
Louis Vuitton unveils 'Visionary Journeys' exhibition in Osaka
Dubbed 'Visionary Journeys' and running until September 17, the showcase reimagines the house's rich history through the unique lens of Japan.
Curated by fashion historian Florence Müller and brought to life by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA, the exhibition spans twelve immersive spaces, with over 1,000 pieces on display, including archival sketches, rare artworks, leather goods, and installations.
A standout feature is the inclusion of more than 200 Japan-specific artefacts, highlighting the Maison's deep cultural ties with the country.
Visitors enter through a dramatic five-storey atrium filled with glowing trunks, followed by an immersive dome built from 138 trunks.
In monogram, a celestial-themed room highlights the evolution of the iconic pattern, including a rare 1897 sample. Atelier honours the artisans behind bespoke pieces, such as collaborations with Sho Hirano and designer Verdy.
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France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Mighty Atom: how the A-bombs shaped Japanese arts
In the 80 years since the World War II attacks, stories of destruction and mutation have been fused with fears around natural disasters and, more recently, the Fukushima crisis. Classic manga and anime series "Astro Boy" is called "Mighty Atom" in Japanese, while city-levelling explosions loom large in other titles such as "Akira", "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Attack on Titan". "Living through tremendous pain" and overcoming trauma is a recurrent theme in Japan's cultural output "that global audiences have found fascinating", said William Tsutsui, a history professor at Ottawa University. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki that killed around 74,000 people. Some poetry "portrays the sheer terror of the atomic bomb at the moment it was dropped", but many novels and artworks address the topic indirectly, said author Yoko Tawada. "It's very difficult for the experience of the atomic bomb, which had never existed in history before, to find a place in the human heart as a memory," she told AFP. Tawada's 2014 book "The Emissary" focuses on the aftermath of an unspecified terrible event. She was inspired by connections between the atomic bombs, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and "Minamata disease" -- mass mercury poisoning caused by industrial pollution in southwest Japan from the 1950s. The story "is less of a warning, and more a message to say: things may get bad, but we'll find a way to survive", Tawada said. Godzilla's skin Narratives reflecting Japan's complex relationship with nuclear technologies abound, but the most famous example is Godzilla, a prehistoric creature awakened by US hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific. "We need monsters to give a face and form to abstract fears," said professor Tsutsui, author of the book "Godzilla on My Mind". "In the 1950s, Godzilla fulfilled that role for the Japanese -- with atomic energy, with radiation, with memories of the A-bombs." Many people who watched Godzilla rampage through Tokyo in the original 1954 film left theatres in tears, he said. And "it's said that the special effects people working on Godzilla modelled the monster's heavily furrowed skin after the keloid scars on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." In the nearly 40 Godzilla movies released since, nuclear themes are present but often given less prominence, partly to appease American audiences, Tsutsui said. Even so, the series remains hugely popular, with 2016 megahit "Shin Godzilla" seen as a critique of Japan's response to the tsunami-triggered Fukushima disaster. 'Black Rain' "Black Rain", a 1965 novel by Masuji Ibuse about radiation sickness and discrimination, is one of Japan's best-known novels about the Hiroshima bombing. But the fact Ibuse was not an A-bomb survivor is part of a "big debate about who is permitted to write these stories", said Victoria Young of the University of Cambridge. "How we talk about or create literature out of real life is always going to be difficult," she said. "Are you allowed to write about it if you didn't directly experience it?" Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe collected survivor accounts in "Hiroshima Notes", essays written on visits to the city in the 1960s. "He's confronting reality, but tries to approach it from a personal angle" including his relationship with his disabled son, said Tawada, who has lived in Germany for four decades after growing up in Japan. "The anti-war education I received sometimes gave the impression that Japan was solely a victim" in World War II, she said. "When it comes to the bombings, Japan was a victim -- no doubt" but "it's important to look at the bigger picture" including Japan's wartime atrocities, she said. As a child, illustrations of the nuclear bombings in contemporary picture books reminded her of depictions of hell in historical Japanese art. This "made me consider whether human civilisation itself harboured inherent dangers", making atomic weapons feel less like "developments in technology, and more like something latent within humanity".


France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
Nintendo quarterly revenue surges thanks to Switch 2
Pent-up demand for the new gadget from the "Super Mario" gamemaker fuelled fan excitement at the release, which saw sold-out pre-orders and midnight store openings. The Switch 2 smashed industry records by selling 3.5 million units in its first four days, and Nintendo said Friday it had shifted around 5.8 million consoles in its first month. "Net sales increased significantly in the first quarter, due mainly to the launch of Nintendo Switch 2," the Japanese company said as it reported a 132 percent on-year jump in sales for the April-June quarter to 572 billion yen ($3.8 billion). Net profit in the quarter was up 19 percent on-year. "The launch of Switch 2 has surpassed many people's expectations," and it will be hard for another console to match its strong start, gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto told AFP. "Nintendo should be able to comfortably ride on this momentum through the holidays and into 2026," although a key challenge will be maintaining a consistent supply of popular games, he said. The company says it expects to sell 15 million Switch 2 units by the end of March 2026, a target it left unchanged on Friday. Although the Japanese gamemaker is diversifying into hit movies and theme parks, console hardware remains the core of its business. The Switch 1, a hybrid console that can be used on-the-go or connected to a television, soared in popularity during the pandemic with hit games such as "Animal Crossing". It has sold 152 million units since its 2017 release, making it the third best-selling console of all time after Sony's PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS. Although the Switch 2 has a bigger screen and more processing power, and new features including controllers that can also be used like a desktop computer mouse, the hybrid concept is the same. It is also more expensive than its predecessor, at $449.99 in the United States, compared to a launch price of $299.99 for the original Switch. The postponed launch of the hugely anticipated "Grand Theft Auto VI" by US publisher Rockstar Games from this year to May 2026 will also be a bright point, Toto said. "If GTA6 launched this year, it would have sucked almost all the oxygen out of the room and made marketing Switch 2 definitely harder for Nintendo," Toto said.


France 24
5 days ago
- France 24
Millions of evacuees return home as tsunami warnings lifted across Pacific
Tsunami warnings were lifted across the Pacific rim Wednesday, allowing millions of temporary evacuees to return home. After one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded rattled Russia 's sparsely populated Far East, more than a dozen nations -- from Japan to the United States to Ecuador -- warned citizens to stay away from coastal regions. Storm surges of up to four metres (12 feet) were predicted for some parts of the Pacific, after the 8.8 quake struck off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula. The tsunamis caused widespread disruption. Peru closed 65 of its 121 Pacific ports and authorities on Maui cancelled flights to and from the Hawaiian island. But fears of a catastrophe were not realised, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents they could return. In Japan, almost two million people had been ordered to higher ground, before the warnings were downgraded or rescinded. The Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan -- destroyed by a huge quake and tsunami in 2011 -- was temporarily evacuated. The only reported fatality was a woman killed while driving her car off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape, local media reported. In Chile, authorities conducted what the Interior Ministry said was "perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country" -- with 1.4 million people ordered to high ground. Chilean authorities reported no damage or victims and registered waves of just 60 centimeters (two feet) on the country's north coast. In the Galapagos Islands, where waves of up to three meters were expected, there was relief as the Ecuadoran navy's oceanographic institute said the danger had passed. Locals reported the sea level falling and then rising suddenly, a phenomenon which is commonly seen with the arrival of a tsunami. But only a surge of just over a meter was reported, causing no damage. "Everything is calm, I'm going back to work. The restaurants are reopening and the places tourists visit are also open again," said 38-year-old Santa Cruz resident Isabel Grijalva. Earlier national parks were closed, schools were shuttered, loudspeakers blared warnings and tourists were spirited off sightseeing boats and onto the safety of land. The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said. Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea. The surge of water reached as far as the town's World War II monument about 400 meters from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov. The initial quake also caused limited damage and only light injuries, despite being the strongest since 2011, when 15,000 people were killed in Japan. Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake. "Red-hot lava is observed flowing down the western slope. There is a powerful glow above the volcano and explosions," said Russia's Geophysical Survey. Pacific alerts Wednesday's quake was the strongest in the Kamchatka region since 1952, the regional seismic monitoring service said, warning of aftershocks of up to 7.5 magnitude. The US Geological Survey said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors recorded since 1900. It was followed by dozens of aftershocks that further shook the Russian Far East, including one of 6.9 magnitude. The USGS said there was a 59 percent chance of an aftershock of more than 7.0 magnitude in the next week.