The Incredible Tetsuya Noguchi

[John Wee Tom]

It was great meeting the artist, Tetsuya Noguchi today. Noguchi-san depicts his samurai subjects as ordinary and vulnerable, rather than heroic and powerful, which of course is the cliched image normally portrayed. Noguchi-san's knowledge of katchu and Japanese history is remarkably deep, showing an insight for terminology, parts and types of kabuto and armour and even kamon and geographic areas of katchu production.

[Luc Taelman]

I was very much surprised about his knowledge of momoyama armor! He must have a photographic memory. On the other hand, his approach is really artistic.
He brings those sengoku jidai warriors into the 21 century.

[Luc Taelman]

This is one of my favorites. It illustrates the importance of a mon (or a brand), even nowadays.

[Luc Taelman]

And this one shows how futuristic momoyama design is.

[Richard Jones]

John,
Great images, great joke!
Thanks for the update, you have really made me re-evaluate my opinion of Noguchi-sans work, a real modern iki-ningyo master. I look forward to a full ‘in-depth’ report on his work. I’d love to know, are these pieces scale multi media or clever modelling in resin?
I’ll post some images of one of the antique iki-ningyo I have owned, not so contemporary but very samurai and a bit more ....gruesome.
Thanks for making me ‘look again’.

Richard

[John Wee Tom]

Here's another pic with the artist himself along with gallery assistant director, Satomi: