SHUEISHA Inc. All rights reserved.
Keiichi Tanaami (1936–2024) created a series of unique works by referencing, distorting, and transforming characters created by Fujio Akatsuka (1935–2008), who was known as the king of gag manga. In 2021, he created a series of massive gravure art prints based on a proposal from Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage. The series was titled TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! He followed the series with one creation after another, including folding screens, a tea room, kimonos, and tarots.
Tanaami Tea Ceremony (Tea house)
This installation work was presented under the title TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! / Tanaami Tea Ceremony (2023) at Epson Square Marunouchi epSITE Gallery in Tokyo. Although it is an inflatable tent, Tanaami conceptualized it as a teahouse. Once inside, it feels like you are surrounded by colorful stained glass.
Iyami smiles with his bobbed hair, narrow eyes, and protruding teeth. The word “iyami” could be translated as either “sarcasm” or “bad taste.” The entire face of this Akatsuka character has been decorated with flower patterns by Tanaami.
In a large black tent, bizarre characters hold cloths with both hands. On the cloths are the Picasso-style woman depicted by Fujio Akatsuka, which Tanaami colored and transformed. To create the impression that the artwork is flowing into a vortex, Tanaami placed a line drawing on a copy machine and rotated it as it was being read by the machine.
Although Fujio Akatsuka’s characters do not appear on the yellow teahouse tent, the composition is based on works included in the art book titled *TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! / That's All Right *(2023, Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage). This allows you to see a character creation process that is free, but at the same time intricate and unique.
Tanaami kimono Collection
at Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage Tokyo Gallery
These kimonos were created by Keiichi Tanaami. Four furisode (long-sleeved kimonos) and one haori (formal coat) will be on display.
Tanaami designed many kimonos, some of which were tailored by Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage.
A furisode is a special kimono worn by women for important occasions in Japan. The exhibits at the *Art of Manga *exhibition at the de Young Museum include a furisode featuring a silhouette of the character Iyami from Fujio Akatsuka’s manga and various sound effects in the center. Here, four garments made during the same period are hung from the ceiling of the venue and rotated for display.
The haori is inspired by the jinbaori (battle surcoat) used in kabuki theater. The design features bamboo strips on the shoulders to maintain straight lines. Typical haori are vest-like garments that extend to the waist, but this haori is tailored like a long coat. A spider with two human-like eyes is depicted on the inside and outside of the haori.
Video works will also be shown at the venue. The planned video exhibits include a work featuring scenes of the gravure printing process mixed with factory sounds, a documentary of the TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! / That's All Right!! exhibition held at Shibuya Parco in 2023, and live footage from the retrospective exhibition Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory held at the National Art Center, Tokyo in 2024.
Tanaami was born in Tokyo in 1936, graduated from Musashino Art University, and awarded a special prize by the Japan Advertising Artists Club in 1958. Having immersed in American counterculture and pop art since the 1960s, he was an independent artist who had been actively crossing boundaries to pursue his creative endeavors, which range from animation to silk screens, manga-like illustrations, collages, experimental films, paintings, three-dimensional works, and more, without restricting himself to any medium or genre. Inspired by his encounter with Andy Warhol, he had continued to experimentally challenge the major themes tackled by contemporary art today, such as art and design, art and products, everyday beauty, and the public and art, while using the design methodology of editing to the present day. Through more than half a century of creative activities, he has gained a high reputation worldwide as one of the pioneers of pop art, which symbolizes postwar Japan. Tanaami's recent major exhibitions include Keiichi Tanaami: Adventures in Memory (2024, The National Art Center Tokyo, Tokyo), TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! That’ s All Right!!(2023, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo)the solo exhibitions Manhattan Universe (2022, Venus Over Manhattan, New York), A Mirror of the World (2022, Nanzuka, Tokyo), Tokyo Pop Underground (2019, Jeffrey Deitch, New York), and Keiichi Tanaami (2019, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland); as well as the group exhibitions Tokyo: Art & Photography (2021, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), The World Goes Pop (2015, Tate Modern, London), International Pop (2015, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA), and many others. His work is in the permanent collections of MoMA (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Art Institute of Chicago, M+ (Hong Kong), National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), and Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art (Berlin).