“But you are still thinking in terms of a life with a real face. The mask does not deceive and is not deceived. How about putting on a new mask, turning over a new leaf, and starting another life?”

(Kobo Abe, The Face of Another)

A look back at a look book from 2006, marking the first collection from Fugahum; a fashion label which frequently crosses over into the realms of  visual art and  instillation.

After 6 years as a designer with Yohji Yamamoto, Asuka Yamamoto formed Fugahum with Akiyoshi Mishima, an artist, art director, graphic designer, film director and VJ. Their work together is based on the notion of a fictional nation named ‘Fugahum’, and their aesthetic nestles somehwere at the boarders of street and fantasy; gothic and futuristic; macarbe and beautiful [read more]

When Makoto Azuma moved to Tokyo with his band, he didn’t expect to find himself in a flower shop. 12 years later, the artist and musician has cultivated a new approach to creative practice through his florist Jardins des Fleurs. Former curator of AMPG Gallery (where he installed one exhibition per month for two years) and previously featured at Milan Design Week and colette in Paris, Makoto’s green projects are sprouting a healthy reputation far outside of Tokyo. We present a sampling of his work here [read more]

Risa Nakazawa works as an artist coordinator and marketing manager for GAS Japan. As a company, GAS does so many things that we feel slightly dizzy writing them down. Through the GASBOOKS publishing arm, CALM & PUNK GALLERY and 20,000,000 fragments (20MF) fashion label, GAS provides a platform for artists all over the world to showcase their work to a wider audience. Recently, GAS also started workshops that connect kids with artists to hopefully “make world little bit happier with the creative mind-set”. Risa took time out to chat briefly with us about the latest GAS projects [read more]

For his current exhibition at bld gallery in Tokyo, Kenji Yanobe has created an installation of Mini Toyarans, based on his iconic Giant Toyaran sculpture. Part man, part child and in a nuclear suit, Toyaran is modelled on a ventriloquist’s dummy used by Kenji’s father. Running until August 9, the exhibition features a legion of Mini Toyaran. This small army might stand at 10% of the size of their predecessor, but they are 100% as fascinating (and frightening!) [read more]

Created by Taku Satoh Design Office, this campaign for Issey Mikaye’s latest Pleats Please collection is giving us hungry eyes [read more]

Takashi Homma wields his camera with the exactitude of a surgeon. Tokyo’s dusky suburbs, rigid parking lots, discarded McDonald’s cups, miniscule rooftop gardens and shadowy shopping window reflections all yield to his crisp gaze. His Tokyo Children and Tokyo Teens – dubbed ‘homo transcendants’ in an essay by po-mo maverick Douglas Coupland – are placed on par with the city itself; its living embodiment, inscrutable, chilly, endlessly intriguing. Interestingly, the doe-eyed child offered up as ‘My Daughter’ in a series is not in fact Homma’s, but a friend’s – is fiction or form here stronger? [read more]