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‘Love Exposure’: The sprawling Japanese cult film masterpiece that you must see before you die
01.07.2020
09:36 am
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It’s too bad words like ‘masterpiece’ and ‘epic’ have been so overused by excitable film critics, because Sion Sono’s Love Exposure is an actual epic masterpiece that is going to dominate the filmscape for decades.” - New York Asian Film Festival

“Japan’s eroto-theosophical answer to the allegorical journeys of Alejandro Jodorowsky”—Film Four

Japanese auteur Sion Sono’s extraordinary 2008 film Love Exposure (“Ai no mukidashi”) is the epic—yet still whimsical—story of Yu Honda (Takahiro Nishijima), the “king of the perverts.” Yu is the ninja master of the “up skirt” photograph. After his mother dies, Yu’s father becomes a Catholic priest. He insists that his son confess his sins to him. Yu, a good boy, has nothing really to confess so he just makes stuff up that his father doesn’t even believe. Eventually he falls in with a new crowd and soon his transgressions are a bit more… sinful. Still, Yu himself is not aroused by his own panty shots and lives an otherwise chaste life as he patiently awaits the arrival of his one true love. He’s only “sinning” for the sake of his relationship with his father.

Yu loses a bet and he is obliged to dress as a woman and kiss a girl he likes. As the boys are goofing off, they come across a young girl, Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), who is about to be attacked by a gang. Yu is instantly smitten with the beautiful Yoko and—still dressed as a woman—he jumps into the fight and together they kick the gang’s collective ass. To fulfill the conditions of the bet, Yu kisses Yoko who begins to think she is a lesbian and crushes hard on Yu’s disguise of “Miss Scorpion” (an obvious nod to the 70s Japanese women in prison Female Convict Scorpion film series) Yu believes he has finally met his one true love… and she thinks he’s a woman!
 

 
Yu then finds out that his father the priest has a new girlfriend and will be leaving the priesthood to marry her. Guess who his new step sister is going to be?

The entire first hour of the film—the title card appears 58 minutes in—is but a prologue, setting up what’s to come. The Aum Shinrikyo-like cult religion, the gory violence and the explosions all happen later…It’s a pretty epic love story as far as they go. Trust me, you have never seen THIS film before (or anything else even remotely like it). But you really need to.

I’d recommend Sono’s loopy masterpiece (and it is a masterpiece) to anyone with a taste for unusual world cinema, which is not to say it’s esoteric in any way, because it’s not. Love Exposure is a real crowd pleaser. It’s an event! It may run for four hours, true, but it felt like two, trust me, don’t be intimidated by the length. Even if someone doesn’t love it as much as I do, surely they would appreciate it. It’s such an unusual cinematic experience. And it’s great fun. When it was over, I was sad there wasn’t more. When’s the last time you felt that way about a four hour film? Feel that way about Ben Hur or The Irishman?
 

A trailer for Sino Sono’s ‘Love Exposure’ with English subtitles. I can’t say that it’s successful at getting the film’s point across, but that would just be impossible.

It didn’t take but a minute after the film had ended for me to jump online and try to buy the film’s soundtrack. It doesn’t exist as such, but aside from a bit of Beethoven’s “Symphony No.7 in A Major” and Ravel’s “Bolero” the entire four hour film’s soundtrack consists of three amazing songs by the long running Japanese psych rock band Yura Yura Teikoku (“The Wobbling Empire”). These same three songs are played over and over and over again. After four hours, they are drilled into your DNA for life.

Although I personally had never heard of them before, Yura Yura Teikoku were around from 1989 to 2010. They are one of the very few “underground” groups in Japan ever to become a major commercial act. They almost never played outside of Japan, and were, and still are, criminally obscure outside of their homeland. I’ll try to describe their sound, but it’s sort of pointless as Yura Yura Teikoku cover so much territory from song to song. They’re intense, but they’re melodic. At times the trio—who describe their own music simply as “psychedelic rock”—sound like Can crossed with Phish. Or early Flaming Lips doing a spaghetti western theme. Other times they remind me of a 60s garage rock band like The Sonics, but the next song will sound like Lloyd Cole. The one after that sounds like the lovechild of Neu! and the Grateful Dead. Or even the Ventures channeled through Ennio Morricone or a combination of Pink Floyd with The Blow Monkeys! Suffice to say, they are all over the map musically, from heavier riff-based guitar rock to prettier tunes that would make a great soundtrack for a picnic on a sunny day. From hard-rock workouts that will crush your head to things that you would whistle along with. Black Sabbath to Burt Bacharach on the same album, if not the same song.

The one area of commonality that nearly ALL of Yura Yura Teikoku’s music has—trust me, because I’ve been positively gorging myself on it lately—is that their songs posses a quality that make them sound uncannily familiar. The three songs featured so prominently in Love Exposure are especially adept earworms.  Have a listen to my new favorite band, Yura Yura Teikoku. Chances are that they might become your new favorite new band, too.
 

“Kudo desu (Hollow Me)”
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.07.2020
09:36 am
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The gorgeously disaffected arty glam rock of David Sylvian and Japan
07.17.2019
07:36 am
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Glam rock’s history is clustered into two distinct eras: its initial early 70s glitter-pop boom (T.Rex, Sweet, Slade, Suzi, Bowie, New York Dolls) and its macho, chest-thumping 80s hair metal resurgence (Mötley Crüe, Poison, Ratt). If you’re looking for the connective tissue between the two, it’s very clearly KISS and Hanoi Rocks. But there was also a hazy and overlooked “art-glam” moment in the mid to late 1970s when bands like Roxy Music and Sparks stretched glam’s platform boot stomp into weird new musical life-forms. Art-glam’s pinnacle achievement, I think, was the first two albums by reluctant Brit glitter-kings Japan. Adolescent Sex and Obscure Alternatives were both released in 1978. By the time most people discovered them, the band had already abandoned their sound and vision, barreling straight-ahead into synth-driven pop, eventually becoming vanguards of the “New Romantic” movement. They were much happier being proto Duran Durans, and Japan frontman David Sylvian decided to just pretend 1978 never even happened.

But it did, man. And it was glorious.
 

Dandies in the underworld: Japan in 1978
 
Japan was formed in South London in 1974 by Sylvian and his brother, Steve Jansen. Sylvian’s tragic beauty was the band’s initial calling card and when early publicity photos wound their way to the band’s namesake country, they became instant sensations there. While virtually ignored back home, they were huge in Japan, even before releasing a lick of music. Their manager told the Japanese press that Sylvian was voted “most beautiful man in the world” (he wasn’t), and that was really all they needed. Initially, Japan’s sound was essentially blue-eyed funk, but by the time they hit the studio in 1977, an affection for the chunky hooks of the Dolls and T.Rex had kicked in. Their first two albums are low-budget wonders of post-punky jangle, alienated disco-funk, and slithery glitter rock. None of it should work, but it does. Perfectly. And looks-wise, the band was impeccable, like Hanoi Rocks in custom-fitted shark skin suits.
 

Racy sleeve for Japan’s debut 1978 single. Remind you of anything else?
 
But none of it mattered, really. 1978 had other things on its mind. Marc Bolan died in ‘77 and took glam rock with him. It was all about punk and disco and new-wave, and Japan’s funky glitter-rock seemed anachronistic to most, including the band themselves. In 1979 they met Euro disco king Giorgio Moroder who turned them on to dancier alternatives. He produced their hit single “Life in Tokyo” later that year and paved the way for their arty synth-pop makeover. They spent the next three years pioneering the new romantic movement before unceremoniously breaking up mid-stride. Sylvian has gotten the band back together here and there over the intervening decades, sometimes under the moniker Rain Tree Crow. But one thing he has never wavered on is how much he hates those first two albums.
 

Japan’s 1980 new-wave makeover.
 

“It doesn’t mean anything. That whole era of Japan was ....misguided,” Sylvian told NME in 1991. “If people want to somehow keep that period alive for themselves it’s really up to them but they’re fooling themselves. Maybe it’s a fantastic form of escapism for those people who build their existence around the fact that there was once a group called Japan. I think they’re missing so much in life. I feel totally detached from it. I don’t relate to it at all. If I felt complimented or flattered by that then I’d say so. I don’t. In fact most of the time I find it irritating, in that they’re highlighting an area of my work that I was involved in, in which I place no value myself.”

 

 
Well, sez you, dude. The fact of the matter is this: Japan’s 1978 albums are gorgeously disaffected glam rock gems well worth rediscovering.

And as these clips after the jump show, they looked as fantastic as they sounded.

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Posted by Ken McIntyre
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07.17.2019
07:36 am
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Gods and Monsters: The haunting artwork of Shiki Taira
01.02.2019
07:16 am
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Room #3110 of the Park Hotel, Tokyo, has a large plate glass window with an impressive view of Mount Fuji. The view is one of the reasons for booking the room. The other, more important reason, is room #3110 has been designed and painted by artist Shiki Taira. It is room #30 in the hotel’s series of apartments designed by different Japanese artists. The hotel management’s intent is to offer guests a “fresh look at art”

To touch the beauty of the soul, surely a hotel which refreshes mind and body, and where more time is available for relaxation than in art museums, is an ideal venue for such an experience.

Taira’s room #3110 features a variety of Japanese gods flying across the walls, which when night falls, their reflection makes it appear as if these gods are flying over Mount Fuji. Taira adds:

I wanted to create a room where guests will be surrounded by auspicious Japanese motifs…They are lucky Japanese motifs such as the Fujin (Wind God), Raijin (Thunder God), Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods) and Ichimoku-sama (One-Eyed God)...

 
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Part of room #3110 designed and painted by Shiki Taira.
 
Born in Tokyo in 1990, Taira studied at the Department of Design, Tokyo University of Arts, where she graduated in Fine Art from the Department of Drawing and Decorative Art in 2013. Taira first exhibited her work at the 0+Ten Gallery, Tokyo, with further shows quickly following at the Sato Museum of Art, the ShinPA 10th, Gallery Art Morimoto, and the Seizan Gallery. She has been described as “a cutting edge artist” who is known for “her unique yōkai world that unfolds on silk with excellent brush works.”

Taira’s paintings incorporate traditional yōkai—the gods, ghosts, shape-shifters, and monsters from Japanese mythology who live in the half-light, the twilight area between between known and unknown, who prey on the unwitting and the lost—and reimagines them in a contemporary setting. Taira has said of her work that she likes to deform an individual’s distinctive features which then allows her to bring out images of the phantoms underneath. In Japan, she says:

We have an idea the gods dwell in various creatures and nature traditionally in Japan. Phantom is a part of these ideas and painted and printed in subject of Ukiyo-e in Edo-period by Hokusai Katsushika and others.

Her work suggests our lives are haunted by strange obsessions and superstitions which can sometimes shape our actions.
 
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More beautiful, ghostly artworks after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.02.2019
07:16 am
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Death is a lonely business: The miniature death scenes of Miyu Kojima
10.15.2018
09:55 am
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A friend of mine died at the weekend. He was a good, kind man in his forties, far too young to die. But death doesn’t care about age or family or feelings. That’s for those left behind to deal with. Miyu Kojima is 26 years old and lives in Japan. She works for a company that cleans the rooms of houses and apartments where someone has died usually on their own, what the Japanese term kodokushi (孤独死) “lonely deaths.” Such deaths mainly occur among the older generation—bereaved wives or husbands whose partners have long preceded them in death and have continued living out their last years in a fractured, isolated world.

Kojima has been cleaning “death scenes” for four years. She became involved in the work after her father died. She cleans an average of 300 such locations every year. Kojima describes the work as hard, difficult, and often disturbing. She also claims the atmosphere in homes where someone has been murdered or has committed suicide as far more oppressive “(“the air is heavier”).

As part of the grieving process, photographs are taken of the room in which the deceased was found. These are sometimes used to help relatives (or friends) come to terms with the loss of their loved one. However, Kojima feels these images do not always provide the necessary closure. She therefore started making miniature replicas of the death scenes she worked on. Though not trained as an artist, Kojima taught herself the skills necessary to build and sculpt these miniature rooms. Each model takes four weeks to produce.

Part of the reason Kojima makes these miniature death scenes is the deep regret she feels over her father’s death. He had separated from his wife. One day, when her mother came to discuss details of their divorce, she found him lying unconscious in his apartment. He was in a coma. At the hospital, the doctors said to Kojima that her father might hear her if she spoke to him. When she did, tears appeared in his eyes. He died shortly thereafter. Kojima felt regret that she had not been able to have a closer bond with her father. By making her miniature death scenes, Kojima hopes she can help bring those who feel (as she once did) estranged or distant to their families closer together.
 
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More miniature scenes of ‘lonely death,’ after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.15.2018
09:55 am
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Fractured faces & deconstructed reality: The eerie decomposing sculptures of Yuichi Ikehata
07.23.2018
08:03 am
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A sculpture by Yuichi Ikehata.
 

“We live from moment to moment in a mix of truth and fiction that we consider to be reality. The distinction between reality and fiction is a relationship such that we require one in order to recognize the other, and at times they are so closely connected that we are unable to distinguish the two.”

—Artist Yuichi Ikehata

Born in 1975 in Chiba, Japan, Yuichi Ikehata is a talented sculptor and photographer with an affinity for creating three-dimensional renderings of people and their body parts. Since the late 90s, Ikehata’s profoundly moving work has received awards and citations in Japan, Italy, and Paris. For one of his long-term projects, “Fragment of Long-Term Memory” the artist sculpted a large assortment of human body parts held together by exposed wire and thread. As the word “fragment” suggests, the human sculptures in Ikehata’s LTM series are hopelessly tattered, much like our own inner-selves are in the real world. Ikehata then photographs his decaying subjects often in situations that inspire a wide-range of emotions from serenity to dread.

At this time it appears Ikehata is in the process of adding new work to LTM, and given the powerful images you are about to see from the series thus far, this is excellent news. It is exciting to think his best years may still be ahead of him. The following images are slightly NSFW.
 

 

 
Much more after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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07.23.2018
08:03 am
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Bring It: Meet the Gorgeous Ladies of Japanese Wrestling
07.16.2018
08:53 am
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A photo of the female professional wrestling team The Beauty Pair. This image was used to help promote a film based on their exploits in the ring.
 
Professional wrestling has a long, storied history in Japan. Active cultivation of the sport was started following WWII as the country was collectively mourning and recovering after the horrendous bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing approximately 200,000 people and other wide-spread, war-related devastation. The sport became hugely popular, and sometime in the mid-1950s wrestlers from the U.S. would make the trip to Japan to grapple with the country’s newest star athletes including an all-female “Puroresu” (professional wrestling) league, All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling Association, formed in 1955. Just over a decade later, the league would become All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW), and instead of going at it exclusively with American or other foreign wrestlers, the sport started to pit female Japanese wrestlers against each other which is just as fantastic as it sounds.

All-female wrestling in Japan in the 1970s was a glorious wonderland full of tough, athletic women happily defying cultural and gender norms. Matches were broadcast on television and a duo going by the name The Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda) were huge stars. Teenagers themselves, Sato and Ueda, were inspirational to their young female fans leading to the pair (and Sato as a solo artist), to be signed by RCA, producing several hit singles. They starred in a film based on their wrestling personas and sales of magazines featuring The Beauty Pair and other girl wrestlers were swift. The masterminds of the AJW—Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers—knew their ladies-only league was now unstoppable.
 

Japanese wrestling duo The Crush Gals, Chigusa Nagayo, and Lioness Asuka.
 
Female wrestling in the 80’s and 90’s in Japan was reminiscent of American producer and promoter David B. McLane’s magical GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling), and introduced more theatrics into the sport by way of heavy metal makeup, wild hairdos, and eccentric individual personas. In the 80s, televised matches would glue an estimated ten million viewers to the tube much in part to the insane popularity of The Beauty Pair’s successors, The Crush Gals. Both women had signature closing maneuvers; Chigusa Nagayo was known for her Super Freak and Super Freak II, and her partner, Lioness Asuka often finished off her opponents using one of her go-to moves like the LSD II, LSD III and the K Driller (a reverse piledriver). Like their predecessors, The Crush Gals were also musicians and put out a few singles during the 80s, often regaling viewers with songs during matches. Other ladies of the AJW such as Bull Nakano, Dump Matsumoto, Jumbo Hori and others had their own personal theme music. And since lady-wrassling was such a sensation (as it should be), the theme music created for various stars of the scene was compiled on a neat picture disc called Japanese Super Angels in 1985. Video games based on the goings on in the AJW started making the rounds in the early 1990s with titles from Sega and Super Famicom.

So, in the event all this talk about Japanese female wrestling has you wondering if it is still a thing in Japan, I’m happy to report it looks to be alive and well. I’ve posted loads of images taken from Japanese wrestling magazines, posters, and publicity photos from the 70s, 80s, and 90s featuring some of the ballsy women which took on the game of wrestling in Japan and won. Deal with it.
 

Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto.
 

Dump Matsumoto and her partner Crane Yu pictured with referee Shiro Abe after winning the WWWA Tag Titles in February of 1985.
 

 
Much more after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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07.16.2018
08:53 am
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Sodomy, sake, murderous monsters & sketches straight from Hell: The art of Kawanabe Kyōsai
05.22.2018
09:14 am
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“School for Spooks” by Kawanabe Kyōsai 1864. A larger version can be seen here.

 
Born 1831 in Koga, Japan, artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (sometimes noted as Kawanabe Gyosai) had the distinction of being a highly influential artist during both the Edo period (1603-1867) and the Meiji period (1868-1912). Another distinction Kyōsai earned during his career was being known as “the demon of painting” most likely a nod to the volume and diversity of work Kyōsai produced which was admired by influential creatives not only in Japan but in France and the UK while he was active. His work during the Meiji period was known for its infusion of politics and satire as well as his use of caricature which got him in trouble with the authorities. What exactly ticked the cops off is a bit murky. Some cite following a night of pounding sake with his fellow artists and writers, Kyōsai was arrested for creating works which were critical of Japanese political figures and the police. One of Kyōsai’s paintings “Instructions for Drinking Parties” (1870) has also been named as a culprit in this caper as it was suspected of portraying Westerners and Japanese engaged in acts of “sodomy” and sent him to the slammer. Kyōsai spent three months in jail and received 50 lashes just for creating art.

As far as Kyōsai’s early life, there are a couple of different historical accounts regarding the artist’s father. Some sources indicate that Kyōsai was the “son of a samurai” while others note his father was a rice merchant in Koga. What is not in dispute is that Kyōsai’s father noticed his son’s talent at the tender age of three before enrolling the child in formal art training at the Kanō school at the age of six or seven, later moving on to the Surugadai branch of the Kano School. During this time in Kyōsai’s young life, it has been documented that he traveled down to a river and pulled out a human head (noted in the book Yurei: The Japanese Ghost), which he proceeded to use as a model of sorts before being discovered and told by his family to toss it back where he found it. At the age of 21, Kyōsai’s work was already legendary, as was his unhinged behavior and epic consumption of sake. Allegedly Kyōsai would have 1.8 liters of sake delivered to his house every morning, often downing three or so bottles before noon. Perhaps this bit of history regarding Kyōsai might make you wonder how the fuck does one paint with the deft and precision of a master while getting bombed on rice wine? Here’s more from a friend of Kyōsai, Japanese journalist and writer Kanagaki Robun on Kyōsai’s “creative process:”

“At about 11 o’clock in the morning on 30 June 1880, the renowned Japanese painter Kawanabe Kyōsai started work on his great curtain for the Shintomi theatre. It was to be a version of the classic subject the One Hundred Demons, and as Kyōsai wielded his huge painting broom, their faces began to take shape. But there was something different about them. These were not the elegant forms of the Ukiyo-e painters. They were wild-eyed, manic creatures who moved across the picture in a frenzy of diabolical abomination. This was Kyōsai “crazy painting.”

Perhaps it was the booze which brought the best out of Kyōsai; it was also likely instrumental in elevating the artist’s more ribald works, including one you have probably seen before—his bizarre “Fart Battle” (1867) which was a form of political protest meant to address the encroachment of Western influence in Japan and its impacts on Japanese customs and lifestyles. This was a theme/sentiment he incorporated into his art for the majority of his long career. I’ve posted images of Kyōsai’s work below which include his famous series Sketches of Hell commissioned in the 1870s by surgeon and Japanese art collector William Anderson. Much of what follows is NSFW.
 

A vision painted recalling the severed head Kyōsai fished out of a river as a child.
 

“A Comic Picture” 1864.
 
More Kawanabe Kyōsai after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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05.22.2018
09:14 am
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The fractured fairy tales of photographer Miwa Yanagi
03.14.2018
09:39 am
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A photograph perhaps based on the fairy tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by Miwa Yanagi from her series “Fairy Tale.”
 
Miwa Yanagi is an artist and photographer with a vivid imagination. Hailing from Kyoto, Yanagi’s work has been exhibited around Europe and the U.S. since the early 1990s. While in high school, Yanagi started to explore her artistic aspirations—though her parents had other plans and hoped that their daughter would find a stable job and get married to an equally stable man. Fortunately, while she was getting ready to take the entrance test for the Kyoto University of the Arts, she took a few drawing lessons from Katsushige Nakahashi (Nakahashi would later become well-known for his “Zero” project which culminated with the fiery destruction of a homemade Japanese WWII plane). Her interactions with Nakahashi would prove to be the impetus for her decision to become an artist herself.

After finishing up her studies, Yanagi found a job teaching. In 1993 she would hold her very first, and very successful solo live art installation/show called “Elevator Girls” based on Japan’s famously female department store elevator attendants. Elevator attendants have been a part of Japanese culture since the 1930s and though their numbers have dwindled Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi (a large International department store chain headquartered in Tokyo) still employs an attendant at their main location in Chūō, Tokyo. Yanagi’s subjects in the captivatingly dark series “Fairy Tale” are exclusively comprised of women from a variety of age groups, and all of her photographic series take years to complete. Yanagi’s subject matter of choice has earned the artist a reputation for being a feminist, and she hopes that her photographs might help bring about more progressive societal attitudes as they pertain to gender-bias and equality in the nation. Here’s more from Yanagi on that:

“I’m happy with people thinking of my work as feminist art, but I don’t set out with that intent. If you are making art on the basis of an agenda, it will inevitably lose its power.”

I’ve posted images from Yanagi’s “Fairy Tale” series (which can also be purchased in book form, here) below. Most are NSFW.
 

Yanagi’s nod to ‘Snow White.’
 

Yanagi’s twisted riff on the classic German fairy tale, ‘Rapunzel.’
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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03.14.2018
09:39 am
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SatoMasochism: The sci-fi erotica of Pater Sato
02.27.2018
09:26 am
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A stunning piece from Japanese artist Pater Sato’s 1980 series, “SatoMasochism.”
 
Artist Pater Sato—born Yoshinori Sato in 1945 in Yokosuka, Japan—switched out his first name after portraying Pater in a high school play based on the book, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. When his family relocated to Tokyo, Sato enrolled in a graphic design school where he excelled at illustration. He would go on to attend Setsu Mode Seminar, a prestigious fashion design school in Tokyo named for one of Japan’s greatest illustrators of fashion, Setsu Nagasawa. When he was done with school, Sato landed a job with a large advertising studio, as well as hooking up with Japanese rock and roll-oriented performance group Tokyo Kid Brothers. The group would find their way to New York bringing more art opportunities to Sato, including working under New York-based Abstract Expressionist Paul Jenkins.

Upon returning to Tokyo in the early 1970s, Sato began his career as a freelance artist and his work has appeared in magazines around the world, in books, and on album covers. In 1986 a museum and gallery in Harajuku dedicated to all things Pater Sato opened its doors and is still in business today. The artist died entirely too soon at the young age of 49 in 1994, though he has thankfully left behind an extensive portfolio of work, including a fantastic series from 1980 cleverly entitled “SatoMasochism.” Most recently, Sato’s images were used by designer Stella McCartney in her 2017/2018 Fall/Winter line for men. You can see images from the sexually-charged “SatoMasochims” series as well as other examples of Sato’s work below. NSFW.
 

 

 

Sato’s work in a magazine ad from 1978.
 

 
More ‘SatoMasochism’ after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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02.27.2018
09:26 am
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Vocalist for clown-themed Iron Maiden cover band busted in Japan with 9.8-kilogram drug stash


 
First off, I must admit I had no idea that a clown-themed Iron Maiden cover band even existed. Sadly I was hipped to Vancouver’s Powerclown only after seeing the news about vocalist Dicksee Diànno getting caught trying to smuggle seven-million dollars worth of drugs into Japan, a nation which has maintained a zero-tolerance attitude about drug use and possession for decades.

The story goes like this; Diànno (who also goes by Dan Scum though his real name is Daniel Whitmore) stashed what was estimated to be seven million bucks worth of a “white powder” inside a guitar case. Whitmore was taken into custody by Japanese authorities at Narita International Airport on December 11 saying the illegal substance they seized in the guitar case were of the “stimulant” variety. If you are not aware, drugs have been illegal in Japan pretty much forever, and the penalties for getting pinched possessing illegal substances are HARSH. Getting caught with anything from cocaine to marijuana could get you locked up for ten years. Here’s a statement released via the band’s Facebook page by guitarist Sketchy Klown on the grim situation:

“Flags are flying half-mast at the Powerclown circus tent. I assure you, any frowns we are wearing are real. Painted on or not. All we can do is hope for the best for him. Clownery and parlour tricks, whether by him or us ain’t gonna do no good. Even with his voice, the voice of a songbird, and his velvet-painting-smooth charm, he won’t be able to talk his way out of these hijinks, even if he did speak Japanese.

While none of us clowns condone Dicksee’s actions, or recommend anyone else attempting something this foolish, we do hope for the best for our grease-painted pal. We hope that by some small…make that large…miracle, he somehow manages to slide into his cock-pink pants and dance himself back home to face this different form of music he has created for himself. We love you Dicksee. If you somehow make it back here, and we hope you do, we may even go easy on you. Maybe. No promises.”

Yikes. According to the Vancouver Sun, Whitmore told Japanese customs officials he was headed to Japan to do some “sightseeing.” As they continued to question Whitmore, he allegedly started to sweat like a lot of people do when they are carrying a 9.8-kilogram stash of illegal drugs. Whitmore, who was traveling alone, finally told the customs agents he had been asked to carry the guitar case in question by a Chinese resident of Canada and deliver it to a hotel in Narita City. His bandmates and people close to the singer couldn’t understand why Whitmore would do such a thing given the consequences. Another aspect of this strange and sad case is that on December 9th, two days before Whitmore arrived at the airport in Narita, he posted this cryptic message on his Facebook page:
 

 
You can see a news report that shows footage of what Japanese customs seized here, and it makes things look pretty bad for Mr. Whitmore. A photo of contents of the guitar case follows as well as some live footage of Powerclown performing with Whitmore in 2014.
 

A photo taken by Japanese customs agents of the drug stash in Whitmore’s guitar case.
 

Footage of Powerclown performing live with Whitmore in 2014.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Elderly couple face harassment charges for vengefully blasting Iron Maiden
The time Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson asked a hooker for a refund after a botched handjob
Meet Aria, the band known as ‘the Russian Iron Maiden’
Norwegian interviewer prerecords questions for Iron Maiden, hilarity ensues
Asking Iron Maiden to lip-sync is asking for trouble, basically

Posted by Cherrybomb
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01.15.2018
09:52 am
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The terrifying Japanese demon festival that probably sends kids into therapy for life
11.06.2017
09:38 am
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A little kid running away from a man dressed as Paantu, a mythological demon/god who appears in a yearly festival on the island of Miyako in September.
 
The mythology behind the ancient, annual Japanese Paantu festival tells of how a mysterious and odd-looking wooden face washed ashore on a beach located on the northern shore of island of Miyako (or Miyako-jima). The arrival of the mask was the impetus for the festival which has been held over the course of several centuries. On other islands in the Miyako chain, the festival is closed to outsiders like many other religious ceremonies held on the various islands that make up the Miyako Islands of the Okinawa Prefecture, so not much is actually known about the gathering which is held in early September. However, details about the clandestine event are not a complete mystery.

Paantu is held in part to help drive out demons and removing any trace of bad luck that is hanging around on Miyako. In preparation for the festival, a group of local men are “elected” to portray the evil devil or god Paantu. The men then cover themselves with mud, leaves, and branches and finally the ceremonial black mask of Paantu. The menacing-looking group then rambles around visiting the locals smearing mud on folks, doors to homes and even police cars in order to ward off evil spirits. The popularity (and signifigance) of the festival has drastically faded in recent years as it has become increasingly difficult to recruit people willing to cover themselves in mud and scare the shit out of little kids—which I find hard to believe because all that sounds like a pretty fun time if you ask me. I’ve posted some photos taken at various Paantu Festivals for you to scroll through below and a couple of videos of good old Paantu terrorizing kids and covering them in mud.

If you need me, I probably won’t be anywhere near Miyako. That’s for sure.
 

PAANTU!
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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11.06.2017
09:38 am
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‘Nicolastick’: Japan turns actor Nicolas Cage into a snack food (because of course they did)
10.05.2017
08:57 am
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The “Nicolastick’ by Japanese snack giant, Umaibo. Actor Nicolas Cage is pictured on the package in character for the film ‘Army of One.’ Only available in Japan. BOO!
 
So here’s a thing you may or may not know about actor Nicolas Cage, he never stops working. This year alone he has been attached to eight movies (a few are currently in post-production) as well as two more set for 2018 release that are also in post-production. In 2016 Cage starred in Army of One—a film about a man who (after being visited by God) goes on a search and destroy mission to get Osama Bin Laden.

The reason I bring up that cinematic catastrophe is that the film is about to make its premiere in Japan where it is amusingly known as “Bin Laden is my Target.”  And purchasing a ticket to one of the showings is the only way that you can score a package of Umaibo’s special “Nicolastick” foodstuff starting on October 13th. Known as the “delicious stick” in Japan, Umaibo makes a huge variety of the flavored corn snacks such as “Beef Tongue,” “Shrimp and Mayonnaise,” and “Salami” that is rumored to contain fragrant notes of delicious Cheeto dust. So what flavor did Mr. Cage’s Nicolastick get? Apparently, dull old plain old corn was good enough for this bizarre bit of publicity. I’m quite sure this strange promotional snack will show up on auction sites like eBay before too long so don’t worry! You still might get a chance to say that you know what a Nicolastick tastes like.

Life goals, I’ve got ‘em. Do you?

More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.05.2017
08:57 am
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Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps): The ghoulish artwork of Gōjin Ishihara
10.03.2017
08:46 am
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An illustration by Gōjin Ishihara published in the 1972 children’s book, ‘Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters.’
 
Japanese artist Gōjin Ishihara had a very long and impressive career during which he was often affectionately referred to as “Japan’s Norman Rockwell.” His preferred medium was India Ink—which is commonly used in comic book art though Ishihara would thin it before he used it, making it more difficult to manipulate.

Born in the Shimane region of Honshu Island in 1923, Ishihara was getting paid for his illustrations while he was still quite young, perhaps as young as ten (though it is difficult to pinpoint more precisely). After completing school, he traveled to Mongolia where he held several jobs including a gig painting movie cards for silent films. At the age of 21, Ishihara was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army during which time he was nearly killed by friendly fire. The experience led Ishihara to develop a disdain for authority after being drilled in the army to believe he and his peers should be prepared to die while serving the divine figure that was Emperor Hirohito. Following his horrific time in the service, Ishihara returned to Japan where he enrolled at Nihon University where he was exposed to the artwork of Norman Rockwell which would strongly influence his artistic style. His career as an artist soon took flight and Ishihara’s illustrations would be widely published on the covers of pulp novels and magazines. In 1972 a large number of his drawings appeared in the book Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters which was marketed to children. The terrifying illustrations featured depictions of cannibalism, torture and other mayhemic situations involving netherworld ghouls and giant murderous cats.

Later on, Ishihara would create erotic illustrations under the name “Hayashi Gekkō” for gay publications and novels which are as hardcore as his illustrations from his children’s book. I can’t show you any of them here on DM, but you can see them in all their highly NSFW glory here. Ishihara continued to work throughout the 1990s including the creation of various mind-boggling illustrations for the first issue of adult magazine series The Seikimatsu Club in 1996. For their debut issue, the magazine took on the Manson family murders with the help of Ishihara’s immense talents. The transfixing and outré illustrations he created for the magazine at the age of 73 include a disturbing black and white collage, featuring, among others, Charles Manson, Rev. Jim Jones, Uriel from the Unarius Academy of Science (who was known in Japan due to her appearance on the cover a popular underground music CD comp of the early 90s), Aleister Crowley, “King of the Witches” Alex Sanders, Anton LaVey in a fucked up threesome with two women wearing goat and pig heads, Father Yod the leader of the Source Family cult, some hooded Klan members being crucified, Shoko Asahara the blind founder of the Japanese doomsday cult group Aum Shinrikyo.

Following that triumph, Ishihara would pass away in 1997 leaving a large legacy of fantasy/horror artwork. Books containing Isihara’s artwork are hard to come by and when and if you do they will put a large dent in your wallet as I’ve seen them listed for several hundred dollars each. If you’re looking for a more modest investment, Ishihara’s artwork is featured in the 2015 book Illustrations of The Strange, Mysterious And Bizarre For Kids of The Showa Era along with other masters of the realm of Japanese illustration such as the eye-popping sci-fi work of Shigeru Komatsuzaki.

Most of the images that I’ve posted below are pretty NSFW.
 

Another one of Ishihara’s illustrations from the ‘Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters.’ More follow.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.03.2017
08:46 am
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One for the Road: Street photographs of drunk Japanese people
09.18.2017
10:05 am
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Tokyo-based photographer Lee Chapman has been documenting life in Japan for almost two decades. Originally from England, Chapman went to Japan on a one-year work contract to teach English at a language school. He now works as an English teacher at a local high school—which means he has plenty of free time to take photographs.

Chapman finds it easier to wander around Tokyo with a camera compared to say, London, where he says “the authorities are clamping down on photography in the public sphere.” As an outsider he finds himself attracted to subjects that many indigenous photographers might overlook. He has no interest in covering the “fashion girls of Harajuku and Shibuya” or the quirky trends so beloved by western fashion magazines. Instead, Chapman focuses on the areas that a lot of people don’t see—the old, the homeless, the people who live on the periphery of society.

Among the many subjects Chapman has covered is a series of photographs of drunks passed out on the city’s sidewalks, doorways, bars, and train stations. Being passed-out, stone-cold drunk on Tokyo’s streets is a common and accepted sight. Whether through an excess of alcohol or mere tiredness, businessmen in dapper suits can often be found lying spreadeagled next to heavy metal freaks and regular low-rent run-of-the-mill alcoholics.

Check more of Lee Chapman’s superb work here.
 
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More of Lee Chapman’s photographs, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.18.2017
10:05 am
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Beautiful hand-colored photographs of Japanese women in the late 19th-century
08.17.2017
10:42 am
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‘Seated Woman.’
 
Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934) was a Japanese photographer who learned his trade as an assistant to Felice Beato, the pioneering photojournalist who came to Japan to document its people and their culture. Japan had just been through a civil war that led to the restoration of imperial rule. The country had also been forced—under the shadow of U.S. Navy battleships—to open trading routes with America. This new trade brought technology, tourism, and for some, the opportunity to turn imposition to advantage. And that’s what Kimbei did.

After learning all that he could from Beato, Kimbei established his own photographic studio in Yokohama in 1881. Kimbei had a natural talent for art and had spent part of his time coloring Beato’s photographs. Hand painting photographs was a way of redefining the medium and adding “an artistic Japanese intervention to Western technology.”

Once he established his studio, Kimbei plied his trade producing souvenir photographs of Japanese culture—samurais, geishas, tea drinking, musicians, everyday workers. These photographs maintained Japanese traditions at a time of great social, political, and cultural change when it seemed the very fabric of the country was being irredeemably changed. Among the many pictures Kimbei produced was a large set of portraits of Japanese women and their daily lives. But there’s an interesting thing going on in these photographs. What at first appears to be a straightforward representation is often an idealized or Western view of Oriental life intended for foreign consumption. Yet, at the same time, Kimbei transcends this view by use of color and composition.

This balancing between Japanese and Western media parallels national tensions concerning the degree that Japan should adopt foreign tools and technology, contrasted with a desire to preserve indigenous traditions and practices.

Kimbei became one of the most famous and respected Japanese photographers of his era, and his work gives a rare insight into Japan of the late 19th-century.
 
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‘Flower Kept Alive by Putting in Water.’
 
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‘Girls Carrying Paper Lantern in Winter Evening.’
 
See more of Kimbei’s work, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.17.2017
10:42 am
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