Art event / Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower

A strange object appeared suddenly on the 2nd floor in Mitsui Tower Building.

What's this? Sea shells? Cokkies? Macaroons?

From Feb.15th, An art event has been held in Nihonbashi area. On the public floors of "Coredo Nihonbashi", "Koredo Muromachi" and "Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower Building", a lot of art works created by young artists are being displayed.

... I didn't know that the 1st and 2nd had been held here.

Melted chocolate ice popsicle? (1st floor / Mitsui Tower Bldg.)

??????????? (1st basement / Mitsui Tower Bldg.)

The sign board says "please sit down and feel this art" and I felt my butt hurts.... oops, sorry.

I'd like to check the other works displayed in the other buildings before the installation ends on March 14th.

The closest station is "Mitsukosi-mae" of Tokyo Metro Ginza line.

Ukiyoe and Asukayama park

Sakura season is long gone. I know it's a little bit too late to post such pictures, but please let me complete my Asukayama series with Ukiyoe featuring Sakura and Asukayama.

I found a very interesting Ukiyoe picture featuring the Asukayama park in Newspaper “Mainichi Shinbun” last month.


There are yomeiri gyouretu(wedding procession) marching in the Asukayama. The full bloomed Sakura trees are drawn in the background. You can see all of the procession members are foxs.

Fox is often recognized as kinds of fairy… oh, I’ve written that on the previous post. Anyway, Asukayama is very close to the Oji-Inari which is very famous for the stories of fox.
This Ukiyoe was drawn by famous Ukiyoe artist Utagawa Hiroshige. You can find some Ukiyoe of Asukayama drawn by him on the net.


"Asukayana, Kitano chouboh (North view)"
National History Museum and Institute, Chiba prefecture.
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/NATURAL/special/ukiyoe/spring4.htm

And many other painters have featured Sakura of Asukayama.


"Asukayama Hanami" drawn by Torii Kiyonaga.
http://www.ukiyoe.or.jp/ukisho/uks-05/05-b/024.html


"Shinban Ukie Asukayama no zu" drawn by Gountei Sadahide.
Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History.
http://ch.kanagawa-museum.jp/dm/ukiyoe/gountei/syougai/d_syougai04.html


Asukayama have been really loved by people for an extremely long time.

Cow Parade 2008 / Marunouchi - Otemachi

I'm so sorry for long absence. Before anything else, please let me introduce an art event, which has been held until next Sunday.

In front of Tokyo station north exit, around Marunouchi and Otemachi area, you can see the cattle grazing.

The Cow Parade. According to the official site, this is an international art event started in Switzerland ten years before. This is the third time here in Tokyo. 73 of cow objet are walking through the downtown.

Kashiwa Sato's work.

I have introduced him in a previous post, haven't I?

Cows in the night.

The exhibition will be closed tommorrow, but you can see all of the cow from "here" as long as the official site remains.

Art workshop in the National Art Center / Roppongi

Last Saturday morning, my daughter joined the art workshop for kids at "the National Art Center, Tokyo" in Roppongi. This museum just opened its doors in this past January. Several years ago, there had been the Institutes of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo. When I was a highschool student(a quarter of a century ago), I often walked around there, because my grandmother had lived near Roppongi. That was my first visit in a while, and I was supprised the landscape was completely changed.

The theme of the workshop was "Let's design your own simbol". The lecturer was the artist, Mr. Kashiwa Sato, the art director of this museum. This is the symbol of this museum, which was designed by Kashiwa-san.

Around 20 kids gathered to have the workshop.

During the working, all parents were withdrawn. We could not enter the working space until the presentation time. It was just around 1.5hrs, a little bit short to see the gallery (ticket fee was 1500yen), So I walked around the museum building.

There were some cafes(1F and 2F and basement),,,

and cozy restaurant(3F),,,

,,,Paul Bocuse?!!

According to the museum website, this is Mr.Bocuse's first brasserie outside France. It was over 30minites early to opening, but many peaople made a line to get their tables.

There was a musum shop in basement. I'd never seen such large space for a museum shop. I could enjoy there, although I didn't intend to buy anything. There were not only really artistic items but also many kitsch souvenirs. Sorry I forgot taking photos.

I spent most of my time at Art Library(3F).You can read various art books in open stacks freely.

Now the time for presentation!

Kids presented their thought, changes of ideas and final design. She made her symbol mark by fusing a Kanji from her name and her favorit animal, dog.

Wrap-up by Kashiwa-san. (To tell the truth, first time I saw him, I couldn't recognize him as Kashiwa-san, because he was not look like "the art director". I'm sorry, Kashiwa-san!)

Well done, everybody!

The National Art Center, Tokyo: The closest station is Nogizaka of Tokyo Metro. Exit #6 is connected to the museum directly. You can go there from Roppongi station. It takes about 5min on foot.