Order of Culture and Person of Cultural Merit Recipients Announced

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)