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Japanese art

We become some of the last visitors to see a beautiful museum-ryokan on the outskirts of Tokyo

This registered tangible cultural asset is now closed to the public, which is an absolute shame. 

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Ninja & Geisha capsule hotel: A very Japanese place to stay in Osaka

Sleep amongst lanterns, gods, and traditional motifs at the “very Japanese new sensation capsule hotel”.

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Shigeru Mizuki’s world of Japanese yokai comes to life in new exhibition in Tokyo

“Betobeto-san” © 水木プロダクション (Mizuki Productions)

A parade of monsters is coming to Roppongi Hills this summer, and it sounds like a treat! 

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Hello Kitty becomes part of Japan’s oldest manga with new line of accessories

The beloved Sanrio character becomes a Frolicking Animal!

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This artist will wow you with a skillful modern twist on kirie, traditional Japanese cutout art

Why draw pictures when you can CUT pictures?

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Japanese freehand tattoo artist’s work ranges from bloody & erotic to delicate & beautiful

Talented freehand tattoo artist combines the unconventional with the traditional.

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Japanese company releases sleek, traditional arts & crafts version of Monopoly【Pics】

Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, knows that despite being in business for 300 years, you haven’t really made it until you own Boardwalk, Mayfair, or in this case Kyoto’s Nishijin Textile Center.

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Meguro Gajoen, a traditional event space in Tokyo and its stairway of 100 steps

Meguro Gajoen is one of the tangible properties of Tokyo, established in 1931 originally as a venue for wedding banquets. Now all that remains of the original architecture is a series of rooms connected by the “stairway of 100 steps“. In 2009 these rooms were classified as one of the cultural assets of Japan.

We recently visited the establishment to get a look at the traditional party rooms for ourselves, since they were open to the public for a very short window of time and we figured this would be our only chance. We were even permitted to take photos, so come and join us for a guided tour!

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These 19th-century Japanese miniature landscapes show that size isn’t everything

The Tōkaidō is perhaps the most important road in Japan’s history. Built in the 17th century, it connected the country’s two powerhouses: it runs from Kyoto, the imperial capital, to Edo (now Tokyo), the seat of the Shogunate. As well as being an important political and trade route, depictions of the Tōkaidō in art in literature were abundant and popular.

The best-known of these is Utagawa Hiroshiges’s series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. Ukiyo-e woodblock printing like this continued to flourish in Japan until the 19th century.

Less famous than Hiroshige is the relatively unknown ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Yoshishige, who produced his own prints of the 53 stations along the Tōkaido – by depicting each station in the form of a potted landscape.

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Alice in Moeland! Japanese netizens react to art style of new US book cover

What do you think of the artwork featured in the new omnibus edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass? When Japanese twitter user kasunoko tweeted a pic of the cover image, netizens in Japan were quick to claim that the artwork “doesn’t look very American”. In fact, several of them were of the opinion that the artwork seemed a bit on the, erm, Japanese side. Hmm, we’re not sure what they’re talking about, but check out the images after the jump and let us know your thoughts!

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Surreal samurai art exhibition mixes the historical with the bizarre

The Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art is located in Yamazaki, a place of historical significance in Japan since medieval times when it served as a field of battle for Toyotomi Hideyoshi to avenge the betrayal and murder of his lord Oda Nobuaga. The museum is currently hosting an exhibition that pays homage to the samurai of those ancient times, in a very modern and surreal fashion.

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Macabre Japanese ukiyo-e reveal gothic side to art of the floating world【Pics】

When you think of Japanese ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints, you probably think of Hokusai’s beautiful landscapes in his Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, or the stylized prints of beautiful courtesans in traditional Japanese dress. But there are also many pieces of Japanese art and ukiyo-e from the Edo to the Meiji period (between 1603 and 1912) that represent a more mythical and macabre side of Japan.

The following is a collection of 20 pieces that all contain skulls or skeletons in some form, many of them by renowned and famous artists of the time.

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Nintendo celebrates its roots with traditional art of their most famous characters

With global phenomenon like the Mario and Pokemon franchises under their belts, it’s easy to forget about Nintendo’s humble beginnings as a producer of traditional Japanese playing cards. This year the company goes back to their roots in their 2014 company brochure with beautiful artwork that celebrates both the old and the new.

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