Big congrats to my buddy Joseph (aka Johnny Strategy), who recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of Spoon & Tamago, a site I’ve been happily reading (and often linking to) since the very start. We became friends through our shared love of blogging about similar aspects of Japanese art, culture, and design, and it’s really great to see how he was able to celebrate the milestone — read this post, which also includes a nice video that offers a nice wrap-up of the site’s last 10 years.
File this under “ridiculous.” We all know the art of Yoshitomo Nara (I’m a longtime fan), and over the years there have certainly been plenty of cases of Nara pakkuri (stealing/copying) — I myself was fooled by the art on the Fukigen bottle back in 2003. Well, there’s been another case, this time by Korean cosmetics brand W.Lab — as pictured, right — and following Nara’s pursuit, the Korean company is claiming they have done no copying, and are suing Nara in return! ArtAsiaPacific has all the details. Via Johnny Strategy.
You know I love Spoon & Tamago and tend to link to a lot of things that Johnny shares there, and so I think it’s worth pointing out his recent look at the most popular posts from the site this past year, as well as the most popular products that the site sold through its webstore.
Time again for a round-up of recent articles to appear on SNOW Magazine, and also to welcome Alastair Townsend (BAKOKO) as a new contributor to the site — I’m now posting the terrific “A Few Things” series of posts he’s been doing on his blog, about contrasting housing-related issues between Japan and the West.
I’ll be debuting a few new columns this week too — expect Spoon & Tamago‘s Johnny Strategy first piece to go up later today. And here’s a reminder that you can subscribe to an RSS feed, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.