Roppongi Art Night is a one-night celebration staged in the Roppongi district. It was held from October 21 (Fri.) to 23 (Sun.), 2016, to coincide with the World Forum on Sport and Culture, an international congress, held around the same time.

This year (2017) marks the 150th anniversary of Natsume Soseki’s birth. The writer created numerous masterpieces replete with profound psychological descriptions and humor that still ring true today, including I Am a Cat, Sanshiro, Botchan, Kokoro, The Three-Cornered World, and Ten Nights of Dreams. This time Examining Artists introduces Natsume Soseki, who represents the modern Japan, and his unknown episodes.

Alberto Giacometti is known for creating sculptures of thin, elongated figures. The peculiar forms he arrived at as a result of his process of searching for the essence of man carved out new horizons for 20th-century sculptures. Up until the time he perfected his own style, what kind of a life did Giacometti lead?

The Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture provides hands-on programs every year for teachers at elementary, junior-high and high schools in Tokyo. This year’s 9th edition offered programs at seven cultural facilities run by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

The following is a report of the program held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in July 2016.

The Tokyo Bunka Kaikan presents a special music education program in cooperation with Casa de Musica, a Portuguese music facility. The program offers more than 20 workshops for participants of all ages. Here are reports from four workshops held in 2016.

Children aged from 6 to 18 months and their mothers enjoyed the following two workshops.

Adolf Wölfli is one of the master artists in the genre of Art Brut (“raw art”)—also called “outsider art.” This genre of art involves works by artist who have not received formal fine art training and create art as dictated by their inner world. All the work created by Wölfli, who suffered from mental illness and created an enormous amount of work in his asylum cell, is full of originality, often combining poetry and music.

With the opening of the Sumida Hokusai Museum in November 2016, there has been a renewed interest in the Edo-era ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai. His remarkable artistic skills and use of unconventional compositions and subject matters made him a leader in the art world of the late Edo period. In this section, we will take a close look at the man who, until his death at 89, continued to strive to improve as an artist and diligently dedicated himself to his work.

Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) was a Japanese novelist who continuously published works in various styles and themes for about 50 years since his major debut in his 20s. He was called a “magician” for his constant quest for new expressions. The contemporary opera based on Kawabata’s “House of the Sleeping Beauties,” a work well-known for its uniqueness, was performed in December 2016 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.

MeMe Design School began in a corner of Aoyama Book Center on a Saturday afternoon. The school offers two courses: Design Basic and Book Design Classes, and they are taught by professionals who work in the frontlines of their respective businesses. We interviewed young designers who study at this school, and designer Nobuo Nakagaki who runs the school.

MOT provides a talk at its Collection Gallery every day at 2 p.m. A reporter joined one of the talks.

Yasunari Kawabata started studying literature at the age of 14. Kan Kikuchi discovered his talent while Kawabata was studying at Tokyo Imperial University. His works, along with those of Riichi Yokoo and others, were seen as part of the “Shinkankakuha” (new impressionists). Kawabata lived through Japan’s literary world in the 20th century and left a big impression in Japanese modern literature. He has plenty of anecdotes.

Lacquerware making is a skill that requires an extraordinary amount of time to master. Mejiro Urushi Gakusha (“Mejiro lacquer school”) is where many young aspiring professional lacquerware artists begin on a path of honing their skills and deepening their knowledge.

アートと映像のフェスティバル「恵比寿映像祭」が8回目を迎えます。今年のテーマは「動いている庭」。毎年メイン会場となる東京都写真美術館は現在改修工事中のため、会場を隣のザ・ガーデンホールなどに移して開催されます。美術館ではない屋外空間だからこそ展示できる作品も。今回のテーマや見どころ、また恵比寿映像祭の立ち上げなどの裏話まで、東京都写真美術館のキュレーター・岡村恵子さんに聞きました。

Van Gogh and Gauguin lived together for two months and created a number of masterpieces that were inspired by their relationship. This sequel focuses on Gauguin. Born in France, he spent about six years in his early childhood in Peru. He discovered his thoughts between the West and the “primitive.” After living with Van Gogh for two months, he moved to a South Pacific island seeking out the “primitive,” and he created a number of masterpieces there.

This segment will introduce two creative communities in eastern Tokyo, an area around Tokyo Skytree® that has historically been home to many small factories and has seen an increase of new shops and studios in recent years.

In this third installment of reports on the Teachers Program at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, we will explain in detail about Architecture Gymnastics.