Latest news with #Itoi
Kyodo News
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Kyodo News
Ex-baseball pro plants "Superman" rice to help Kyoto kids
The Kyoto Shimbun - 7 hours ago - 16:29 | All, Japan A former professional baseball player for the Hanshin Tigers and native of Yosano in Kyoto Prefecture recently returned to his roots -- this time in a rice field. Yoshio Itoi, whose physical prowess during his playing days earned him the nickname "Superman," took part in a rice-planting activity on May 2 in Yosano's Ishikawa area, as part of an ongoing initiative to support local children. Itoi, 43, has been working with the local agricultural corporation AGRIST to tackle a decline in both the farming population and youth participation in sports. Through this partnership, Itoi has spent the past two years helping produce and promote a premium brand of Koshihikari rice known as "Superman Rice." A portion of the rice's sales is used to purchase sports equipment that Itoi personally delivers to local elementary schools. During the activity in Ishikawa, Itoi skillfully operated a rice-planting machine under the guidance of AGRIST representative Keishi Ota, carefully planting seedlings across approximately 10 ares of land. He showed genuine commitment to the work, frequently looking back to inspect the field throughout the process. After completing the planting, Itoi shared his hopes for the future. "It would make me happy if children from our community grew up strong and became famous local athletes." The Kyoto Shimbun Related coverage: Japan's largest photography festival opens in Kyoto Foreign residents and locals unite for Kyoto Hina-matsuri Kyoto Abilympics showcase vocational skills of people with disabilities
Kyodo News
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Kyodo News
Ex-baseball pro plants "Superman" rice to help Kyoto kids
The Kyoto Shimbun - 17 minutes ago - 16:29 | All, Japan A former professional baseball player for the Hanshin Tigers and native of Yosano in Kyoto Prefecture recently returned to his roots -- this time in a rice field. Yoshio Itoi, whose physical prowess during his playing days earned him the nickname "Superman," took part in a rice-planting activity on May 2 in Yosano's Ishikawa area, as part of an ongoing initiative to support local children. Itoi, 43, has been working with the local agricultural corporation AGRIST to tackle a decline in both the farming population and youth participation in sports. Through this partnership, Itoi has spent the past two years helping produce and promote a premium brand of Koshihikari rice known as "Superman Rice." A portion of the rice's sales is used to purchase sports equipment that Itoi personally delivers to local elementary schools. During the activity in Ishikawa, Itoi skillfully operated a rice-planting machine under the guidance of AGRIST representative Keishi Ota, carefully planting seedlings across approximately 10 ares of land. He showed genuine commitment to the work, frequently looking back to inspect the field throughout the process. After completing the planting, Itoi shared his hopes for the future. "It would make me happy if children from our community grew up strong and became famous local athletes." The Kyoto Shimbun Related coverage: Japan's largest photography festival opens in Kyoto Foreign residents and locals unite for Kyoto Hina-matsuri Kyoto Abilympics showcase vocational skills of people with disabilities
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
Itoi Kanji: Avant-Garde Trailblazer Finally Earning Recognition
Itoi Kanji (1920–2021) was a radical performer and avant-garde artist who was active in the 1960s and 1970s. The house in suburban Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, where he spent the latter half of his life, dubbed the Kihōsha—a reference to 'releasing demons'—was knocked down in June 2024 when the road was widened. Itoi's house, the Kihōsha, before its demolition. (© M. Mikami) While Itoi's eccentric performances and grotesque, erotic artwork led him to be viewed as strange and eccentric, inspection of the remaining signs of the life he led in the Kihōsha shows that he was an artist who remained pure at heart, and was definitely not someone who 'played to the gallery.' Banned from Public Exhibition Born in Tokyo's Yodobashi (currently part of the city of Shinjuku), Itoi studied mechanical engineering at the Tokyo High School of Engineering (now the Shibaura Institute of Technology), and after being conscripted, was sent to various army posts in Kyūshū. At the end of the Second World War, he was 24. Establishing himself as an artist shortly after the end of the war, in 1951 Itoi entered an artwork made from eggshells in the Yomiuri Indépendent Exhibition: a public exhibition with no screening that was open to all. This was the first piece he ever placed in an exhibition, but the egg-related motif of 'life' was one that would inform his work throughout his artistic career. In 1952, Itoi moved to Sendai, where his parents lived. Two years later, the artist, by this time a single father, moved to Tokyo's Ōmori, where he put up a sign on the house that read 'Art Institute' and engaged in creative activities with fellow creators. The postwar avant-garde trend had turned the Japanese artistic scene into a confused mix of art informel and action painting. Influenced by Dadaism and Zen, Itoi searched for his own style. Itoi was banned from exhibiting at the 1962 Indépendent on the grounds of excessive vulgarity. During the 1963 Indépendent, he performed naked at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, causing organizers to call the police. Nude Street Performances It is around this time that Itoi's street performances got more serious. Sex was an important motif in his art, as evidenced by the 'paper penis' collage he made from photos of nude women and penises cut from magazines. Itoi first gained attention for his human 'Olympic Torch Personified' performance in 1964, in which he sprinted in the nude through Ginza ahead of the Olympic torch relay, brandishing a red loincloth in his hand made to look like the Olympic flame. He was promptly arrested and committed to a mental hospital in Tokyo, where he spent the next year or so. On the advice of his doctor, during his stay there he created an album that consisted of some of his prints with text added. In it is an artist's declaration that reads, 'To find truth you need to live wholeheartedly as your true self. This is also the essence of living life to the fullest.' 'Don't Kill' Propels Itoi to Fame It was the March 1971 weekly edition of Shōnen Sunday that saw the controversial avant-garde artist become a household name, even to elementary school children. The magazine featured a photo of Itoi, his hair long and unkempt and his beard matted, walking down the road in sunglasses while wearing pieces of material arranged like a dress and holding a placard saying 'Don't kill.' At a time when avant-garde performances were popular, this performance had an unprecedented impact. The performance was inspired by fellow artist Okamoto Tarō's 'Don't kill' plea in the antiwar advertisement placed in the Washington Post in 1967 by the Beheiren (Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam). Itoi spent the period between from 1972 to 1979 caring for his elderly mother in Uji, Kyoto, until her death, upon which he returned to Sendai. Moving back into the Kihōsha, he threw himself into his work as if to make up for the blank in his career. Brought Back to Life by Photographs Plans to knock down the Kihōsha prompted local cultural facility Sendai Mediatheque to put on an exhibition entitled Chiiki to Avan Gyarudo (Avant-Garde in Our Region) that ran from October 2024 through January 2025, giving visitors a glimpse into the life of 'Dadakan' (Itoi's nickname). Rather than artworks, the exhibition chiefly comprised photographs and documents that presented an eloquent and uncensored take on Itoi's day-to-day life. The Avant-Garde in Our Region exhibition took place at Sendai Mediatheque. (© Hanaga Mitsutoshi; courtesy of Sendai Mediatheque) The Kihōsha was an old wood and mortar building. The collection of photographs of this structure show that there was a kotatsu in the middle of the living room, within easy reach of the heater and small red rice cooker that the artist used for many years. Off to the side was a wall that Itoi's many visitors signed and dated over the years. Among the names were numerous art critics and researchers, a record of the increasing interest in and appreciation for Itoi's work. There was also an artwork made from visitors' cigarette butts pasted to a piece of paper. In the artist's six-tatami-mat bedroom, which he called Yumedono (Temple of Dreams), were a bed covered with a duvet and a cabinet. In the bathroom was a tank filled with water, like a household pond. A plastic bottle was placed under the leaking tap in the kitchen to catch the drips. Trademark Naked Headstand Artworks made from eggshells graced the entranceway and whatever small gaps the artist could find. The viewer's eyes are drawn to the details of the photographs. Perhaps Tsuboi's house was itself an artwork. There is even a video, with commentary, of Itoi serving visitors cake he made in the rice cooker, an interesting reminder of the artist's creative ideas and the things he was particular about. In the wooden-floored room was an old chair with armrests. This marks the sacred spot where, when Itoi felt in the mood, he would grab the armrests and do a headstand on the seat, opening and closing his legs in a naked ritual he performed for visitors. While at junior high school, Itoi was taught gymnastics by a former Olympic gymnast, and in 1946 he competed in the first ever National Sports Festival of Japan. The fact that he was able to continue his peculiar headstand performance to a ripe old age (91 or even older, according to records) is a testament to this, and a tour de force by this very physical artist. Living a carefree life in the Kihōsha, Itoi would converse with his guests, create art, and send collages he made from swimsuit magazines and scraps of paper to friends, acquaintances, and even newsreaders and singers he knew from the radio, calling them 'mail art.' Catalyst for Reappraisal The survey of the Kihōsha before it was demolished and capturing of images of the building were undertaken by a voluntary organization whose purpose is the collection, organization, and preservation of Itoi's artworks and related information. The organization, whose four members include Mikami Mitsurō, a curator and former deputy director of the Miyagi Museum of Art, and the media researcher Hosoya Shūhei, has so far covered Itoi in a variety of ways, including by releasing a book of his prints. The group's members aim to perform a true assessment of who Itoi Kanji really was by unearthing and assessing everything they can find on him. The Sendai Mediatheque exhibition included a panel discussion that included Itoi's sister, Amano Kiyoko, and the unveiling of the results of the survey. Amano said that she decided that it was better not to offer any help whatsoever to the house's lone occupant (her brother). We can see that she well understood Itoi's commitment to self-sufficiency. Itoi late in his life, in front of a portrait of his father, Tatsuhachirō. (© M. Mikami) The Embodiment of Sincerity In 1986, Itoi was featured in Japon des Avant-gardes 1910–1970 at the Pompadour Centre in Paris. In 2009, the artist was featured in the Zen'ei no Miyagi (Avant-Garde Miyagi) exhibition held at the Miyagi Museum of Art. In addition, his works have been featured at galleries all around the country. Despite the fact that Itoi give off a highly eccentric subcultural aura, he is increasingly getting the recognition he deserved as an artist. A biography by the French avant-garde scholar Bruno Fernandes came out in 2023. In the October 16, 2016, issue of the journal Artscape , the noted art critic Fukuzumi Ren observed: While various commentators referred to this legendary artist, most of them merely treat Itoi as a nonconformist or an exception. However, I believe that 'Dadakan' is truly an artist who most purely and sincerely, or most properly, embodied the essence of art, both in terms of the form of his performances and in terms of his desire to express himself in an impulsive manner. As evidence of this, Dadakan was well aware that he tended to be labelled 'abnormal.' (Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Itoi Kanji late in his life . © M. Mikami)
