With the Yokohama Triennale having come to a close on November 30, Tokyo Art Beat concluded its coverage with a review of Pedro Reyes’ Baby Marx on display at the shinko pier, and Artscape reported on the nearby Koganecho Bazaar.

November was a big month for Tokyo’s design community, with Design Week Tokyo 2008 dominating the Aoyama area and other locations around Tokyo. PingMag picked out its highlights; Tokyo Art Beat reviewed the week’s two major events “100% Tokyo” and “Design Tide”, as well as the Good Design Exhibition held at Tokyo Midtown Design Hub.

A low key, but historically significant event that took place this month was the recreation of Nobuo Sekine’s Phase — Mother Earth, last seen in Kobe in 1968; its 2008 reincarnation was documented in a TAB photo report.

In his monthly “Out of Tokyo” column at Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki covered the fallout surrounding artist group Chim↑Pom’s atom bomb-inspired “Pika” performance in Hiroshima last month.

Similarly headline-grabbing was world-famous animator Hayao Miyazaki’s criticism of Prime Minister Taro Aso, who he derided as “an embarrassment.”

Also in animation-related news was Takashi Murakami’s decision to open an animation studio in Los Angeles.

Other reviews this month:

• Hisashi Tenmyoya at Mizuma Art Gallery [Japan Times]

• Tomotaka Yasui at Megumi Ogita Gallery [Japan Times]

• Hideaki Shibata and Kazuya Matsunaga at Yukari Art Contemporary [Japan Times]

• Chikako Ikeguchi at the Shibuya Shoto Museum of Art [Japan Times]

• “Art of our Time” at the Ueno Royal Museum [TAB]

• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [TAB]

• Tadao Ando at Gallery Ma [TAB]

• “On Your Body” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography [TAB]

• Kazunari Sakamoto at the Tokyo Institute of Technology [Artscape]

• Sachigusa Yasuda at Base Gallery [ART iT]

I just want to direct readers’ attention towards Johnny Strategy’s Spoon & Tomago (Spoon and Egg) blog. Ostensibly it covers ‘art, somewhere between New York and Tokyo’ but over the last six months, since I’ve started following it, the emphasis seems to be firmly planted on Japanese soil.

Mr. Strategy’s special editions sections, including Contemporary Japanese Architects and Japanese Industrial Designers 101, provide great jumping points for deeper exploration into these fields.

Spoon & Tomago offers a keen observational eye into a wide range of Japanese art, design and architecture — in other words, it’s a blog you should be reading. 

Known for its mixture of galleries that handle antique, modern and contemporary art, Art Fair Tokyo has announced that in 2009 it will feature more contemporary galleries.

Of the 113 participants, 105 are from Japan (mostly Tokyo), while 8 are international. 24 are classified as antique-dealing galleries, 49 as modern art galleries, and 40 as contemporary art galleries.

In a new development, next year will be the first time AFT features a secondary venue dedicated to young contemporary galleries that have been established in the last 5 years. Called Marunouchi Tokia (@TOKIA) there will be 29 participants, 19 of which are from Japan (mostly Tokyo) and 10 of which are international.

Although the complete list of participants has been announced in an email press release, at present the Art Fair Tokyo homepage does not show this information. Presumably it will be updated in due course.

Due to the previous uncertainty over the future of 101Tokyo, most of the Japanese galleries that participated in 101Tokyo 2008 have already joined Art Fair Tokyo’s Tokia annex. There are few commercial galleries of substance left in Tokyo, so it is likely that 101Tokyo will take on a different character next year.

Although 101Tokyo 2008 had a 50-50 balance of Japanese and international galleries, it is fair to assume at this stage that in 2009 it will reappear as a more internationally oriented fair.

After a period of uncertainty hanging over its future, it appears that 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, which made a promising debut in 2008, is due to take place for the second time in April 2009.

The new team has as its Director, art consultant and writer Jason Jenkins, and as its Creative Director, Haruka Ito, independent curator and director of Magical Artroom. Show management is being conducted by the event production company Loufas Co. Ltd.

For more details of this initial announcement, visit the 101Tokyo homepage.

Taka Ishii Gallery and Tomio Koyama Gallery are opening spaces in Kyoto. Located within walking distance of Kyoto Station, the new gallery building will open on November 20.

The second floor will be occupied by Taka Ishii Gallery, whose inaugural exhibition will be a solo show by Nobuya Hoki” (running until December 23) and Tomio Koyama Gallery, which will be holding a solo exhibition by Masahiko Kuwahara until December 27. On the first floor there will be a branch of Tomio Koyama’s TKG Editions, which sells limited edition artist multiples and prints, and from the new year, art editor Goto Shigeo (who is behind Tokyo’s G/P Gallery) will also run the Hanayacho Portfolio Room.

Opening reception for both galleries:
November 20 (Thursday) 18:00 - 20:00

Address: 483 Nishigawa-cho Shimogyo-ku Kyoto 600-8325
Tel: 03-5646-6050

Kyoto is reported to be home to an increasingly vibrant contemporary art scene with an aesthetic that differs notably from the work of Tokyo artists. As a common second stop for visitors to Tokyo, expanding into Kyoto makes sense for Tokyo galleries.

The Osaka-born Kodama Gallery, which also has a space in Tokyo, has relocated to the riverside area south of Kyoto Station, where they are currently holding an exhibition by Tomoki Kakitani.

Address: 67-2 Higashikujo Yanaginoshitacho, Minami-ku, Kyoto 601-8025
Tel: 075-693-4075

The Daiwa Foundation has announced a new art prize introducing British artists to Japan and offering one British artist a first solo show in Tokyo (in 2009). In addition to an exhibition, the winning artist will be given a period of support and introductions to key individuals and organisations in the Japanese contemporary art world.

Coverage of the Yokohama Triennale appears to have peaked this month, with a slew of reviews and interviews. Roger McDonald gives a fascinating critique from a curatorial point of view on his Tactical Museum blog.

PingMag offered a mini guide to the triennale, while Tokyo Art Beat published reviews of a number of works featured in the show, including Cao Fei’s Play with your Triennale, Matthew Barney’s Guardian of the Veil, and Cerith Wyn Evans and Throbbing Gristle’s A=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N. The Japan Times also reported on Terence Koh’s White Bunny Parade.

For interviews with artists taking part in the triennale, see TAB’s video series that focused on Joan Jonas, Aki Sasamoto, and Andreas Stasta, an assistant to Hermann Nitsch.

Other reviews this month:

• Aida Makoto at Mizuma Art Gallery [Artscape]

• Tomoko Shioyasu at SCAI The Bathhouse [Artscape]

• Seiichi Yamashita at Gallery Bauhaus [Artscape]

• “Diorama of the City: Between Site and Space” at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya [Japan Times]

• Noritoshi Hirakawa at Wako Works of Art and Nanzuka Underground [Japan Times]

• Joan Jonas at Wako Works of Art [Japan Times]

• “Avant-Garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art” at the National Art Center, Tokyo [Japan Times]

• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Japan Times]

• Tomoko Yoneda at Hara Museum of Contemporary Art [Artforum.com]

• Yasuyuki Nishio at NADiff [TAB]

• GEISAI #11 [Art Newspaper]

More general articles that have appeared this month have included Tokyo Art Beat’s exploration of the Koganecho Bazaar in Yokohama, and its interview with Lieko Shiga, who was in last month’s “Trace Elements” exhibition at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, and is currently showing at in the “On Your Body” exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Meanwhile, the Japan Times looks at the Venice Architecture Biennale and touches on Junya Ishigami’s work there. They have also reported on the Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Auction; the Kunst Oktoberfest, a bus tour of several galleries in the Ginza and Nihonbashi areas; and the controversy that artist group Chim↑Pom recently caused in Hiroshima, which is then discussed in relation to Cai Guo Quiang’s work in Hiroshima at the art life blog.

ART iT takes a look at art works installed in the Tokachi Plain in central Hokkaido, while in his “Out of Tokyo” column at Realtokyo, Tetsuya Ozaki comments on Tsuyoshi Ozawa and Paramodel’s participation in the “Akasaka Art Flower” exhibition held at various sites in Akasaka, as well as the “Extended Senses: Present of Japanese / Korean Media Art” exhibition at the NTT ICC.

Shiftblog has interviewed Megumi Matsubara of the architectural unit “assistant”, while PingMag interviews Reno Camerota about Japan’s graffiti and street art. As October draws to a close, Tokyo Design Week begins, so as with their Yokohama Triennale coverage last month, PingMag have come up with an introductory guide followed by a more exhaustive list of what’s going on.

Lastly, because no month of Japanese art news would be complete without something from Mr Murakami, I leave you with Nylonmag’s report on the artist’s new series of limited edition Levi’s.

Created in October 1968 in the Suma Rikyu Park in Kobe, and consisting of a 2.2 x 2.7m cylindrical hole in the ground and an adjacent cylinder of earth of the same dimensions, this piece is one of the signature works of the Mono-ha movement of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. This is the first time Sekine is recreating the work, to commemorate 40 years since it marked a turning point in Japanese postwar art history.

However, unlike in 1968 when the work was made by Sekine and other artists of the Mono-ha group such as Koshimizu Susumu, who dug the earth out of the ground themselves, this time the earth will be excavated by a mechanical digger and coordinated by specialist engineers and only part of it will be made by hand. Sekine will, however, be present throughout to oversee the project.

The reasons for not doing it by hand this time are that there are water mains buried in the earth, and that part of the earth on site is suitable for excavation, meaning that specialist techniques are required to ensure the work is successfully recreated. In his autobiography Fukei no Yubiwa (Ring of Nature), Sekine wrote of how unexpectedly difficult it was to dig up the earth in 1968, and understandably now that he is in his sixties, he cannot work on the creation of the piece alone.

A few years ago at Wako University, students spent a month attempting to recreate Phase — Mother Earth, but when they removed the mold it turned out that the earth was not of the right consistency and the cylindrical form disintegrated immediately. At the Suma Rikyu Park, the earth had the consistency of pit sand, which mixed together with some concrete, made the work hold together.

Looking back, Sekine says that the realization of Phase Mother Earth in 1968 had a lot to do with unpredictably favourable circumstances, particularly the quality of the earth. They had received no permission from the park authorities as they dug up the ground and were lucky not to have been stopped before they had finished. Sekine suspects that had he applied to make Phase — Mother Earth beforehand, it may well have been turned down for concerns about quality of the earth, the potential risk to underground pipelines, or for health and safety regulations.

It’s interesting to think that had one of these favourable conditions not been present in 1968, one of the pivotal artworks in the early development of the Mono-ha movement, and one of the most iconic developments in postwar Japanese art history might not have come into being.

Construction work on Phase — Mother Earth will continue until October 31, and will be on display from November 1 to 9, from 9am to 5pm. Den’en Chofu Seseragi Park is directly opposite Tamagawa Station on the Tokyu Toyoko line.

For more information on the Mono-ha movement, you can read this article that I wrote for Tokyo Art Beat that introduces the main artists and their ideas.

A couple of months ago, Tokyo Art Beat and its sister site New York Art Beat made their event data available to all in the form of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Anyone with any programming skills is free to build on in all manner of inventive ways.

A number of sites that make use of the TAB API have emerged but one of the most striking and enjoyable is The Bubble Machine. Events drop down in bubbles that move around and strum chords when you run the cursor over them, offering you a more playful way to plan your art-going than the regular list experience. And for those of you in Tokyo’s favourite other city, New York Art Beat has its own bubbles too.

This week’s issue of Metropolis has a review of Art Space Tokyo in it, which you can read online here.

Craig and I are happy to see that writer and editor of Japan Today, CB Liddell, has enjoyed AST, which he calls “a compact, attractively designed book” that “manages to throw a lot of light on many of the broader issues surrounding Japan’s contemporary art scene.”

Liddell was particularly interested in the way that Yukihito Tabata of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP addressed the China’s dominance of Asia’s art scene and Takashi Murakami’s use of the term “peace lag” to summarize Japan’s infantilization, brought up in my interview with Atsuko Koyanagi of Gallery Koyanagi. The reviews of AST that we’ve had so far have tended to concentrate on the quality of book’s production, so it is satisfying to read an article that focusses on its content.

There are, however, a few points in the review that I find problematic. My response has ended up being twice as long as Liddell’s review, but I think the issues that come up are important and worth addressing.

Firstly, the article begins with the line “It’s a paradox: While Tokyo is one of the ugliest cities in the world, the Japanese are a naturally artistic race.”

Imagine an article coming out of a mainstream New York publication that began with the assertion that “While Brooklyn is one of the poorer boroughs of the city, the Jews who live there are a race naturally inclined to make money.” It wouldn’t happen.

It would have been better had Liddell left his racialist worldview out of the review (and I mean racialist, not racist), but then it seems to be a recurrent element in other articles of his. A quick search of his past writings has turned up gems such as:

“Very few people would argue with the idea that the Japanese are cuter than most other races.”

and

“The Japanese, along with several other Asian races that share similar characteristics, have long been a rice-eating nation.”

Both of these statements have been printed in Metropolis, so it would seem to suggest bad judgement on behalf of the editors as much as the writer.

Secondly, Liddell suggests that the book’s choice of twelve venues and its interview + article format is “a little too trendy and time sensitive.” He backs this up by saying that “As the art scene continues to morph and mutate, this work is likely to date more quickly than one focused on the recurring themes and wellsprings of Japanese art.”

Well, Art Space Tokyo is a guide book, and guides inevitably have some information in them that goes out of date, so it seems unnecessary to criticize that element. More importantly, for any book review to call for a different book altogether is entirely beside the point.

As far as we know, the twelve spaces chosen for the book are unlikely to close or relocate anytime soon, if ever, so the core of the guide’s information is sound for the foreseeable future. In fact, this was one of our key reasons for focussing on the spaces and their owners rather than the art itself: these galleries and museums should still be there in five to ten years, whereas the art they show will certainly change. Even if all of the information in this book outdates eventually, by that time one would hope that updated guides of this kind will be much more readily available, and AST will remain as a useful snapshot of the Tokyo art scene as it was in the late 2000s.

Liddell’s next critique is that “The fact that personal preferences and connections were important in this project gives it a cliquey, art insider tone, but this is mitigated by the clarity of the language, which, for the most part, successfully avoids the jargonism and dog-whistle phrases that normally litter art criticism.”

At the very least, Liddell is saying that despite its “art insider” origins, Art Space Tokyo is not pretentious and makes itself easily accessible. However, the suggestion alone that the book is somehow the result of cliquey nepotism is grossly mistaken, and the irony is that any Tokyo art world insider can clearly see that. The only point in common between these galleries and museums is that they all have distinctive architecture or histories — those are the primary reasons we chose them. In terms of the Tokyo art world’s internal hierarchies and interrelationships, AST’s choice of venues is actually highly unconventional, something that was noted by many of the people who took part. The book is a deliberate mix of spaces, be they old or new, famous or barely known, and their inclusion in the project was initiated irrespective of the various social circles that they are part of.

Liddell’s assumption about these “connections” is a misunderstanding that can probably be explained quite easily. Before writing the review, he emailed me a few questions about why and how we made the book. In my reply, I wrote about how well suited Craig and I were to collaborate with each other, because “Craig makes stunningly beautiful books, and from my work as an editor at Tokyo Art Beat, I had the kind of overview and contacts within the Tokyo art world necessary to get the project started.”

Perhaps “contacts” was a misleading choice of word that implies a cliqueyness that actually wasn’t there. My point of emphasis was more that my prior work at Tokyo Art Beat had given me the kind of experience required to recognise what each gallery represents within the broader art world. If Craig had simply wanted to make a book about pretty buildings, he could have done that alone. I was there to give a sense of the kind of narratives that would come out of each gallery before we approached them: for example, Tokyo Gallery + BTAP would help us cover the significance of Ginza and Beijing; Aoyama | Meguro is one of the key second generation galleries to have emerged in the last four years; GA Gallery is one of only two architecture focussed galleries in the city, and so on.

Once we had decided which galleries and museums we wanted to take part, we set up meetings with them and pitched the project, and there were no cards for us to pull. Of course, I knew a few of the participants beforhand, but I was meeting most of them for the first time, and equally there are many other gallery owners I know who weren’t a part of the book. Art Space Tokyo is hardly the product of an insider job.

Lastly, it was disappointing to see Liddell dismiss the value of the essays in Art Space Tokyo not because of any specific complaint, but merely because some of them were written by “foreigners” (the nuance of his choice of word is different from saying “non-Japanese"). Asides from the fact that the ratio of the six essay writers’ nationalities was in fact two Japanese, two half-Japanese and two non-Japanese — all of whom are long-term Tokyo residents — it doesn’t make much sense for Liddell to have started the review by decrying the Japanese art world’s lack of success in establishing itself on the international stage and yet ignore the value of commentary by non-Japanese who work in its midst. These people play an essential part in the internationalisation of Tokyo’s art scene.

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Update (Oct 24): Ian Lynam, who contributed the “Syntax of Tokyo Graffiti” essay to Art Space Tokyo linked to this post from the “META no TAME” blog at Néojaponisme. You can read his response and since the AST blog has no comments function, discussion can be continued on META no TAME.

In it I talk about the next generation of artists who are defining Japanese art, such as Lieko Shiga, Miwa Yanagi, Kohei Nawa and Izumi Kato, as well as cross-genre exhibitions like last year’s “Space For Your Future”. I also explain how gallery owners like Taka Ishii and Tomio Koyama have cultivated a new generation of dealers out of the former staff of their galleries, such as Jeffrey and Misako Rosen, who set up their own gallery Misako & Rosen in 2006, which is reflective of a broader trend over the past four years.

ArtReview asked the Tokyo-based Swedish photographer Anders Edström to shoot some of the galleries, artists and dealers mentioned in my article, and I was pleasantly surprised by the images when I opened the magazine for the first time. Edström has captured some delightful, informal moments: among them, Jeffrey and Misako Rosen at their gallery between exhibitions, getting paintings ready to hang on the wall, and artist Tomoo Gokita in his studio and out in the street with his mother in the Koenji neighbourhood.

You can read this issue of ArtReview, as well as all of its past issues, by registering for free on its website.

Covering all kinds of art spaces that art enthusiasts should seek out on a visit to Tokyo, the article also mentions several that are featured in Art Space Tokyo, which Gomez calls “the best insider’s guide in English to the most interesting outposts for cutting-edge art in the Japanese capital”.

Quotes from AST crop up a couple of times in the article, including Tetsuya Ozaki’s views on the instability of the Chinese art market and Masami Shiraishi’s thoughts on how the Tokyo art scene is at its most vibrant in fifteen to twenty years.

Read the article online here.

Thank you Edward!

Takashi Murakami’s art fair GEISAI Miami, hosted by PULSE of Art Basel Miami Beach, is calling for applicants. Deadline October 15.

Kaikai Kiki is calling for entries for GEISAI Miami, the second U.S. edition of the art fair conceived by Takashi Murakami. GEISAI is an art fair model that allows artists to represent themselves in a professional art fair setting and present their work directly to an audience of collectors, art professionals and art enthusiasts. Artists of all nationalities without gallery representation are invited to apply, with no restrictions on the medium, at http://www.geisai.us. A jury of art professionals will review all applications and select a limited number of artists to receive free booths. Applicants must be able to present original artworks on-site in Miami during all five days of the fair. GEISAI Miami will be held Wednesday, December 3 through Sunday, December 7, 2008

From November 13 to 16, 2008, Paris Photo, the world’s leading fair for 19th century, modern and contemporary photography, will bring together 107 exhibitors (86 galleries + 21 publishers) from 19 countries at the Carrousel du Louvre.

This year, “to coincide with growing international interest in Japanese photography” Japan has been invited as guest of honour. 14 Japanese galleries will be taking part, bringing with them the following artists:

Nobuhiro Fukui (Tomio Koyama Gallery), Miyako Ishiuchi (Zeit-Foto Salon, Tokyo), Syoin Kajii (Foil Gallery), Ken Kitano (MEM Gallery), Akira Mitamura (The Third Gallery Aya), Keisuke Shirota (Base Gallery), Yuki Tawada, (Taro Nasu), and Nao Tsuda (Hiromi Yoshii).

Apple Store, SOHO, Manhattan: Wednesday, October 8th, 6:30 - 8:00pm

(Facebook Event Page)

Just a quick note to let you know I’ll be speaking about the design and production (among other things) of Art Space Tokyo at the Apple Store in SOHO this coming Wednesday (Oct. 8th, 2008) evening.

I’ll be talking about books, design, the creative process, finding time to work on passion projects and other topics, all within the context of living in Tokyo.

It’s a free event and should be quite interesting—pop by if you’re in the ‘hood!

A big thank you to all who attended our event last week at Kinokuniya in NYC! It’s hard to believe a week has already passed since our official US launch of Art Space Tokyo. Turnout was better than expected. All seats were full and people were snaking around the back of the room and into the adjacent cafe. A large contingency of the New York art world, designers, artists and others interested in Japanese culture were in attendance.

It wouldn’t have been a success without the great panel we had that night: comprised of Roland Kelts (Japanamerica), Reiko Tomii and Kosuke Fujitaka (NY/Tokyo Art Beat). I’ve been to many a talk with panels than grossly ran over on time, had little focus or just sounded like a bunch of people talking over one another. In stark contrast to that, I think we were able to achieve a focused and concise look at the Tokyo art world. And Reiko even managed to plunge historical contexts in reference to the contemporary. Thanks to the diversity of the panelists, those in attendance got to hear three very different, but equally informed voices. Truly a special event that wouldn’t have been possible without the kindness of John Fuller at Kinokuniya for lending the space and equipment.

So this marks a somewhat sad moment for us here — with this event we officially complete the conception, production and launching of Art Space Tokyo. It’s strange, after working on something for so long and so hard, having planned these events months in advance, to finally arrive at the ‘finish line’ (so to speak) feels very much like having completed a mental (and very much physical) marathon. And as anyone who has trained for an finished a marathon knows, there’s a tinge of sadness in the triumph of achieving your goal.

Of course we’ll still be blogging about the Tokyo art world here, and we’ll be putting on more events and speaking at more bookshops. But the ‘official’ timetable, the schedule we had been working off for the past year or so, is done. Thank you all who helped make this book a success thus far! We look forward to seeing where this project leads us next.

At ARTINFO, Lucy Birmingham explains how this year’s triennale outperforms its predecessor in 2005. In the Japan Times, James Hadfield pointed out some of the key performances to look out for. Andrew Maerkle also picks out some of the highlights but brings up the overall consensus in the Japanese art industry that the triennale is “boring”. Meanwhile, Edan Corkill interviewed the triennale’s director Tsutomu Mizusawa.

Tokyo Art Beat has commenced its coverage of the triennale with a series of photo reports on the multiple venues in Yokohama: the Shinko Pier, the Red Brick Warehouse, BankART Studio NYK, and the “Echo” exhibition being held at ZAIM, which has in turn been reviewed by the Japan Times. In connection with this exhibition, sociologist Adrian Favell gave a talk about the post-Murakami generation of Japanese contemporary artists, and he has published a PDF of the transcript in English and Japanese. Meanwhile, TAB’s first review of the triennale focusses on the video installation by Swiss artists Fischli and Weiss.

Artforum.com’s “Scene and Herd” has faithfully clocked the art world bigwigs at both the Yokohama Triennale and Takashi Murakami’s GEISAI art fair, and in a similar vein, V Magazine has produced a photo report on these two events and others taking place in China.

Back in Tokyo, Annette Messager’s retrospective is on show at the Mori Art Museum, and has been reviewed on Tokyo Art Beat here and the Japan Times here. “Trace Elements: Sprit and Memory in Japanese and Australian Photomedia” at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery has been covered on TAB both as a review and as an interview with the curator.

Other exhibition reviews include:

• Nobuko Watabiki at Megumi Ogita Gallery and Gallery Shiraishi [Japan Times]

• Masaki Ogihara at Gallery Hashimoto [Japan Times]

• “12 Architectural Visions” at the Setagaya Art Museum [Artscape]

• Alphabet Soup at 21_21 Design Sight [Artscape]

ART iT has published a feature on the growing number of art sites in and around Naoshima and the Seto Inland Sea, and an interview with Roni Horn, following her recent solo exhibition “This is me, this is you” at Rat Hole Gallery. In his Realtokyo column, ART iT editor Tetsuya Ozaki has commented on the Art Taipei fair.

For those of you who still haven’t bought Art Space Tokyo and are interested in a further peek inside, my interview with Atsuko Koyanagi has been published as an extract on Saatchi Online.

In other news, distributor Yohan’s bankruptcy has left Tokyo starved of foreign magazines, including art magazines — the Japan Times looks at how stores are coping.

Lastly, following part one and part two of their Omotesando architecture walk in March, the irrepressible cultural omnivores at PingMag have documented the glassy glitz of Ginza. They conclude the month with an interview with Hajime Ichikawa, a self-titled “map evangelist” who explores every possible facet of Tokyo’s topography.

SCAI is located in one of my personal favorite areas of Tokyo. Yanaka is in all the guidebooks but it’s often overlooked in favor of the glitz of Shibuya or the moral dubiosity of Shinjuku.

Yanaka is a romantic’s Tokyo: low lying, temple filled, spiritual, wooden, old, textured, musty, comfortable, friendly, slow, delicious ... these are some words you could use to describe the area. Mainly, I love the excellent Japanese food (100+ year old senbei shops and superb soba) and the easy going mood. Visiting for a few hours is like a tonic to the rat race of the rest of the city. Many a great day can be had in the Yanaka area if you’re simply looking to whittle away a sunny afternoon. And SCAI, sitting in the middle of it all, is a great stop along the way.

Don’t forget to grab the PDF map.

From September 15th until October 1st, Kinokuniya at Bryant Park, Manhattan, will be hosting a small exhibition of Art Space Tokyo illustrator Takahashi Nobumasa’s work.

Above is an image of the preparations in the secret back offices of Kinokuniya, which, despite being located in the heart of New York City, instantly transports you into a Japanese Office Space—otsukaresamadeshita and all.

Of course, this is in preparation for our big launch event / contemporary art symposium being held next Tuesday, the 23rd from 6:00pm. If you’re in the city, be sure to stop by—it should be a blast. We’ll have some of Takahashi’s prints and tenugui on sale. We’ll also have a healthy supply of books, so those looking to pick up their copy and get it signed shall be satiated.

Details:
Location: Kinokuniya Bryant Park (40th Street and 6th Ave, Manhattan. Closest station: 42nd street Bryant Park)
Dates: From September 15th to October 1st