Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize Recipients Announced

On March 6, the Agency for Cultural Affairs announced the recipients of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for fiscal year 2008. The recipients of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize were sculptor FUNAKOSHI Katsura (57) and photographer MIZUKOSHI Takeshi (70) in the Fine Arts category; media artist IWAI Toshio (46) in the Media Arts category; and KATŌ Taneo (60), Executive Director of Asahi Breweries Arts Foundation, in the Development of the Arts category. The recipients of the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists were yōga artist MARUYAMA Naofumi (44) in the Fine Arts category; YAMAIDE Junya (38), NPO BEPPU PROJECT; and manga artist INOUE Takehiko (42) in the Media Arts category. The award ceremony was held in Tokyo on March 16. (Japanese)