January 29, 2009
Japanese designer and computer scientist Asao Tokolo has devised a way to tile a pattern of arabesques in such a way that each square tile can be randomly rotated and still match up with all of its neighbours.
January 18, 2009
This is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It is the “Final Wooden House” by Sou Fujimoto, 2008, in Kamamura village in the south of Kyushu. It has just won Best Private Home award in the Wallpaper Design Awards 2009 and is probably on every design blog this week.
January 6, 2009
Why are round windows so uncommon in North America? Not a rhetorical question. When you do see them here, either in house or garden, they seem magical and out of the ordinary. Round, eye-level windows are quite prevalent in many other places, including Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.
January 2, 2009
It’s January 2 and this is going to be my motivational video for the year. It’s a Japanese animation featuring Kikkoman, a superhero from Planet Soy. Granted, the battle cry “destroy all foreign sauces!” is pretty iffy in 2009.
January 1, 2009
2009 will be the Year of the Ox in Japan, where some of the most beautiful NY’s traditions are celebrated. This simple New Year’s card, which was posted today on Flickr, shows stylized oxes or “bekos.” The photo below, of new year’s fortune wishes tied to a tree at a temple in Nakashibetsu on Hokkaido, was also taken today.
December 16, 2008
The multipurpose Japanese cloth known as the tenugui has had a meandering history that includes ritual, practical and decorative uses. The tenugui is a 1′ x 3′ rectangle of thin woven fabric originally used for ritual purposes (silk and hemp blend tenugui have been found dating from 200 AD), then more practically as a hand towel, bandage, or sweatband often worn around the head, most famously by samurai fighters.
December 14, 2008
Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese means of wrapping presents or carrying objects in a square of cloth. It’s waste-free, it’s practical, and it’s beautiful. As an art form, furoshiki is less known outside Japan than origami, but it is just as venerable – it simply uses fabric instead of paper.
October 9, 2008
“Shooting Kitty” from CNET. This AR-15 rifle was decorated with “Hello Kitty” and Japanese flowers by a California rifle enthusiast, for his wife, and has now been nicknamed the HK-47.
August 24, 2008
These textile shop banners are common in Japan. Given how easy they are to install and how much more beautiful they are than typical signage, it seems strange that they haven’t been widely copied.
May 21, 2008
While on a design trip to Japan this March, I noticed this contraption in a cooking shop in the Tokyo kitchen supply district. It was a motorbike hung in an industrial hammock of pulleys, canvas and with WWII webbing.
