The exact date of the birth of Utamaro Kitagawa and strong details about his parents remain shrouded in mystery. It is known that this striking ukiyo-e artist was born in the middle of the eighteenth century and that he died in the early nineteenth ...full story

Strictly speaking, public art is often considered art displayed in public, and paid for by the public. In a city like Tokyo, most art displayed in public is in fact privately funded (such as through the public art law in which all new Tokyo ...full story

The adjacent photograph shows a relatively new trend for very cheap, disposable tattoo sleeves… to what end, I'm not sure. I thought I'd try one on in the interests of researching the fashion in the kabuki theatre for representing heroes and villains ...full story

More than two years after the triple disasters that included the meltdowns at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, between 160,000 and 300,000 Tohoku residents remain displaced, the power station teeters on the brink of further disaster, and large ...full story

Within the park's grounds you can see “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum through June 30th and royal family treasures at the Ueno Royal Museum's “Japan Art Association 125 Year Anniversary” showing ...full story

Since 2005, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, has provided artists with a platform to discuss their works housed at the museum. The event, called Artist Talk, has been held 30 times since its inception, each time giving an artist the ...full story

Okubi-e refers to the distinctive large head to frame ratio of certain ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) portraits from eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan. There's no strict definition here as to what constitutes a portrait as separate to an ...full story

A unique art exhibition featuring works made from recycled commodities opened Wednesday at a small Tokyo gallery, with 33 cartoonists and animators contributing their creations. Among over 60 showpieces at the eighth “Recycle Art Exhibition” are a ...full story

They answered with a heavy sigh that they wished to see some art before they returned to Australia but they'd heard Monday was the day when most Tokyo art museums and galleries are closed. For the most part, this is true. However, with a little bit of ...full story

To kick things off nicely, I wanted to share my first Japanese discovery and that is the wonderful Kotaro Chiba, a talented illustrator based in Niigata who specialises in illustration, digital art and animation. A lot of her work is clearly inspired ...full story