Forever Young - Popculture Bazaar for the child inside

Written by: Sascha Faustka on September 11, 2008 at 5:24 pm | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends | 2 Comments

Kitty wears a gas mask and a Zombieteddie kills its owner - Japanese Artists playing with their culture

From August 22nd until today (hurry!) Japans ambitious young artists are given the chance to broaden their name recognition at the “Popculture Bazaar”, produced by Fewmany. Located on the first floor of one of Shibuya’s biggest department stores, Loft, 27 artists are presenting and selling their work arranged in boxes.

The idea to sell homemade products in Hakko Shops (Box Shops) is quite common in Japan. Anyone can sell their homemade work in compact boxes arranged in the stores. The customer can buy the items at the counter of the box shop, and the maker receives the payment minus a percentage taken by the store.

The theme of Tokyu Hand’s first temporary Popculture Bazaar is “Popbox Matsuri” (festival). All of the artists are presenting their interpretation of matsuri in the one square meter boxes, arranged like booths at a fair around a plaza. Throughout the two weeks of the festival the different artists can be watched here creating their goods.

The line-up of artists is quite impressive: Touma (monster designer for Bandai and Capcom), Yuki Koishikawa (Anna Sui, Sanrio, NTT Docomo), Mushroom Café ( Perrier, Kewpie, Lipton), and many more.

Looking at the products presented, someone from the West may think that the artist’s target group is children, just starting elementary school or even younger. You can clearly see in which culture the young artists grew up in, and what kind of figures and models they have around them day by day walking through Tokyo or switching on the television.

What seems to western people to be some kind of pop art, garish. and childish toy for primary school kids is nothing else than the reflection of the younger Japanese cultural background - a culture beyond Otaku and beyond Hello Kitty or Jump Magazine. Japanese young people in the twenties and thirties have grown up with these influences, so robots and monsters have become part of their everyday life.

Living out one’s addiction to cartoon characters or pink teddy bears is nothing unusual in Japan. Having tons of little Kitties and Kumas on their pink mobile phones is as usual for girls and boys as salarymen playing Nintendo DS or PSP on the train.

Keeping all this in mind, it is less surprising that Japanese fans are willing to pay up to 70,000 yen ($650) for a sculpture of their favorite artist, in form of a little pink pirate mushroom with a skull on its hat and a little girl standing on its blue tongue (see below).

If you don’t have the chance to go to the Popculture Bazaar you can see and buy nearly all of the designer’s products at Fewmany in Shinjuku.

Tags: anime, Art, design, manga, Pop culture
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

MINIInternational Magazine Kyoto Mash-Up party

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 9, 2008 at 12:28 pm | In Marketing & Ad Trends | 2 Comments

Last weekend CScout Japan teamed up with MINI Japan, Kreative Konzeption, and Metropolis to help put on the Kyoto Mash-Up party at hip event space Sfera, celebrating the latest edition of MINIInternational Magazine.

The stars of the party, of course, were the stars of the magazine, which focused on Kyoto’s booming art/design/music scene. Music was provided by acclaimed Kyoto-based DJ Halfby and DJ Nic Jagger who flew in from Germany for the event.

You’ll have to pick up your own copy to get the full experience, but MINIInternational magazine features a broad cross-section of modern Kyoto from traditional architect Katsumi Yasuda to director Kazushige Togo, and SOUSOU footwear designer Takeshi Wakabayashi. This isn’t the typical “outsider looking in” view of Kyoto, but was written by experts who were either born in Kyoto, or have adopted it as a second home.

Thus far there’s been great coverage of the party/magazine, from press, featured artists, and attendees (See 1, 2, 3, 4) to MINI dealers here.

Stunning papercraft was on display from Eriko Horiki, a featured MINI
International artist.

Kudos to MINI Japan for their support, and Kreative Konzeption and Metropolis for putting together an amazing event with a top-notch guest list. Special thanks to Roland Hagenberg, Yoshihito Sasaguchi, and Yasuyuki Sodeoka for putting together an amazing magazine with their deep expertise on Kyoto.

Of course, many thanks to the artists and guests that came to celebrate together, as well as all of the caterers, Sfera staff and management, and all others involved in making this project a success.

It’s amazing how many people go into making a single party, but we had a great time, and hope everyone else did as well.

To sum up, here’s some more DJ Halfby for your listening pleasure.

Tags: Architecture, Art, Automotive, design, Mini, music, Parties, Press
Category: Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage