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| Wed 08 Oct 2008 |
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Tag: Japan
These items have all been tagged with the tag "Japan", You can see other tags in the Tag Cloud| Munetsugu Hall |
| 2008-07-22 16:59:17 |
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Norihiko Dan — born in 1956 in the Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan — is the designer of the beautiful Munetsugu Hall, completed in 2007 in Naka Ward, Nagoya, Japan. It is a privately-funded concert hall that continues the age-old but almost-dead tradition of wealthy arts patrons initiating and financing the creation of art spaces. Fluid, white wall shapes are the distinctive feature of Munetsugu Hall’s main performance space. The walls bring to mind artistic sweep marks left by a gigantic builder who in his boredom doodled in his mortar tray with a massive trowel and then let the shapes solidify. Norihiko Dan has won several architecture awards in Japan and Taiwan including the Distinguished Architect Award of the Japanese Institute of Architecture and the ARCADIA Award Gold Medal in 2007. His work has been part of exhibitions in Japan, Taiwan, USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Italy and the UK. In addition to being a respected architect and educator, Norihiko Dan is also an architecture historian and writes novels and screenplays. Munetsugu Hall’s generous benefactor is Tokuji Munetsugu who with his wife Naomi made a fortune in the restaurants business. Their company Ichibanya Co. Ltd. (based in Aichi, Japan) operates more than 1,000 curry and pasta restaurants under the names Curry House CoCo Ichibanya and Pasta de Coco. Munetsugu spent two billion yen to build the 310-seat concert hall. He has also set up a nonprofit organization to support welfare, sports and arts activities. - Tuija Seipell |
| Onigiri House - Oita, Japan |
| 2008-02-25 06:08:24 |
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Architecture and adaptation go hand in hand - many of the types and styles of buildings created in the past will not translate into our current design discourse. Only when architects acknowledges the world around us is changing, becoming more complex, can they successfully create functional space. Japan's NKS architects design buildings that re-frame space - adapt to changes in their surroundings. The small wooden Onigiri House in the countryside of southern Japan was built for an older couple in attempt to keep costs down whilst maximising space. The house's main structure forms a triangular tube-shape and is made from thick cedar boards, traditionally used for ship scaffolding. Windows are spaced along the top where the boards lean together as well as in intervals along the base of the house. Additional glass doors within a glass frame fill the end of the tube. An obvious connection to nature is essential to most Japanese architects - and here the placement of windows and doors allows light and wind to penetrate the entire space. By Andrew J Wiener More of NKS work below |
| Fujiya Ginzan, Tokyo |
| 2008-01-30 06:40:43 |
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Since 1991, San Francisco-native Jeanie Fuji has acted as the traditional Japanese okami (land lady or female inn keeper) of the Fujiya Ryokan (traditional wooden inn) in the Ginzan Onsen (hot springs) area. That year, she married Fuji Atsushi, the son and heir of the 350-year-old inn and started her rigorous training under her mother-in-law in the art of serving customers, true Japanese style. This included preparing all meals, washing the dishes and cleaning all rooms. The goal was to make sure every need of every customer was anticipated and met following the age-old inn tradition of providing the right amount of service at the right time. Fuji describes the types of things she had to learn. “Sliding a fusuma door open and shut, greeting guests, bringing them meals on small o-zen tables... everything has to be done a certain way, following the old traditions. And I had to learn how to talk with the guests using polite, formal Japanese. I often wanted to give up and go home to the United States. But now I love my work here,” she says in a Japanese publication. By the time she had a good decade of experience behind her, Fuji had gained a celebrity okami status that she modestly and reluctantly dismisses. By 2004, she and her husband hired Tokyo-based celebrity architect Kengo Kuma to raise the personal service of the inn to even higher level. Kuma overtook a complete remodelling of the inn that reopened in July 2006. Kuma is behind many well-known buildings, including the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey headquarters in Tokyo. The capacity of the thoroughly wooden, three-story Fujiya Inn was reduced to only eight rooms with full capacity at 16 persons. Considering the location of the inn, right in the middle of a relatively remote rural area known for its hot springs and natural beauty, the level of luxury in the inn is astonishing. Kuma has been able to combine traditional Japanese simplicity with international tastes and needs, yet avoided the dumbed-down, westernized version of Japanese style. In fact, Fuji has written an autobiography on this subject Nipponjin ni wa, Nihon ga Tarinai (Japanese people are not Japanese enough), in which she emphasizes that it is important for modern Japanese to recognize and re-claim the value of their own millennia-old customs and history. At Fujiya Inn, you feel that you are part of an ancient, authentic and almost organic history that seems to be seeping through every seam and screen here. Many aspects contribute to this effect. One is Kuma’s brilliant use of layers, screens as thin as veils, to both hide and reveal space. The omnipresent samushiko bamboo screens by craft master Hideo Nakata (no, he’s not the horror-movie director) and his son required 1.2 million four-millimetre-wide strips of bamboo. Green stained-glass panes by Masato Shida and the prolific use of the handmade, richly textured Echizen Japanese paper add to the feeling of lightness and transparency. The organic, natural quotient of the inn is also boosted by the baths and the hand-prepared, fresh food. The inn has five beautiful private hot springs baths including an open-air bath on the top floor. The food is based on a regular washoku (Japanese cuisine) menu and features many edible plants and other local ingredients. Fuji’s favourites include the sansai, mountain vegetables, including kogomi (ostrich fern fiddleheads) and urui (plantain lily petioles.) The only exception to this local-only rule is Cafe Wisteria (English for fuji), open only in the summer months, and offering international coffees and cakes. To get to the Fujiya Inn, take the 3.5-hour trip on the Yamagata Bullet Train (Shinkansen) from Tokyo and then get a bus to the hot springs. Or fly from Tokyo to the Yamagata airport and arrange for a pick up by the inn. By Tuija Seipell |
| New Bape Store - Shibuya, Japan |
| 2008-01-18 22:12:07 |
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Unworldly spaces with equally unworldly names, like the topsy-turvy boutique And A, Beams T or Foot Soldier, shops that feature little conveyor belts for the display of merchandise, or Nowhere *A Bathing Ape 'Busy Work Shop', a Tokyo boutique that stocks and displays garments in an oversized refrigerator that resembles the familiar unit in everybody's local supermarket - all recent additions to Japan's shopping streets - are the work of Masamichi Katayama, founder of Tokyo-based WonderWall. More than just attempts to be futuristic or extravagant, they are highly sophisticated retail outlets. Not to mention great fun! Katayama is the consummate consumer. With his shop designs for *A Bathing Ape, a charismatic apparel brand, Katayama has ventured beyond the streets of Japan to enrich shopping experience in London and New York. By Lisa Evans |
| Fast Food Change - McDonalds |
| 2008-01-11 01:25:47 |
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They’re everywhere you turn in nearly every corner across six continents – McDonald’s iconic golden arches have led us to familiar and welcoming surrounds for over half a century. But even at the most recognisable burger chain on Earth, change is inevitable. As we’ve become more health conscious McDonald’s responded with a selection of salads and fruits. As we’ve become more international, McDonald’s responded: Norway serves the grilled salmon McLak, Japan serves green tea-flavoured milkshakes, Israel serves McShawarma, a pita filled sandwich. And now, as we’re becoming more design-conscious, McDonald’s is responding once again. Across the globe, McDonald’s is recreating its brand in practically every way possible. Here at the Cool Hunter we’re obviously most interested in the design. So now it’s your turn. Have you come across a cool, fresh recreated McDonald’s out there in the world? If so, let us know – send us your images to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . By Andrew J Wiener |
| OTO KINOKO (Sound Mushroom) |
| 2005-08-03 21:57:07 |
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An "interesting" new shop in Japan, which somehow seems to fit in and offer a break from souvenir stands on Sannenzaka in Kyoto, Oto Kinoko claims to be the first store selling sounds. The mushroom-shaped consoles can be navigated with a big knob and touch screen. Videos of jungle rivers, icebergs and all manner of natural environs accompany the soundtracks, which are the star of the show. These are ultra-enhanced stereo recordings of animals living it up and chowing down. Like something? The moderately priced CD beckons. The sound kiosk terminals were designed by media artist Toshio Iwai and illustrator Kayo Baba. Overall art direction was done by Shin Sobue, a guru in book design. Their website otokinoko.com remains undeveloped, with only a pageholder. |
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