Life as the child of a prominent artist is known to be challenging, but also rewarding for the many contacts and ingenuity it brings. The children of Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot -- son Claude and daughter Paloma -- are a familiar example. Both managed to skillfully navigate the fame and found success through their own creative ventures. So it is intriguing to meet Koki Ishibashi, the son of two well-known Japanese artists: painter Yoshishige Furukawa (1921-2008) and sculptor Akiko Mashima (b. 1952). more...
A Home, Workplace, and Garden of Her Own: Fumiko Hayashi Memorial Hall
Michael Pronko
Sometimes creative people are destined to live in the wrong time. Novelist, poet, painter, and feminist Fumiko Hayashi (1903-51) had a way of writing and a way of living that went against the pressures and expectations of Japanese society. The tensions in her life created powerful and popular works rich with humanity and the strength of women. Her writing also showed the underside of Japanese society, honing in on the injustices of the age, during a period of great upheaval and change. more...
Teratotera: Wild and Crazy Artists Descend upon Mitaka
Alan Gleason
On its run due west from Shinjuku, the Chuo Line connects a string of Tokyo neighborhoods that have always attracted young artists and musicians in need of cheap rent and casual performance venues a step removed from the hifalutin downtown galleries and concert halls. Several of these districts happen to be alliteratively named after local Buddhist temples: Koenji, Kichijoji, Kokubunji. more...
