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Category Archives: Japan

Yoshimasa Tsuchiya

Yoshimasa Tsuchiya was born in 1977 in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2001, and completed the doctoral course at the Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation, Graduate School of Fine Arts in 2007. He is know primarily for his real and imaginary animal sculptures, which can seem mystical or realistic with their smooth milky white coloring.  He uses traditional Buddhist carving techniques with the texture so smooth, a quality not usually seen in wood carvings. He also uses crystal or glass for the unfocused eyes that enhances its mysterious quality. His works have received favorable reviews at exhibitions and art fairs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Europe. 

The artist can be followed on Twitter.

Images:  Courtesy of Yoshimasa Tsuchiya.

Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi

On November 21, 2018 we posted a botanical calendar created by Japanese painter Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi.  We are revisiting this artist posting his enchanting utopian paintings of fishing bears, rowing deers and a few chimeric humans.  The artist lives and works in Kanazawa, Japan, studied at Kanazawa College of Art and began working in 2012.

You can view more of his work on his website, Behance, Facebook and Instagram.  A few of his paintings can be purchased here in his Etsy shop.

Images:  Courtesy of Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi.

Hariko Murata

Dictionary.com defines paper-mache as a substance made of pulped paper or paper pulp mixed with glue and other materials or of layers of paper glued and pressed together, molded when moist to form various articles, and becoming hard and strong when dry.  The pieces shown above was created by Hariko Murata, a Japanese illustrator and paper-mache artist based in Yokohama, Japan. Her designs are ‘kawaii’, the culture of cuteness in Japan.

You can follow the artist on her website, Behance and Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Hariko Murata.

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