Category: Reading Murakami

So you’ve opened up your new Murakami to find a pleasant surprise, Japanese characters! The text adds a nice nuance to a Murakami print; however, there will come the day when someone admiring your print suddenly asks you what the writing means! You could just make something up, but now Sugimoto68 brings an alternative–a translation …

Continue reading “What does the Murakami say? #2: Reading your Murakami Open Your Hands Wide (Versailles print) and I met a Panda family.”

Murakami rose to fame on the coattails of Japan pop culture, but we also know that he developed his artistic roots through the study of Nihonga 日本画 or Japanese traditional aesthetic painting. His earliest prints such as the Hokusai inspired Manji Fuji 卍富士 (2001) (pictured above) incorporated stylized Japanese characters, but he did not revisit …

Continue reading “What does the Murakami say? #1: Reading your Murakami Poka Poka Warm and Sunny!”