However, there have been several efforts to avoid such sore sights by some development projects by using them as canvases for artful illustrations and paintings.

The following are some images of such graffiti.

Construction Fense

Karikakoi

Karikakoi

Karikakoi Painters

PingMag has more examples of creative uses of these spaces in Tokyo.

Guilin is a prefecture-level city (smaller than a province and larger than a county, as in China’s administrative structure) in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Region on the west bank of the Li River. Its name stands for “forest of Sweet Osmanthus”, owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city. The city has long been renowned for its unique scenery.

It has a population of 1.34 million, which consists of ethnic groups, Zhuang, Yao, Hui, Miao, Han and Dong.

The forest, the wall and the human

Signboards

Huff...

Clawing down

The foreigner

A windy day at the park

The shortcut

Walking in the mist with a chilly milk tea in my hand

Ma: I think she's still waiting. Son: Just walk! Don't turn around. Lady: $%+?@&#*$&!

Hoods and umbrellas

In Japanese, calligraphy is called shodou, or “the way of writing”. All Japanese children have to learn the basics of calligraphy as part of their elementary school education.

The history of Japanese calligraphy can be traced back to the origins of Chinese civilization, where the master Wang Xizhi is credited with the creation of the art, about 4,500 years ago. Shodou as well as Chinese system of writing, kanji, was first introduced into Japan in the 8th century. By the time, Chinese calligraphy had already been developed a considerable amount.

By the early Heian period, the Japanese had already begun to show considerable attainment in the new art form with the “Three Great Brushes” (or sanpitsu) of the Buddhist monk, Kuukai (774-835), the Emperor Saga (786-842) and the courtier Tachibana no Hayanari (778-842) achieving an apotheosis of the then-popular calligraphic style of the T’ang Chinese master, Yan Zhenqing (709-785). Their calligraphy is considered a true representation of Chinese calligraphy’s timeless beauty.

In the 10th and 11th centuries, these three were succeeded by the Sanseki (Three Traces) of Ono no Toufuu, Fujiwara no Sukemasa (also known as Fujiwara no Sai), and Fujiwara no Yukinari (also known as Fujiwara no Kozei). These three masters developed what would become the first uniquely Japanese calligraphy style, wayou (also joudaiyou). Fujiwara no Yukinari’s style led to the creation of the Sesonji School, and Ono no Toufuu served as an archetype for the Shouren’in school which later became the Oie style of calligraphy. The Oie style was used for official documents in the Edo period and was the prevailing style taught in the terakoya schools of that time.

From its roots in ancient Chinese civilization, Japanese calligraphy has continued to grow and develop in style and form with zen-ei sho (an avant-garde postwar calligraphy style) representing just the latest stage in this evolution.

Handwriting

Japanese is related to Japonic language of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, which includes Turkish, Mongolian, Manchu and Korean language.

Early form of Japanese existed from about the 3rd century AD. The writing system the Japanese began to use was Chinese, imported from China and Korea along with a variety of technologies, political systems and Buddhism. This remains in the form of kanji symbols.

There are two phonetic “alphabets” of simplified Japanese symbols, named the Katakana and Hiragana. They were developed to cater to the sounds of the polysyllabic Japanese language pronunciations as it is difficult to adapt Chinese kanji symbols to do so since Chinese script is monosyllabic.

Kanji Characters

Kanji, imported from Chinese characters, is used alongside with hiragana and katakana symbols in written Japanese.

There are about 50,000 kanji characters in existence. A literate Japanese adult will be able to recognize about 3,500. Out of these, only 1,945 are officially recognized as daily or jouyou kanji, and knowledge of about 1,000 kanji symbols is considered sufficient to read about 90% of the words in a Japanese newspaper.

Hiragana Symbols

It is simple, rounded Japanese symbols. There are 46 hiragana symbols in Japanese, each with a particular sound but with no independent meaning.

The first step in the development of hiragana was near the beginning of the Heian Period (794-1192) when man’yōgana (kanji characters which are used to indicate pronunciation rather than meaning) was introduced. Hiragana characters evolved from this simplified cursive form of man’yōgana and also conveyed sound rather than meaning.

When hiragana was first created, it was not accepted by everyone as many felt that the educated language was still Chinese. Historically, the regular script (kaisho) form of the characters was used by men and called otokode (men’s writing), while the cursive script (sōsho) form of the kanji was used by women. Thus hiragana was often used by women, who were not allowed access to the same levels of education as men. From this comes the alternative name of onnade (women’s writing).

Interestingly, this development resulted in the explosion of written expression among Japanese women that reached its zenith with Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) by Lady Murasaki

Katakana Symbols

It is a simplified Japanese symbols derived from Kanji but compare to its Hiragana counterpart, it is more angular.

Katakana symbols were developed in the 9th Century by Japanese students of Buddhism who found it hard to keep up when writing lecture notes using complex Chinese kanji symbols. They started to write only parts of the more complex kanji symbols as shorthand that then became established as katakana. The word katakana itself means “fragmentary kana“, as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji.

Up until a series of orthographic reforms immediately following World War II, katakana was used for okurigana in official documents, and frequently in other contexts

Rōmaji Characters

Rōmaji (”Roman characters”), sometimes misspelled as Rōmanji, is the romanisation of Japanese kanji or kana words in Latin alphabet. Rōmaji are often used in Japanese text for abbreviations, metric measurements, and to clarify the spelling of foreign names.

The earliest Japanese romanisation system was developed based on the Portuguese language, around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Yajiro. Jesuit presses used this system in their printed Catholic books for missionaries to preach their converts without learning Japanese language. In general, the early Portuguese system was similar to Nihon-shiki in its treatment of vowels. Some consonants were transliterated differently, for instance, the ‘k’ was rendered as ‘c’ and the ‘h’ as ‘f’ so Nihon no kotoba (The language of Japan) was spelled as Nifon no cotoba.

When Christians were expulsed from Japan in the early 1600s, rōmaji fell out of use, and were only used sporadically in foreign texts until the mid-1800s when Japan opened up again. The systems used today all developed in the latter half of the 19th century.

In the Meiji era, some Japanese scholars advocated abolishing the Japanese writing system entirely and using rōmaji in its stead. Several Japanese texts were published entirely in rōmaji during this period, but failed to catch on because of the large number of homonyms in Japanese, which are pronounced similarly but written in different characters. Later, in the early 20th century, some scholars devised syllabary systems with characters derived from Latin: these were even less popular because they were not based on any historical use of the Latin alphabet.

Today, rōmaji is used for many reasons; street signs for foreigners, transcription of names used in another language, dictionaries and textbooks for beginners, or typographic emphasis.

There are a number of different romanisation systems in use, which the three main ones are Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki, and Nihon-shiki. Hepburn (long-vowel omitted) is the most widely used. Modified Hepburn, which uses a macron to indicate some long vowels and an apostrophe to note the separation of easily confused syllables (for example, the name じゅんいちろう is written with the syllables jun-ichi-ro and u, and is romanised as Jun’ichirō in Modified Hepburn) is widely used in Japan and among foreign academics.

artless Inc is a multi-award design agency cum art studio that started out back in the year 2000. It is co-founded by Shun Kawakami, and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Not limited to only art, this studio also does music label named artless records.

artless Inc work scope includes brand and corporate identity strategy, packaging, advertising, web design, interior and architecture, and also installation.

artless AKA Shun Kawakami

Shun Kawakami is born in Tokyo, 1977. He is an artist slash designer, which co-founded artless Inc. He is active in various visual communication fields, involving arts and design, prints, web, video and installation.

Check out one of his collaborative projects, balloon as vase here. The vases were originally created for “composition of knowledge and feeling,” an exhibition with Takashi Kawada that was shown at JAGDA TOKYO last month.

Balloon as vase 02

Related links:

http://shunkawakami.jp/
http://www.artless.co.jp/
http://www.nullartless.com/
http://www.artlessrecords.com/

The following is an interview with him by PingMag, 12 Nov 2008, written by Chiemi and translated by Natsumi

artless: About Japanese Essentials

I always thought that you handle everything from paper to video, but what do you actually do?

I do both client work and work for myself. But in either case, I generally don’t have any particular preference to the medium and I do art direction and design from a branding perspective.

And you put a lot of emphasis on exhibitions, too! You recently had one in Shanghai, right?

Yes, it was a joint show called Art with Sound with a designer from Singapore, SILNT. The exhibition toured to Berlin [for DMY] and Shanghai [for the Shanghai Design Biennial] and will come to Tokyo this month. For this show, we curated artists from Japan and Singapore and asked them to express their country’s culture through a monochrome world, based on the theme of “Art with Sound.” During the exhibition, visitors would view the posters while listening to specifically composed music through headphones.

What was the reaction in both cities like?

Totally different! In Berlin, perhaps many people like listening to music and visitors listened to every single track. But in Shanghai, they were more like buzzing around wondering “What’s this?” rather than actually appreciating the art. The main purpose of doing exhibitions in other countries is to find out how the locals receive your works and then how you react to that, so it was a really interesting experience.

Tell us a bit about your own art work you showed at the exhibition, please!

For this show, I took a photo of a pine tree in the Imperial Palace and created an Ikebana-like image based on this photo. I wanted to give it the invisible spirit of the tree [in an animistic sense] so I tried combining a test writing given to me by calligrapher Gen Miyamura.

You also did such wonderful graphics for the 10th anniversary artbook of Japanese video production company WOW…

Yes, it’s a series of numbers based on the theme of trees and plants representing Japanese seasons, for example the cherry and plum blossoms and sunflowers. These were used in the title pages of WOW’s artbook.

WOW10 Poster

Japanese culture plays a greater role in your overall work. Any specific reason for that?

I always keep the idea of presenting my works overseas in my mind, so I try to stress my originality based on the fact that I am Japanese. Then I use motifs that really interest me at the time, such as Ikebana, Bonsai, and calligraphy on top of that.

How come? Is there any incident or story to it?

When I participated in an exhibition for +81 magazine in New York, I wanted to make something surprising for the locals, something that made me aware of the ideas that only the Japanese can come up with. In the past, I used to create works that were aiming at Western styles. However, once I had stepped out of the country, I noticed that there were so many doing the same sort of stuff and that made me realise that there is probably no need for me as a Japanese to do the same… So since then, I started studying about Japan and began to look at Japanese ink and wash paintings with particular attention to spacing and compositions. I’d always liked Japanese paintings, but I became even more fond of it since.

I suppose, living in Japan, you don’t really notice all the good things about this country….

That’s right. In my case, while I was still conscious of the Western style, a foreign designer pointed out to me that my way of structuring the characters was really Japanese and that made me aware of this something within me. Since then, I became much more conscious of Japanese culture, like “Starbucks is great but let’s whip green tea in traditional style for a change, shall we?” kind of… (Laughs)

By the way, you are going to be part of the HIGH5 talk show hosted by Hitspaper on the 24th of this November. What will be your topic?

I’ll be talking about having exhibitions despite the fact that I’m a designer. I’m not an artist but my feeling is that I want to define the things I make as a piece of work. There has to be something for designers to design for themselves and not for clients. I personally feel that I do exhibitions to find out how the works I make for myself are received by society.

So there’s going to be even more interesting stories at the talk show! We can’t wait to hear more! Shun Kawakami of artless, thank you very much! Folks, drop by the “Art with Sound” exhibition with artless that will be opening at ALT SPACE in Nakameguro, Tokyo, from November 28th.

ISSEY MIYAKE / Shipping Box

Gerald Genta / Daniel Roth : stationery and Invitation card

Tokyo / H: 42.0cm W: 178.7cm / 2006 / Inkjet Print on Paper

Ryu Itadani is born in 1974 in Osaka, Japan. Since then, he has been living in Osaka, Toronto, and London and since 2004; he has been living and working in Tokyo. He graduated from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design with Degree in Graphic Design.

He has a very unique point of view towards his surrounding especially city, inanimate objects and nature, which contributed mainly into his works’ theme. He plays with hand-drawn lines and lots of colours in creating his artworks. The end result produces a very simple, naive yet detailed drawing with bright colours to bombard the viewer.

“I see the things, then I see the lines, then I see the colors,” he says. “In terms of creation, I try my upmost. Enjoyment is important to me. Communication is the key thing.”

J-WAVE / H: 50.4cm W: 42.0cm / 2008 / Inkjet Print on Paper

His media are just as simple. He uses black pen to draw lines on a white piece of paper, proceed to scan the drawing, and input colours using computer software. Lately, he has started using acrylic painting as well.

His style of drawing can be found in various fashion labels, magazines, newspapers and advertisements. Recently, Itadani has worked with OMOTESANDO HILLS and Asahi Newspaper.

Ginza / H: 45.4cmm W: 29.4cmm / 2006 / Inkjet Print on Paper

Hong_Kong / H: 42.0cm W: 91.5cm / 2006 / Inkjet Print on Paper

Seven Stars (Black Ed.) / H: 17.9cm W: 13.9cm / 2008 / Acrylic and Ink on Canvas

Heineken / H: 27.3cm W: 22.0cm / 2008 / Acrylic and Ink on Canvas

Here is an interview taken from PingMag written by Chiemi, dated back in 29 Dec 2008.

Ryu Itadani: A World in Colors

Many of you have probably already finished work for the year and had your bonenkai, and now you’re getting ready for a big cleaning day and the celebrations for the new year. And yes, this is the last article from PingMag for 2008. Today’s guest is a Japanese artist, Ryu Itadani. Even if you’ve never heard of his name, chances are you’ve seen his beautiful work for Omotesando Hills. So let’s have a look at some of his amazing work and celebrate the end of 2008! Kanpai!

Could you please introduce yourself?

My name is Ryu Itadani, born in Osaka, in 1974. I’m based in Tokyo now. My work features free hand lines that I draw using an original point of view, and a particular sense of colors. So far, I’ve done artwork for, among other things, Omotesando Hills for their 1st anniversary, and illustrations for the Asahi Shimbun, where I’ve presented my city series and things series.

How was 2008 for you?

I challenged myself by using acrylics this year. It’s such great fun and a thing worth doing to draw with a new medium.

What is your resolution and plan for the new year?

I’m thinking of drawing bigger sized works. I’m also planning to have a solo exhibition at Marunouchi Gallery in Tokyo.

Any message for our readers?

If you have time, please come and visit my site!

Wall of Mojis

I was digging though my old harddrive and noticed some of my long forgotten artwork. Back when I was working in my third job, my company did some mascot characters for their website, one of them called Moji. The very first 2 characters are in pink and brown. I kinda like the character and was also amused by how M.C. Escher did a lot of his more recent optical illusion works. Combining the two of these, I created this Wall of Mojis.

Showed to my bosses but they did not seem to fancy it back then.

Anyway, enjoy!

Nowadays, you can encounter massive resolution photos or artwork online, thanks to faster Internet connection speed, larger memory capacity and wider screens. This inspired me to work on something just as huge. Not a full-coloured artwork (it may take me forever to do one) but rather it was a product of me doodling away during my pass time.

Bear in mind this piece is as continuous as it can be. The only point that I have to use Photoshop to combine them together is where I have to end my doodling due to the limitation of the width of a4-sized paper. I tried to put in as much of “down-to-earth-yet-ridiculously-put-together” elements as I can imagine of at the point of producing it.

Enjoy!

This font type is created originally using Illustrator, although, after a while I noticed it somehow resembles some other typeface that I may have seen previously. (If anyone know of that similar typeface, kindly let me know.)

Initially, it was created with an idea of having thick square shape while using the least cutouts possible. The cutouts only uses combination of tiny squares and a diagonal cut triangle for the corners.

The tiny squares, in fact, a 1/16th of the main body square’s area, while the diagonal cut triangle is actually a half square, which is 1/8th of the main body square. Too geometrical but I tend to like this kind of composition.

The output as seen here, resulted to a very diskette like shapes, hence the name.

Printmaking is a rarely practised art form in Malaysia, so the exhibition of Japanese prints at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, is much welcomed. Japanese Prints 1950-1990 presents a unique opportunity for the public to learn more about printmaking as well as about the art of post-war Japan.

Organised by the Japan Foundation, there are 75 works by 46 different artists on display, allowing a wide overview of stylistic techniques and subject exploration.

Twentieth century Japanese Art following World War II, is a particularly distinctive genre. Following the years of militaristic aggression and suppression of cultural freedom, there was an influx of aesthetic and conceptual ideas from overseas, particularly from United States and France. Movements that rooted themselves in contemporary Japanese art, such as Modernism, Symbolism, Cubism and Pop art, are still popular today, as can be seen from the blockbuster art shows that reach Japanese shores from the West.

Nevertheless, Western art movements were not embraced wholesale. What emerged in Japanese art of this period was a rich hybrid: an eagerness to appreciate new developments combined with local assimilation. Japanese aesthetic traditions, such as the clean lines derived from traditional wood block prints, clear narrative illustrated by famous artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, and the gentle subtleties of subject interpretation were still maintained. This exposure to and acceptance of Western influences strengthened rather than robbed Japanese art of its strength and appeal.

Sumio Kawakami's Western Manner

Sumio Kawakami’s (1895-1972) print Western Manner illustrates the amalgamation of Western influences into Eastern culture. Stretched out on a bed, a Japanese couple garbed in traditional kimonos is lulled into repose by their opium. Attention has been paid to the detail, from the dress and the hairstyles to the colorful patterns on the kimono and obi (sash). There is no obvious Western influence, apart from the wrought iron bed frame that has replaced the conventional tatami mat. This perhaps implies the moral direction of Western influence, compounded with the man’s arm across his companion’s back in a casual display of affection. Kawakami is well known for his series of woodblock prints depicting nanban (southern barbarians), as the Westerners who entered Japan in the 16th century were known. As one of the earliest generation of creative printmakers, Kawakami’s work is held in extremely high regard.

Katsuro Yoshida's Work "10"

Conversation on life in Japan is continued by Katsuro Yoshida (1943-) in Work “10”. The viewer is just another pedestrian walking along the busy streets, the identities of the passerby are not revealed to us. Nameless and faceless, the black-and-white is cold and emotionless. The “shield” of the central figure in this silkscreen print is eroded, we can no longer see him in solid black and white. His confusion is covered by his break down into an indistinct dot matrix pattern. Locally trained in Japan, Yoshida is influenced by Minimalism and part of the Mono school of thought. His receipt of the Far East Grand Prize at the International Exhibition of Prints exemplifies his prowness as a printmaker.

Ushio Shinohara's Doll Festival

One of Japan’s celebrated avant-garde artists of the 20th century is Ushio Shinohara (1932-). His work is known for its rejection of conventional notions of beauty as well as the conventions of art theory. Instead, the conscious decision to adapt from existing masterpieces by American pop artists Robert Rauschenberg (1925-) and Jasper Johns (1930-) has imbibed his work with a sarcastic individuality. Doll Festival exemplifies the imitation art series that the artist is best known for. Here, with bold intense colours borrowed from Pop Art and sharp lines inherited from Cubism, the viewer is encouraged to look at the parodies of life. The creation of identity whether through dress or role-playing is examined.

Shoichi Ida's Stones On Paper

Hiromitsu Morimoto's Untitled (Blouse)

Critics of printmaking may argue that as a result of the process –making and production possibilities, this is an art form /that is not as original and intense as, say, painting. Hiromitsu Morimoto’s Untitled (Blouse) and Shoichi Ida’s Stones On Paper, however, illustrates the remarkable properties if expert printmaking. These drawings reveal delicate tonal graduations typical of traditional Japanese aesthetics.

In Morimoto’s piece, the luxuriant folds of fabric glow like a mantle or freshly fallen snow. It is pure and embryonic, moving softly from cotton wool white to a tinted grey mist. The neutral tones are also employed by Ida on beige and cream silk paper. Here, the rough speckled pebbles seemingly float on the surface, the photographic quality of the drawings infusing a textural difference with the woven paper.

On display this exhibition are the different forms of printmaking such as relief, intaglio, stencil, copy and mixed media. In the past, prints have been viewed principally as a means of reproduction. This exhibition, however, demonstrates its worthiness as an art form of its own. Easy access to prints through the production of limited editions and, hence, their more affordable price are the factors that speak in favor or printmaking. Furthermore, with technological innovations, the production process is no longer as manual and time-consuming. Nevertheless, with current art trends heading towards installation and multimedia art such as videos and Internet participation, the future of printmaking remains uncertain.

Note: The artist, Shoichi Ida, has passed away in 2006.

2009 Being Alone

If there exist one illustrator that can draw flawless manga-styled artwork from the West, it has to be Matthew M. Laskowski. He is an illustrator and conceptual designer with BFA in Illustration from The Art Institute of Boston, Boston Massachusetts. His work centers around conceptual art design, and tends to lean much more toward the technical style over organic. He loves to think about mechanical things, gadgetry, and urban life, which blends well with his distinct Japanese inspired anime-styled illustrations.

His portfolio can be found in plasticshards.com.

2009 Searching For

2008 Now Arriving