, let's grab you iPod and hit streets.

FROLICFON's Website : http://www.frolicfon.com/

Total, Comprehensive Designer, Yoh Komiyama

2011-07-05T06:37:15Z

Concepts and philosophy first -- Designing beyond orthodox design.

What it takes to win a global design competition, which attracted 4,758 entries from 52 countries? Its answer is to drift away from the given assignment for a moment, and observe the "core issue" of the competition. That is to extrapolate the "design" element of the competition and analyze, "Why is this company holding this competition? What does the organizer want to achieve through the competition?"

Yoh Komiyama, a designer and design consultant, is the one, who is capable of producing the "total design" -- not only designing a sole product, but also structuring the significance of the product when it hits the market.

In 2006, Yoh won the Gold Prize of MUJI AWARD International Design Competition 01, a MUJI organized global design competition. The theme was "sumi (angle)" and many entrants, including the other prize winners, proposed a straight-forward products with a concept of edge, corner, and square. But Yoh's output was a pure concept-based work.

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His work, titled Nukegara -- A Cast Off Skin, is a conceptual electric power code, which promotes conservation of energy by plugging off a cable when not in use. A white cable is a real socket, connected to an apparatus. The colorless one --referred as an exuvia-- is to be plugged in when the apparatus is not in use. The exuvia protects dusts coming into the socket graphically and physically.

This product itself may be perceived as a funny "this is cool lol" gadget. But what differentiates Nukegara from a simple gadget is its concept and philosophy behind its creation -- "There is a story." Yoh, says.

"The very first thing I did for the competition was to think about the significance and meaning of MUJI AWARD. The competition was not expecting us to create an extension of the current product line up. (If they want that, they can simple use a number of MUJI in-house designers.) My conclusion was to design and idealize our not-too-distant future through our proposals. As many people are aware, a brand, MUJI, is successful because the consumers support each product's background behind its creation. In that sense, my proposal for the competition must retain some sort of philosophy or concept, which is attached to our day-to-day life."

Yoh chose a word, "affluence" as a philosophy behind his creation. (Because all of MUJI products are somewhat created to provide affluence in our lives.) With this foundation, he finally focused onto design, and the word, "sumi, or angle".

"In these days, an environmental issue has been gaining a strong attention from the world. I thought that solving such issue results affluence in our lives. Plus, the process of creating affluence becomes more motivating and exciting when some sort of humor is involved. With these basis and the concept of sumi, I decided to create a new conceptual electric plug that enlightens and promotes an act of conservation of energy -- that's how Nukegawa was born."

Regardless to say, an outlet is frequently located on the corner --sumi-- of the room, and an idea of having a "fake plug" is treated a source of humor. (Imagine the situation when some sees this exuvia plug attached.)

Through this project, Yoh has not only come up with a product for affluence -- he has pushed the envelope of MUJI's design philosophy.

Similar approach was employed for Machida Sogo High School project. In the beginning, Yoh was asked to design a brochure for the school.

"The object of creating a brochure was, regardless to say, to publicize the school. " Yoh recalls.

Yoh had a meeting with the headmaster to gain the better understanding of the school. After an hour of conversation, Yoh came to realize that a simple brochure design won't allow the school to effectively publicize the school. Instead, the total design of the school --logo, uniform, typeface--- is more adequate to achieve the primary goal.

On the next meeting, Yoh brought a whole package of school branding scheme, which include its log, typeface, and even uniform. The headmaster was impressed with the proposal, and assigned him as the creative director of the school's brand images.

This is the logo Yoh came up. Quite unusual one for a public school.

"This square shape is somewhat incomplete -- this is a portlayal of a student when entered at Machiso. The educational policy of Machiso is to build a foundation for students to be the ones they want to be in the future. The incomplete square is to be shaped to the perfect square through 3 years of education.

From the end of 2011, Yoh is planning to relocate himself to Shanghai, exercising his total design practice in China. How does his design practice converge with the local influences -- it'll surely be an edgy and distinctive, just like his past outputs.

Flying Has Changed My Life -- Solaryman

2011-06-30T10:30:01Z

Representation of "negative" -- Japanese salaryman, converting into a superstar

Through out the history of human being, an act of "flying" has been noted as one of the "top wish lists". Back in 1903, the Light Brothers became the very first human being to crack the list -- flying with a glider.

In the early 20th century, flying with an aid of machinery was considered impossible. Many scientists and engineers supported the idea of Simon Newcomb, an American mathematician and astronomer, "Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible." But the Brothers successfully flew over the heads of skepticism.

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Now, it's the 21st century and the act of flying has come down to ordinary people, thanks to the advancement of technology and this particular talented creator. Take a look at his work.

His name is Koichi Sato, working for a Japanese bank. "Koichi and Sato", his name is a ubiquitous one among Japanese and doesn't quite stand out. (Analogous to "John Smith" when it comes to an English name.) What distinguishes Koichi from others - he is flying. He is known as "solaryman". In Japanese, "sola" is defined as "sky", so it translates into sky-salaryman - or flying salaryman.

This magnificent piece was created by a Japanese photographer, Yuki Aoyama.

"I started creating a solaryman piece because I faced my father's death. My father was a great person, but I didn't come to realize this fact until he passed away. This is because my father was a stereotypical and mundane Japanese office worker, called a "salaryman". He didn't work for the Fortune 500 companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. He was just a guy, who was dealing a lot of projects by using Microsoft products. But when he passed away, many people came to his funeral. From the company's CEO to young co-workers -- they all expressed their condolences. I came to realize how much he was loved by his colleagues and how great my father was! After this experience, the idea of solaryman project has emerged. Its main objective -- discovering Japanese salaryman's inner uniqueness."

Salaryman is a representation of a working Japanese in a cynical way. Over 80% of Japanese falls into this category, fed by companies and being exploited. They're always dressed in a black or gray suit, eliminating individuality - even though they're the engine of Japanese economy.

Yuki tries to perceive them from a different perspective. He asks each voluntary salaryman to jump and pose. While a salaryman is afloat, he captures still images - or solaryman. His output allows liberating a mundane image of salaryman -- shaping him beautifully with optimistism.

"I started shooting solaryman series from 2006. Over 200 salarymen have contributed so far. In the past, they flied on a road, office, or even in a tennis court. Even Katsuei Hirasawa, a well-known politicians, is among them.

Through the work of solaryman, one can perceive the individuality of salaryman,and deduce how distinct and unique each of them is. After all, they are the source of Japan's economic activities. They should be treated one by one, not by a mass term called salaryman.

Yuki Aoyama's official website