Tokyo Art ± Culture Meetup

Meeting Time: 1:00PM (13:00)
Meeting Spot: The Shoto Museum of Art
(https://shoto-museum.jp/wp-content/user-data/access/access_en.pdf)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
You are required to make an advanced booking for the second show, and information to do so is provided around the middle of this page.

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First Exhibition
YASUHIKO Yoshikazu: Divine Animator and Draftsman

Venue
The Shoto Museum of Art
(https://shoto-museum.jp/en/information/)

Admission Fee
¥1,000

Information about the Exhibition
"This is a retrospective exhibition exploring the creative activities of YASUHIKO Yoshikazu (1947 – present), who has been successfully working as a character designer and animation director of MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, a director of several anime including NEO HEROIC FANTASIA ARION, and an author of historical manga such as NAMUJI and INUI and TATSUMI－THE RECORD of TRANSBAIKAL－. Born in Engaru, Hokkaido, as a third-generation settler, he participated in the students’ protests during his university years, and then, after moving to Tokyo, joined anime production　and made a decision to work as a manga artist. YASUHIKO’s turbulent early life highlights the society and culture of postwar Japan.
The present exhibition introduces YASUHIKO’s almost 50-year-long career through numerous exhibits, including valuable documents related to the anime production, some publicly displayed for the first time, stunning color illustrations, and manga manuscripts from his debut until the most recent works. The exhibition follows the creative path of YASUHIKO Yoshikazu, a “drawing human” blessed with a talent, who possesses an overwhelming artistic skill, grand-scale storytelling, and sharp insight into time and history." [from the Museum Website]

Official Website
https://shoto-museum.jp/en/exhibitions/210yasuhiko/

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Second Exhibition
ALL OF EVANGELION

Venue
Tokyo City View
(https://tcv.roppongihills.com/en/index.html)

Admission Fee
¥2,200

Important Information
You are required to make an advance booking. Please purchase your ticket for the time slot of 16:00 on January 10th with the link below.
https://visit.mam-tcv-macg-hills.com/moriart50_ticket_inventory.html?CATEGORY_CD=0156

Information about the exhibition
"This exhibition begins at the entrance where a large figure of Evangelion EVA-01 is impressively displayed against the backdrop of the spectacular view from the observation deck.
Also on display at an unprecedented scale are the production materials of the videos that were actually broadcast, such as the settings of the animated TV show, the origin of the series, and the original drawings of the new movie series, giving you a glimpse of how the magnificent world view was created." [from Tokyo City View Website]

Official Website
https://allofevangelion-ex.roppongihills.com/

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Chat session
We will take a coffee break between the first and second show to have a chat session.

For this meetup, we will check out an exhibition that features works by female avant-garde artists from the postwar period in Japan.

"This exhibition is an attempt to reinterpret modern and contemporary Japanese art history from the perspective disclosed by Nakajima Izumi in her 2019 book Anti-action: Post-war Japanese Art and Women Artists. Based on the perspective of “anti-action,” which aims to review art history from the viewpoint of gender studies, this project will focus on the activities of Kusama Yayoi, Tanaka Atsuko, and Fukushima Hideko, who are featured in the book, as well as other artists who until now have rarely been discussed as subjects of art history. This exhibition will introduce the results of current art historical research and provide new perspectives on the act of evaluating works of art." [from the museum site]

Location
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
(https://www.momat.go.jp/en/access)

Exhibition to see
Anti-Action: Artist-Women’s Challenges and Responses in Postwar Japan

Meeting Time
04:00 PM (16:00)

Meeting Spot
Around the ticket booth for the museum

Admission Fee
¥2,000

Description of the exhibition
https://www.momat.go.jp/en/exhibitions/566

Chat session after the show
As usual, let's have a chat session at the end of the event. When we meet up before the exhibition, let's decide where we go after the show.

For this meetup, we will take a day trip to Mito to the largest retrospective for the first time in Japan of architect Arata Isozaki.

"Isozaki, who designed the architecture of Art Tower Mito, is known as one of the most creative and innovative architects of the 20th century and was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019. He held a distinguished position in the areas of philosophy, arts, cultural theory and critique over sixty years being involved in not only architectural projects and city plans but also writing, collaborations with artists and intellectuals, and curatorial work.
...
In this exhibition entitled “Archipelagos of Architecture,” Isozaki’s activities that were never confined to one genre are configured into archipelagos. With the keywords of city, architecture, architectural objects, flux structure, tentative form, and non-architecture (art), and through various media including architectural maquettes, plans, sketches, installations, videos, prints and watercolors, Isozaki’s path is traced and his activities going beyond architecture are introduced from a bird’s eye view on the stage of Art Tower Mito, which was designed by Isozaki himself." [from the museum site]

Location
Art Tower Mito
(https://www.arttowermito.or.jp/english/access/)

Exhibition to see
Arata Isozki:Archipelogos of Architecture

Itinerary
10:30AM Meet in JR Ueno Station
Meeting Spot: Around the central gate
https://www.uenostation.com/ueno-station-map-finding-your-way/
11:00AM Leave Ueno
12:06PM Arrive at Mito
Lunch
See the exhibition at Art Tower Mito
16:53PM Leave Mito
18:06PM Arrive at Ueno

Admission Fee
¥900
Train between Ueno and Mito: ¥7780(¥3,890 one way)

Description of the exhibition
https://www.arttowermito.or.jp/english/gallery/lineup/article_5359.html