With the conclusion of the Comprehensive and Advanced Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP11 Agreement), a multilateral economic partnership agreement aimed at economic liberalization by the countries of the Pacific Rim, and the amendment of the Copyright Act by the TPP Development Act, the term of protection of copyrights was extended from 50 years after the copyright holder’s death to 70 years. (Japanese)
On December 19, the winners of the VOCA Prize, which encourages young artists who create two-dimensional artworks, were announced. The Grand Prize of the VOCA was given to TOJŌ Shinnosuke (‘Atene Nagano Tokyo no kabe ni arudearō mosha’). ISHIBA Ayako (‘2 to 3, moshiku wa sore igai (sobo no ie)’) and Jong YuGyong (‘Let’s all go to the celebration square of victory!’) jointly received the VOCA Encouragement Prize. ENDŌ Kaoru (‘Uesu’) and mé (‘Akuriru gasu’) jointly received the VOCA Honorable Mention Prize. The Ohara Museum of Art Prize was given to KITAMURA Mika (‘TOPOS’). The VOCA exhibition 2019, where the winners’ works were exhibited, was held at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo from March 14 to March 30 in 2019. (Japanese)
On November 30, the Japan Art Academy (Director: KUROI Senji) announced that it had elected two new members to the Japan Art Academy for their outstanding achievements in artistic activities. Yōga artist MAKOSHI Yōko and critic and translator HAGA Tōru were elected. The election was officially announced by SHIBAYAMA Masahiko, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on December 15. (Japanese)
On November 16, the 40th Suntory Prize for Social Science and Humanities (sponsored by the Suntory Foundation) announced that, in relation to art, KYŌTANI Yoshinori (Associate Professor, Kyushu University) for his monograph titled ‘Gaisenmon to Katsujiga no fūzoku shi: Hakanaki supekutakuru no chikara’ was awarded in the Literary and Art Criticism category. (Japanese)
On November 16, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on the following places to be designated as Places of Scenic Beauty or Historic Sites to SHIBAYAMA Masahiko, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes nine sites such as the remains of Kōfu Castle (Kōfu City) to be designated as Historic Sites; the former Ekishūkan Garden to be designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty; three sites such as Byakkotai cemetary on Mr Iimori in Aizu (Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukuoka Prefecture) to be registered as Registered Monuments; and the landscape of terraced fields and agricultural and fishing villages at Uwakai Karihama (Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture) to be selected as an Important Cultural Landscape. The Council also suggested 185 structures to be registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties, including the solarium of the former residence of YOSHIDA Shigeru, designed by architect YOSHIDA Isoya. (Japanese)
The Ringa Art Encouragement Award (organized by the Ringa Art Encouragement Fund), which publicly honors outstanding individuals for their exceptional achievements in the field of art criticism and art history research, announced the winners of the 30th Ringa Art Encouragement Prize. In the Art History Research Division, MATSUKAWA Ayako (Curator, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art) was awarded for her curated exhibition titled ‘Tetsu Fusen: A Retrospective – 40th Anniversary of His Death’ and contribution of her essay to its exhibition catalog. In Art Criticism Division, KITA Takaomi (Curator, Nerima Art Museum) received the prize for his curated exhibition titled ‘Ikeda Tatsuo: An Elliptical Visionary: The Present Tense of Postwar Art’ and contribution of his essay to its catalog. (Japanese)
On October 26, the Japanese government announced five recipients of the Order of Culture and twenty recipients of the Person of Cultural Merit for the fiscal year 2018. In relation to art, the Order of Culture was given to ceramic artist IMAI Masayuki, who developed the technically difficult inlaying technique into a wide-surface inlaying technique and opened up new possibilities for ceramic art. The Person of Cultural Merit was given to highl acclaimed calligraphy artist ISHIGE Keidō, whose innovative scattered writing combines traditional elegance with a modern sense of formality; architect Toyo ITO), who attracted attention with his methodology of ‘lightness in architecture’ and whose projects were developed through Japan, contributed to the development of contemporary architecture; and art director KITAGAWA Fram, who is a leading figure in the unprecedented field of art projects that lead to regional development. (Japanese)
On October 19, the winners of the ICOMOS Japan Prize 2018 as well as the ICOMOS Japan Honorable Mention Award were announced. The ICOMOS Japan Prize and the ICOMOS Japan Honorable Mention Award aim to encourage the preservation and conservation of structures, groups of historic buildings, cultural landscapes, monuments and historic ruins as well as historic sites. The ICOMOS Japan Prize was given to MATSUKUMA Akira (Representative director of General Incorporated Association Chōchikukyo Club) for his long-standing conservation activities and achievements of research and publications on Chōchikukyo; and KATŌ Tomoki (President, Ueyakato Landscape Co., Ltd.) for his research on conservation of Japanese gardens as cultural heritage and contemporary measures and practices for their use. The ICOMOS Japan Honorable Mention Award was given to EDANI Hiroko (Researcher, Cultural Landscape, Department of Cultural Heritage, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties) for her work on research, dissemination and conservation of cultural landscapes. (Japanese)
On October 19, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on one structure to be designated as National Treasures and eight structures to be designated as Important Cultural Properties to SHIBAYAMA Masahiko, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes Tamaudun (Naha City), a royal mausoleum of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, to be designated as a National Treasure; and Ōsaki Shrine (Mooka City, Tochigi Prefecture), built between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and decorated with geometric patterns on the pillars and walls of the shrine, to be designated an Important Cultural Property. This was the first time that a structure in Okinawa Prefecture was designated as a National Treasure. (Japanese)
The winners of the 30th Kokka Prize, the award for remarkable research on Japanese and East Asian art, were announced. The Kokka Prize was given to an article titled ‘Hishikawa Morobobu to ukiyoe no tanjō’ (published in ‘Kokka’, Vol. 1465, 2017) by TANABE Masako. The Kokka Special Prize was given to a monograph titled ‘Nihon kaigashi ronkō’ (published in 2017) by ARIGA Yoshitaka. (Japanese)
On September 19, the exhibition titled ‘1968: Art in the Turbulent Age’ opened at the Chiba City Museum of Art. Focusing on the period around 1968, when society was in uproar with the rise of mass protests of the All-Campus Joint Struggle Committee (known as Zenkyōtō) and the Vietnam anti-war movement, and radical and eccentric culture such as underground scene and counterculture flourished, the exhibition presented approximately 400 works and materials on the avant-garde art movement and social background of that period. It also attempted to convey the excitement of the time by recreating the light show at the go-go club MUGEN, which opened in Akasaka. The exhibition toured to the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Riverwalk Gallery (December 1 – January 27, 2019) and Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (February 10 – March 24, 2019). (Japanese)
The work titled ‘Sun Child’, a 6.2-meter-tall sculpture, by contemporary artist, YANOBE Kenji, was installed in front of the Komu Komu educational and cultural complex in Fukushima City. Since its unveiling on August 3, it was put in the center of criticism. In response to backlash, Mayor KOHAYA Hiroshi announced at a press conference on August 28 that the city decided to remove the sculpture. The work, a standing statue of a child wearing a hazmat suit, was created in 2011 in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and was intended to express hope and a world free from nuclear disasters, but it was being criticized one after another for promoting harmful rumors about the disaster at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plan, leading to its removal. With the artist’s agreement, the sculpture was removed from September 18. (Japanese)
On July 27, the Denchū Hirakushi Award (sponsored by Ibara City, Okayama Prefecture), established to commemorate HIRAKUDHI Denchū’s achievements along with the promotion of wood carvings in Japan, announced that the 29th winner was IWAMA Hiroshi. The artist was commended for his attempt at a full-scale development of figurative art and his sustained willingness to question what sculpture is. (Japanese)
On July 20, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on 209 structures to be designated as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties to HAYASHI Yoshimasa, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes the Alps Wing of Mampei Hotel (Karuizawa Town, Kitasaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture), which combines a European medieval townhouse style with taste of Japanese style; and the Saikai Bridge (Sasebo City and Saikai City, Nagasaki Prefecture), a large-scale steel bridge with the longest span in the East Asia when built in 1955. (Japanese)
On July 20, the Council for Cultural Affairs submitted a report on three people to be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties (Living National Treasures) to HAYASHI Yoshimasa, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The list includes KOMIYA Yasumasa, studied under his father Yasutaka, a Living National Treasure, who mastered the traditional techniques of Edo komon, realizing the exquisite patterns represented by the ‘renko pattern’ by paying thorough attention to the fabrics suitable for dyeing, Japanese stencil paper and glue; and YAMAGISHI Kazuo, studied chinkin (sunken gold) under MAE Taihō and makie lacquer technique under MATSUDA Gonroku, who refined his skills with originality and ingenuity and expanded the possibilities of expression by effectively interweaving the techniques of chinkin and other techniques. (Japanese)
On July 11, the laureates of the 30th Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu (organized by the Japan Art Association), which publicly honors individual world artists, were announced. In relation to art, the laureates were Pierre Alechinsky, a Belgian contemporary artist and a member of the avant-garde art group ‘CoBrA’ (1945 – 1951), who expresses his inner feelings in versatile styles, employing his free brushwork influenced by calligraphy and the quick drying properties of acrylic paints, in the Painting category; NAKAYA Fujiko, known worldwide as a ‘fog artist’, who first presented her ‘fog sculpture’ made of artificial fog using water at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition and has since produced more than 80 works, including installations, performances and environmental sculptures using fog in the world, in the Sculpture category; and Christian de Portzamparc, a French architect and urban planner, who became famous for his work called ‘City of Music’ and is highly regarded for his work such as on the Nexus World Housing in Fukuoka City. (Japanese)
The winners of the 13th Western Art Foundation Prize, which publicly honor individuals and organizations involved in curating exhibitions that have contributed to the understanding of Western art and academic research in the field of Western art, were announced. The Academic Prizes for individuals were given to HIRANO Itaru, Curator of the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (for the exhibition titled ‘Diego Rivera and His Contemporaries’) and YASUI Hiroo, Curator of the Mitsubishi ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, (for the exhibition titled ‘Redon – The Secret Garden’). The Cultural Promotion Prize for institutions was given to the Kajima Foundation for the Arts for its research promotion through research grants, publication support and international exchange support for the exhibition titled ‘Lucas Cranach the Elder: 500 Years of the Power of Temptation’ (National Museum of Western Art) and others. (Japanese)
On July 3, the special exhibition titled ‘JOMON: 10,000 Years of Prehistoric Art in Japan’ opened at the Tokyo National Museum (until September 2). The exhibition focused on the dynamic beauty of Jōmon pottery, stoneware and clay figurines as the origin of Japanese craftmanship. It included six objects designated as National Treasures, such as a vessel with flame-like ornamentation and dogū (clay figurine) known as ‘Jomon Venus’, as well as a section on the originality of Jōmon pottery, with earthenware from around the world from the same period. (Japanese)
On July 1, the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties (Director: ASAHI Mitsuru) was established within the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. It was founded in response to a report by the Council for Cultural Affairs, which had proposed the active utilization of cultural properties. It aims to utilize tangible cultural properties in Japan through four projects: Planning, Loan Promotion, Preservation and Digital Resources. (Japanese)
In May, the international Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that conducts preliminary inspections to determine whether a site should be inscribed on the World Heritage List, recommended the inclusion of the ‘Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region’, which had been nominated by the Japanese government on the World Heritage List. In response, on June 30, at the 42nd session of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, held in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, it decided to inscribe the site on the World Heritage List as a Cultural Heritage Site. (Japanese)