Latest news with #TaroOkamotoMuseumofArt
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Exhibitions Across Japan Remember Legacies of 1970 Osaka Expo and Other Expos Past
Exhibitions focusing on the art and architecture showcased at world expositions in the past, including the 1970 Osaka Expo, are being held across the nation to coincide with the ongoing 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo. The exhibitions aim to reexamine the history of these big world events where cultures from across the globe can be encountered. In Kawasaki The Yomiuri Shimbun Photos, documents and other items about the creation of the Tower of the Sun are displayed at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art in Kawasaki. Among the legacies of the 1970 Osaka Expo, the Tower of the Sun in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, still draws visitors. A temporary exhibition titled 'Taro Okamoto and Tower of the Sun' is running at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art in Kawasaki until July 6. The event focuses on the artist's ideas that came to fruition in the huge, strangely shaped structure. The tower, which Okamoto designed not long before he turned 60, was created as a symbol of resistance against the modernism embodied in the expo's theme of 'Progress and Harmony for Mankind.' The background to this was the folklore studies that Okamoto undertook as a student in Paris. The experience fostered his attitude of seeking a deep understanding of the roots of people's lives. The exhibition displays photos that Okamoto took after returning to Japan to document festivals, customs and architecture across the nation. The photos indicate that Okamoto had a strong interest in his origins. Among items related to the 1970 Osaka Expo, the exhibits include blueprints for the tower and motion pictures of Okamoto in the process of making the tower. There is also a space that reproduces scenes from the 1970 Expo in which folk items from across the world were displayed in the base of the tower. The tower, with its humorous and dynamic imagery, applauds the very existence of mankind. A curator of the museum said, 'Now that time has passed, I hope this exhibition is an opportunity to reconsider what Okamoto wanted to demonstrate at the [1970] Expo.' In Osaka The Yomiuri Shimbun A life-size design of a velvet wall hanging, named 'Nami ni Chidori,' is displayed at the Takashimaya Archives in Osaka. The Takashimaya Archives in Naniwa Ward, Osaka, is holding an exhibition titled 'Exposition Era' until Aug. 18. The exhibition shows the relationship between world expositions and department stores. The displays include artistically dyed fabrics, rough drawings of the fabrics and award certificates that Takashimaya Co. showed at world expositions at home and abroad from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. They include a life-size design of a velvet wall hanging in the Yuzen style named 'Nami ni Chidori' (Waves and plovers), which Japanese-style painter Seiho Takeuchi supervised. It is on display until June 23. The painting is a fantastical depiction of plovers taking flight over the moonlit sea. The wall hanging was displayed at the 1900 Paris Expo, and French actress Sarah Bernhardt bought it, causing a sensation. This anecdote indicates how highly Japanese craftsmen's skills were valued, in addition to the popularity of Japonisme — a trend that favored Japanese products — in those years. Yuzen-style dyed fabrics and embroidered pictures shown in the exhibition are all precise and take visitors by surprise. Takako Takai, a curator of the archives, said: 'Utilizing the experiences of displaying at the expo, Takashimaya changed its sales approach from a zauri style [in which clerks pulled out goods as customers requested them], to the current style of showcasing products on store shelves. The expo is one of the factors that prompted the evolution from kimono shops to department stores.' Items displayed will be subject to change during the exhibition. In Tokyo The Yomiuri Shimbun Blueprints and photos about attractive buildings at the 1970 Osaka Expo are shown at the National Archives of Modern Architecture in Tokyo. The National Archives of Modern Architecture in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, is holding an exhibition titled 'World Fair in Japan 1970-2005,' which focuses on the role of world expositions from the perspective of architecture. In the first phase of the exhibition that ended on May 25, it showed the efforts of talented architects who, through trial and error, led Japan's architecture in the postwar period, mainly focusing on the 1970 Osaka Expo. At the venue of the 1970 Expo, the 127-meter-high Expo Tower, which was designed by Kiyonori Kikutake, stood opposite the Tower of the Sun. The exhibition displayed the twists and turns before construction of the Expo Tower began, including blueprints for a dynamic four-pillar structure that was ultimately not adopted. The Sumitomo Fairytale Pavilion in the 1970 Expo, designed by Sachio Otani, was shaped like a flying saucer, and the exhibition displayed blueprints depicting precise frames with curved lines, and also abundant sketches suggesting the buds of his ideas. In the next phase from June 14 to Aug. 31, the exhibition will focus mainly on the four expos held at home since the 1975 Okinawa International Ocean Exposition and those abroad.
Yomiuri Shimbun
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
VR Footage Reproducing Tower of the Sun As Seen at Osaka Expo '70 on Display at Kawasaki Museum
Courtesy of the Nippon Institute of Technology The Tower of the Sun and the Big Roof of the Theme Pavilion of the World Expo '70 in Osaka, recreated with the use of VR technology KAWASAKI — Using virtual reality technology, students at the Nippon Institute of Technology have reproduced the 1970 World Exposition's Theme Pavilion in its original form, including the Tower of the Sun, symbol of the expo and a representative work of artist Taro Okamoto. An 18-minute-long video featuring the pavilion is being shown at 'Taro Okamoto and the Tower of the Sun,' a temporary exhibition at Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki which began Saturday. The museum came up with the idea of producing VR content of the pavilion in 2018 with the 'hope of conveying creators' intentions to future generations by reproducing works in VR.' The museum asked the university located in Miyashiro, Saitama Prefecture, which has digital video production technology, to produce the video. Students in the Department of Information Technology and Media Design in the Faculty of Advanced Engineering worked on the project. When the '70 Expo in Osaka was held, the Theme Pavilion was an exhibition space integrated with a 70-meter-high tower, the Big Roof — built as if to cover its surroundings — and artwork was placed in various locations of the pavilion. The Tower of the Sun remains preserved at the Expo '70 Commemorative Park in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, with its interior restored and made open to the public. But most of the art pieces placed on the Big Roof and on the underground and other levels have been removed. Although there were photos taken facing the front of the pavilion, photos taken from sides were fairly limited, with the exact size of the work exhibited on the Big Roof and its distance from the background unknown. So, this was calculated by the students using various information collected from photos and the surrounding landscape. They also looked over relevant drawings and other materials, and aimed to create three-dimensional images of even the smallest artworks in the virtual space. Successive college seniors have taken over the production and worked on it as their graduation project. Minato Suwa, a 22-year-old senior in the department, said, 'We have tried to improve upon the work through handover from past seniors, and were able to raise the level of perfection.' The Yomiuri Shimbun Prof. Junko Sugimori, right, and her students work on the reproduction of the Tower of the Sun at the Nippon Institute of Technology. In the completed footage, the Tower of the Sun, which first appears in the distance, gradually looms large as one advances toward it slowly through an open space. As one proceeds down to the underground level where the Underground Sun and other exhibits were located, one can see the Tree of Life and other exhibits that are placed as if penetrating the interior of the tower. After going up onto the Big Roof and taking a look at the works exhibited outside the tower, then going down to see the exhibits on the ground level, the virtual tour will come to an end. The museum screening features two-dimensional images rather than three-dimensional as the number of VR goggles available at the museum is limited. A museum curator in charge of the exhibition says, 'It is epoch-making to be able to see the entire scene of the Theme Pavilion with visual images along the tour route taken at that time.' Prof. Junko Sugimori, who is supervising the project, said, 'After enjoying the Osaka-Kansai Expo, we hope that people will come here to see the visual images created with the students' great effort and enjoy slipping back in time to 1970 to experience the world of Taro Okamoto.' The project will be further improved in the future, she said. The temporary exhibition will run through July 6.
